Pirate Christians

Matthew 18:7-9 Romans 14:13-19

Jesus did not come in order that we could sin slightly less. Jesus’ point is that even the most extreme human strategies simply don’t work. Jesus is deeply concerned that we create a community of humble children who stop tripping and hurting each other. We discipline ourselves out of love for our brothers and sisters. Let us pursue what makes for peace and edification.

It’s a Trap

As a child I was fascinated by traps and scenarios. Inspired by books like “Hatchet” or “My Side of the Mountain” I tried to teach myself to set snares, bending trees, digging tiny deadfalls.

And I never caught any animals, so I aimed for easier pray. My little brother, Jono.

A book, carefully laid across the top of a door and the door jam will fall when the door is opened.

Then you can put all kinds of stuff on top of that book, and that stuff will fall too. Hilarious.

Do you ever look back on things you did as a kid and think “I’m a terrible person.” Just me, then? Why would I do that? Why would we do that to each other?

Jesus has a simple solution for us today.

Pirate Christians

Matthew 18:7–9 ESV

7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Jesus parallels the words he spoke in the Sermon on the Mount. I imagine his disciples heard many of the same teachings, the same examples, the same images over and over again. Part of why they could remember them so well.

And this one is graphic. Gruesome.

At the very least, Jesus is never going to say “sin is no big deal.” It is. Sin is a problem. It’s, in fact, the very problem he is here to address.

But if we just walk away with the message “do everything you can to stop sinning” we are going to miss some important things.

What are the consequences here?

Gehenna of Fire

The garbage dump valley of fire. And it parallels the “eternal fire” or “always burning fire” of verse 8.

Maybe this means eternal torment of fire, hell as we traditionally think of it. I’m not going to argue with God if that’s where this goes.

Gehenna is also where they would send anyone who was ritually unclean, like lepers. It is “out of the camp” in the language of Leviticus. “Out of the community.” But there is a process for getting back into the camp from “out of the camp,” there is a story for healing and restoration into community.

This is not a passage that resolves that question for us. We will find out, either way, you don’t want the hellfire.

So. Clear enough. Get your stuff together or you are OUT of the community… or going to hell! Amen.

So, if this is all about “strategies for sin management”

Question:

Why isn’t the early church full of one handed, peg-legged eyepatch pirates?

Why didn’t all the disciples do this? You can’t tell me their eyes didn’t “cause them to sin” at some point. Their hands, their foot. Cut it off and throw it away?

We have no record of the early church doing this, no conversation after.

There is a guy, a couple hundred years in. Origen, early church father who tried “cutting it all off” and proved that it doesn’t work. I told you his story when Jesus said this back in the Sermon on the Mount. Origen’s temptation was all about lust… and he struggled with it before and after.

This doesn’t work as a solution to sin. So what is Jesus talking about?

It’s a Trap

The word “sin” doesn’t actually show up in this passage. The sense is there, but only by metaphor.

The NASB does a better job here.

Matthew 18:7 NASB95

7 “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!

It is “skandalon” and it’s root word is a “snare” a “trap”.

We saw this word just a couple chapters ago with Peter. Peter said “you won’t die” and Jesus said “Get behind me, Satan, you are a TRAP to me.” A “stumbling block!”

Did Jesus sin? No. But Peter was acting, speaking in such a way as to trip Jesus up, make him stumble, send him down the wrong path.

So we see the sense of “temptation to sin”, and I can see how the ESV translators got there, but I think the visual is very, very different.

Peter wasn’t trying to make Jesus sin, he probably thought he was being very helpful, but he was a stumbling block in the way. A trap.

It’s All About the Child

It’s all about the community

Remember how Jesus had set the child down in their midst? He said “Be like the child”, “Humble yourself like this child.”

This is where the “pericope” breaks don’t help us. They make us think we have moved on. But Jesus hasn’t moved on. There is the child in their midst.

Immediately before these verses Jesus says:

Matthew 18:6 ESV

6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

“causes them to sin”? That’s skandalion, trap, stumbling block.

After the passage?

Matthew 18:10 ESV

10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

… still about the little one. And then he launches into the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus, the shepherd, leaves the ninety-nine to go chase after the one that went astray.

But he goes on, talking about you sinning against a brother, then the brother sinning against you. It’s all about reconciliation and restoration.

It’s all about being like the humble child… and creating a place, a space, a Kingdom where it is safe and beautiful and free to be like the child. Where we can be trusting and trustworthy.

I’m not saying that’s what the church is today. It is what Jesus commands it to be, commands us to be, shapes and empowers us to be, and a little glimpse of what heaven will be.

Judges. Prophets. Even idolatry, most of God’s angriest moments are about the victims of injustice and unrighteousness. Even when they are following other gods, often what God condemns through the prophets is the way that plays out in oppressing widows and orphans and sojourners.

It’s all about the child.

If your eye is a stumbling block to you or anyone else. If your hand, if your foot is a stumbling block, a trap, get rid of it.

He doesn’t explicitly use the “Body of Christ” language here, but I think furthering the metaphor is helpful here. The disciples are going to use this metaphor. Some of you are hands, some of you are eyes, some of you are feet. The head should not despise the feet, the hands, the different parts are necessary and part of the Body.

But if one part of the Body is tripping up, a stumbling block to the rest, it needs to be addressed. For the sake of the humble children, literal and spiritual, among us.

Stop Tripping Each Other

What have the disciples just been doing? Arguing with one another about who is the greatest. Not only are they SO very wrong about how the Kingdom works, they are leading one another astray at this very moment. They are stumbling blocks to one another. Leading each other into pride and divisiveness.

Stop it. Stop tripping each other!

The early church is going to pick up this “stumbling block” language and strive to live it. Paul, apostle to the Gentiles, applies it to his context in this way:

Romans 14:13–15 ESV

13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

There’s our word. In fact, it’s kind of there twice in different forms, but that first one is our same word.

Romans 14:13–15 ESV

14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.

If your brother is grieved, hurt, wounded by what you eat.

In particular, this isn’t the language of offense and judgment. Just two verses ago he said “let us not pass judgment” on each other. This isn’t about your brother thinking what you do is sinful, but about them stumbling into sin themselves. In thought or action.

Jesus wasn’t mad at Peter because he was offended by Peter’s behavior, Peter was being a trap to him, and he rebuked the temptation coming through Peter.

Paul isn’t worried here about the Gentiles thinking he is bad or evil. And he is going to, pastorally, teach them about their Christian freedom. AND in the meantime, as an act of love, he is not going to eat that meat in front of them. If they ate the meat, believing it to be a sin, then they would be sinning simply by going against what they believe God to be asking of them.

Stop Tripping Each Other

So how do we walk this out?

We can cause others to stumble with how we dress. We joke about this, but there is a place for modesty. And this isn’t just about sexual temptation. Most of the commands in Scripture about modest dress are more about wealth, flaunting wealth to lead others into envy or resentment.

I have friends who are recovering alcoholics. If I am at home, or at a restaurant, I enjoy the occasional beer or glass of wine… but when I am out with those friends, I don’t.

I am careful about what movies or books I recommend. There are few to none that have no objectionable content. Jesus calls us to be in the world, in the gates of the city, in the marketplace… and to know and exegete our culture so we can reach our culture… but I don’t always know what will be a temptation and stumbling block to others. So I ask, I try and find out, it’s a bit of work, but it’s an act of love.

This affects our speech. Our topics of conversation. Our world, our political climate has stoked the fires of fear and anger in many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, such that they are on a hair trigger to trip into sin. Judgment and Condemnation, Anger and Wrath is the Lord’s. There is a place for prophetic Word spoken into our world, Truth to be spoken to oppose lies, and standing up for Jesus and the love of Jesus in the midst of a world that doesn’t know what love is.

But there is a WORLD of difference between Spirit-led insight into the sin of nations and echoing the fear and sometimes hate filled talking heads. There’s a part of me that would be entertained by throwing a political bombshell out in the middle of lunch, getting the popcorn and watching the fireworks. That’s a stumbling block, tripping others into sin, anger, judgment and division.

That isn’t love or anything like love.

We can do that in our theological “distinctives” as well. That’s exactly the kind of issue Paul is using as an example here. It’s a theological issue that has practical “what’s for lunch” implications. He is taking extra steps, sacrificing what might be his favorite food, certainly the cheapest way to buy meat in the marketplace…. He is disciplining himself and sacrificing out of love, respecting a theological position that he KNOWS to be wrong. But he loves his brother. His sister in Christ.

And we can quickly construct scenarios that lead to absurdities. Ralph is deeply offended that I don’t wear ties, and Gene is deeply offended if I DO wear a tie. What do I do???

Romans 14:19 ESV

19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

Let’s pursue what makes for peace. Chase it down. Find it. Hunting words. It’s going to take some attention to find the way to peace. And this is Greek, but if my Rabbi friend Paul were writing in Hebrew what would this be?

Shalom. Let’s find it. Let’s pursue it together. And “mutual upbuilding.” That is edification, building up. I have heard that somewhere before. And “mutual” here is a pronoun for all’y’all. Building all’y’all up, everybody, all the peoples, all the community, all the fellowship.

Is that going to take work? Is it going to be hard and challenging at times to find the Shalom, to work together, to do life together, and find ways large and small to love each other.

It’s all about the Child of God next to you. The Child you are humbling yourself to become. And we would and will do whatever we can to protect that humility, that vulnerability, that treasure among us.

This is who Jesus has taught and commanded us to be together.

Covenant

As disciples of Jesus we covenant together to love God and love others, inside and outside the church fellowship in word & action. We walk together by the light of God's infallible Word, filled with the Spirit of God, in sacrifice, submission and trust. We are on mission: to encourage and equip one another to take the next bold step in being and making disciples of Jesus.