Mark 9:42-10:12

Have you ever been in a social situation and you just can’t wait to get out of it? Like you start to feel tension in the room is rising along with your pulse and blood pressure? You feel it in your hands or feet? Your toes curl up in your shoes or you feel that your shoulders are tense or you flex the muscles in your core.

These are common responses. You blush or don’t want to swallow or produce any sudden movements that might draw attention to yourself.

I wasn’t there, but after reading what Jesus said in the house to His disciples, it think this is what they were all feeling.

It is very important for us to realize that what Jesus says in this passage, He says to His followers, His disciples. What He says about sin and it very ugly consequence isn’t said to all those “sinners” out there, He says it to His disciples that are right there.

And through the public preaching of the word of God and by the enablement of His Spirit He warns each and everyone of us here in this room, including me about the dangers of causing others to stumble.

What He shares is graphic and disturbing and hopefully impactful enough to get this point across to us.

We should do everything we can to ensure we don’t cause anyone else to stumble.

Sin is so bad that we ought to do everything we can to avoid it ourselves even if it means taking drastic measures.

Jesus is going to use very graphic and even gory images to get His point across across today.

Today if we hear His voice, let none of us hardened our hearts. The consequences are just too severe for us to mess with sin that so easily entangles.

“Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” - John Owen

We are being hunted, but we can turn the tables and start doing the hunting if we by the Spirit put to death the misdeeds of our bodies.

So some of us might feel the tension. Some of our toes might be curled up in our shoes right now. Good. That is a good indication that we are approaching this sermon with the sobriety necessary for the topics at hand.

Causing others to sin. Sinning ourselves. Disunity, eternal damnation and divorce are all on the docket today.

Let’s read the passage and pray for God’s help to discern His voice.

Mark 9:42–10:12 (ESV)

42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

1 And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.

2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”

4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.”

5 And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’

7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

10 And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Pray

Jesus seems to be really concerned about kids here and He is, but the child cocooned in His arms is actually a stand in for all the kids in the kingdom throughout the ages that will eventually believe in Him. There is a lot riding on these disciples getting what Jesus is laying down in these final days of training so Jesus opens with this…

Mark 9:42 (ESV)

42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

and then ends with this.

Mark 9:50 (ESV)

50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

and He says a whole bunch of start stuff in between about dismemberment. What is going on?

Jesus wants authenticity in the lives of His followers. Jesus wants you and I, all His disciples, to be the real deal.

Disciples are to be a spitting image of Him. That is what all this training for the past three years has been about, but here they are “lacking in faith,” arguing about who is the greatest, and trying to stop other people from successfully following Jesus while doing mighty works in His name.

They are not at peace with one another and it is starting to show and others are noticing. They are bearing His name but not His heart attitude or conduct and that calls for some graphic and gory language to make sure they get it.

Disciples need to live authentic lives.

Wo as to not to cause others to stumble, we need to be the real deal.

Jesus starts by saying,

Mark 9:42 (ESV)

42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,

The word that Jesus uses in the section is not the word hamartia (sin meaning to miss the mark). He uses the word σκανδαλίζω which means to be brought to a downfall, to stumble or cause to stumble. The ESV translates it as “sin” but I actually think a better translation is stumble. (NASB - stumble, NIV - stumble, ESV - Sin, NKJV - stumble and then sin).

Anyway, that word sounds a lot like an English word “scandalous.” If we say something is scandalous we are saying that something is disgracefully bad and worthy of public outrage. Something scandalous can occur due to negligence or as a result of something done that is intentionally improper. Something scandalous is shameful and shocking.

Jesus says, while holding a child in His hands, “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to σκανδαλίζω: meaning if people cause them to stumble and do things that are shameful, shocking and improper and incongruent with what they believe, there will basically be hell to pay. YIKES.

These disciples were not acting like disciples and Jesus addresses their thoughts and actions head on by finishing the sentence in a comparatively shocking way. He says of that man,

Mark 9:42 (ESV)

42 “… it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

The point of comparison is pretty absurd. No one, in their right mind would want this or prefer this.

This is not just a millstone, but a “great millstone.” Millstones were used for crushing and grinding grain. But Jesus says it would better to have a huge and heavy millstone hung around our necks and be sent down to the crushing depths of the sea than to cause others to stumble.

If we don’t agree with this comparison, something is wrong with our interpretation, not His teaching. This teaching is graphic and now for the gory part.

Mark 9:43–47 (ESV)

43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,

Whoa…this is Jesus Unplugged.

The point of these stark hyperbolic comparisons is not for us to dismember ourselves, but to help us understand that we can’t treat sin lightly.

Notice this: cut it off, cut it off and tear it out. The point is to make a decisive separation from that which is “causing you or others to stumble/sin.”

Now we know from a teaching of Jesus in chapter 7 that sin is sourced in our dirty hearts. We are all choking on the smoggy exhaust that is coming from our sinful hearts.

Mark 7:21–23 (ESV)

21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

No one can make us sin and the devil can’t make us do it. We sin on our own volition. We choose to sin. It is 100% our fault when we sin; but there are factors in our environment that can cause us to stumble.

So Jesus says, you are also 100% responsible for severing those connection. Take drastic measures. Jesus doesn’t want people to actually maim themselves that is not the point, but if you don’t take drastic measures to kill sin, the result will be very drastic, it is called hell.

It is hard to describe how horrific hell is. It is an unquenchable fire. Fire is frightening enough but to describe fire with the word “unquenchable” turns up the heat quite a bit.

That word in the Greek is ἄσβεστος which means impossible to put out or to stop burning. It is where we get the English word, Asbestos which is something that is resistant to heat and corrosion. It was commonly used as insulation and for fireproofing. Our society has tried to pull out all the stops to eliminate this because of how dangerous it is, but we seem to be very casual about the teaching of Jesus when He talks about the unceasing, impossible to stop burning fire that is hell.

Jesus does not leave the door open to believe in annihilationism. He says the fires of hell are ongoing and unceasing. They are always burning, but never burning up it’s inhabitants. He also says in verse 48, that hell is a place…

Mark 9:48 (ESV)

48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

Something that does not die in a fire that is not quenched should cause us extreme horror. This is a depiction of spiritual ruin in the starkest of terms.

Sin is nothing to mess with. It is not the harmless plaything that we sometimes think it to be. It can paralyze us spiritually and damn us eternally!

This was spoken to the disciples. I think sometimes we're woefully underestimate just how bad sin is.

We read this and think, but I like my hands, my feet and my eyes. They are very useful to me. They might be useful to us to, but in order for us to be useful for Jesus to be His witnesses in His world we must let go of the sin that so easily entangles and strive to maintain our holiness. This is why Jesus says,

Mark 9:49–50 (ESV)

49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

The context of this teaching is right after the disciples are found arguing and bickering with one another about who's the greatest and they are also frustrated with one another because they seemed to be ineffective and unproductive in what they are called to do. But with great patience and grace and with a stark warning, Jesus says be at peace with one another.

So a primary point of application of this passage is for the church to be at peace with itself and put an end to the seemingly endless bickering and complaining and disunity that the church of Jesus Christ is sometimes known for.

If we bear the name Christian, we ought to be accurate reflections of Jesus Christ. His reputation is at stake if we don’t get it together.

The ambiguous command, “have salt in yourselves” is interpreted by the unambiguous command be at peace with one another. The 12 were arguing amongst themselves and were arguing with those who were doing Kingdom work. When such division happens, the church loses its pure witness to the world.

Disciples of Jesus should not be contentious with those outside the family of God or even contentious with those inside the household of God. We are called to be at peace.

Are you and I peace fakers, peace breakers or peace makers? How is Jesus calling you to promote peace in the gathered body here or in your homes?

God wants His people to live godly and the One we claim to follow was known as the Prince of Peace, so we must be a peace with each other. Jesus says for the sake of the future kids of the kingdom, be at peace.

and Mark continues on to showcase where peace is so often eluded in the most sacred of relationships.

Mark 10:1–2 (ESV)

1 And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them. 2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

In order to understand the next 10 verses we need to remember what has already taken place in the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan in this Gospel. John the Baptist used to work those parts. And John the Baptist literally got his head cut off because he spoke out against Herod Antipas for marrying his brother’s wife after she had divorced his brother Philip to make it happen. That whole thing was messed up but those in society just sat idly by.

The Pharisee’s remember what happened to John when he spoke up, and so they come to Jesus hoping to get Him to publically say something that would sound treasonous! They set a trap and Jesus smells it a mile away and lays a trap of His own by saying…

Mark 10:3–4 (ESV)

3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.”

The Pharisees are forced to answer the question correctly by saying, “there is no command from Moses,” but Moses did give permission for divorce to happen sending the unwanted for any reason wife away.

Then Jesus says,

Mark 10:5 (ESV)

5 And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

The Pharisees failed to understand that the permission given by Moses was put in place to protect women from being abandoned by their husbands for any old reason.

…this is a merciful concession for the sake of the woman. Jesus’ purpose is to make clear that the intention of Deut. 24:1 was not to make divorce acceptable but to limit sinfulness and to control its consequences…This law was intended to keep the social upheaval associated with divorce to a minimum. Mark - NIVAC).

If she was given a certificate of divorce she would be freed from the accusation of adultery if, out of necessity she is remarried.

But the Pharisees are only interested in the husbands “legal right” to divorce while paying no attention to the fallout of such an action.

In Jesus' time, a man could divorce his wife for the slightest offense and the Pharisee’s don’t seem to care how a divorce might affect a wife, her kids, or the society at large.

There answer displays the hardness of their hearts.

Moses may have given laws to regulate divorce, but divorce was never God’s will for marriage, so to show God’s design for marriage Jesus goes back to Genesis.

Mark 10:6–7 ESV

6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,

Mark 10:8–9 (ESV)

8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

God is the one who joins the two together. Our marriages are God’s creation. He is the Lord of our unions not us. So we who have been brought together by the Lord should not abandon our marital relationship even if there is legal precedent to do so.

I want to be so pastorally sensitive as we talk about this because I know that many in our society and in our church have been impacted by divorce.

It is important for us to know that what is being presented right now is not a full blown exhaustive exposition on the topic of divorce that the biblical authors as a whole present. The intention of talking about divorce from this passage in Mark is to highlight the devastating effects of divorce when a one flesh union is ripped apart and a world watches.

We already talked about the reality of hell in our last point, but as I have worked with couples that have gone through divorce or who are currently considering divorce, when I ask them to describe what their experience was like or what their current experience is, they say, “it is a living hell.” The process is worse than they imagined.

That breaks my heart. It breaks God’s heart. It breaks the hearts of the kids that have been brought forth from that union that God created.

Yes there may be allowances for it, but it is never the intended end of what God has brought together in order to provide a living, mysterious metaphor to showcase His committed love for His people who so often sin against Him.

Jesus loved, and from His cross forgave the people who killed Him. He suffered on behalf of them!

If the wall of hostility that once existed between mortal enemies like Jews and Gentiles, if that wall can be broken down by the blood of Jesus, making them one new entity, from the two, then that tells me those who have been brought together by God to participate in a one flesh union have all the necessary tools they need in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to preserve that union.

If Caananite women and Roman Centurion's can be united, if Greeks and Jews, Barbarians, Scythians, those enslaved and those free can forebear with one another and further their own sanctification process as they follow Christ in this new bonded entity called the Body of Christ, surely husbands and wives can practice confession, forgiveness and the forsaking of sin to showcase the costly love of Christ to a watching world.

In the last few weeks we have seen Jesus call His disciples to radical obedience. Put yourself last. Be a servant to all. This applies to the marriage relationship as well even if seemingly irreconcilable difference appear to be present.

Can you imagine the testimony it would be to the world if the divorce rate among professing Christians was significantly less than people of every other religion in the world? Imagine if no Christian marriage ever ended in divorce! The validity of the Gospel message we claim to believe would be so loud that it couldn’t be easily ignored.

Those “followers of Christ” are able to maintain and endure and enjoy the most difficult of relationships given to humans. How do they do that? They do that, and hopefully we all do that because we understand the meaning behind our marriages. They depict the committed love of Christ to us even when we were enemies.

Marriage is difficult right? At times marriage is joy filled and at times it is full of sorrows. At times it can exalt us and at times it can humble us. It can be precious and it can be perilous. At times it can produce feeling of security and sometimes insecurity. It is the most bonded relationship given to humans and it is designed to showcase God’s committed loyal love to us!

There is so much riding on these disciples living authentic lives that Jesus uses vivid, unforgettable and evocative language to get His point across. The words He uses were spoken 2000 years ago, but they still need to be responded to today.

Pray

Disciples need to live authentic lives so as to not to cause others to stumble.

Pray

Benediction

Don’t miss the meaning of the metaphor because it is hiding behind hyperbole.

We have a tendency to treat sin with triviality. We don’t think it’s that big of a deal, but it was sin that sent the Son of God to be slaughtered. We can’t treat it lightly. We should deny ourselves even if that self denial feels like self mutilation.

Discussion Questions:

Have you ever struggled to apply Jesus’ hyperbolic words about sin? Have you ever done drastic things to eliminate sin that never effectually worked?

Is there anything in your life that needs to be be discarded promptly and decisively?

Is there anything in your life that is causing others to stumble and sin?

There are sects of Christianity that call into question the clear teachings of Jesus on hell. (universalism, the duration of hell, etc.) What are the dangers of these redefinitions? BTW the FCC statement of faith reads: “We believe in the personal, visible return of Christ to earth, in the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, and eternal blessing of the righteous and endless suffering of the wicked.”

If you are married, how has God used your relationship to make you more self-sacrificial and Christlike?