Limping On to Glory Together

Introduction

Mark 9:41–50 ESV

41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. 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.”

Tatyana McFadden is a premier athlete. Born in Russia, but adopted as a young girl by an American woman, Deborah McFadden, she competes for the Red, White, and Blue. In the summer of 2016 in Rio de Janeiro she won four gold and two silver medals. That made her a 17-time medalist, but you’ve probably never heard of her. Truth be told, I was unaware of this 29-year-old athlete prior to a couple of years ago. I was at a monthly fellowship and prayer meeting for pastors back in Maryland. And I was sitting at the table with her pastor. At the time she and her family attend a United Methodist Church in the area. Tatyana’s name came up in the context of a joke. We were talking about food, and her pastor explained that even though the church was planning a send-off celebration for her, there’d probably only be healthy food since she’s still preparing for competition.

Here’s the deal with Tatyana. She was born with spina bifida, which left her paralyzed below the waist. She spent the first six years of her life in a Russian orphanage. Her pastor said that spending the first six years of her life walking on her hands probably played a big role in developing her upper body strength and musculature at a young age. She won four straight wheelchair marathon grand slams from 2013-2016. To accomplish a marathon grand slam you have to win the Boston Marathon, London Marathon, Chicago Marathon, and New York Marathon in the same year.

She was named Best Female Athlete of the 2016 Paralympic Games by the United States Olympic Committee. She won the 2016 ESPY Award for Best Female Athlete with a Disability. This woman is a phenomenal athlete. A better athlete in a wheelchair than I could hope to be with all my limbs intact. Her pastor said that Tatyana doesn’t think of herself and her fellow competitors as disabled athletes, just different athletes. And I get that. That makes sense to me. It’s more affirming of her personhood and humanity. Having a disability in our society comes with a certain stigma. The evidence that something is broken, or not quite what it ought to be, is apparent. People look at you funny. They think of you differently. And that’s not new to our day.

If you read through the first four books of the New Testament, you’ll see very clearly Jesus’ ministry didn’t only involve preaching and teaching, but in the demonstration of who he was, he also healed people. Blind people, those who were lame, paralytics, many people who were disabled were healed by Jesus. These individuals, just like in our day, would’ve been thought of differently, thought of as less than, or even cursed by God. Jesus comes and restores what’s broken. He brings wholeness where there is fragmentation. Yet, not every lame person in Judea was healed. Every blind person didn’t receive back their sight. There’s a day coming when that will be the case, but until that day disability continues.

There’s a different kind of disability, however, that Jesus talks about in our text that we normally do not think of. What does it mean to be a Christian? In one sense, you can say that living as Christians means living with a disability. Jesus uses some vivid language in the middle section of our passage to describe what the life of following him looks like. You want to follow me? Jesus says, you might end up walking with a limp because you got one foot. You might end up having to adjust your lifestyle because you got one hand. You might end up having to learn how to see out of one eye. And, if it’s not obvious to you already, Jesus isn’t being literal. He doesn’t expect anyone to go around chopping off their hand, foot, or plucking out an eye. No. What he wants to drive home to those who believe in him is how serious the issue of sin in their own hearts needs to be taken. This isn’t just about you as an individual, it’s about what does life look like together for those who follow Jesus. We’re going on to glory together, but with a limp.

This section in Mark’s Gospel is one piece in three parts. Verses 41-42, vv. 43-48, and vv. 49-50. This whole passage has the tension of a future focus that has implications for how we do life right now. We’ve got three W’s, Water, Warning, and Wisdom.

Water

Jesus here is speaking to his disciples. And he has been doing so from verse 30 in this chapter. It’s important to note that because since ch. 8 of this book, the disciples are for the first time explicitly hearing that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. He is letting them know he’s the Christ, but it’s not as they were expecting. In v. 31 of this chapter Mark says that Jesus was teaching his disciples. And for the second of three times, he says to them, “the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” The problem is that they did not understand what he was saying, and were afraid to ask him. As a part of this message, he’s letting them in on the reality that following him isn’t going to be like laying down on a bed of roses and sipping on a refreshing glass of water. It’s going to be more difficult than they could anticipate.

He does, however, start talking about water down in vv. 41-42. Jesus says, “For whoever gives you all a cup of water to drink in the Name – because you belong to Christ, truly I say to you he will by no means lose his reward. But,” v. 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.” Some folks are going to give you a cup of water, and some folks are going to end up wishing that they were drowned in the water.”

The “you” in vv. 41-42 are plural. It’s y’all. They haven’t yet experienced life as his disciples after his death and resurrection. What is their life going to be like as a community of believers after he’s gone? Some folk are going to treat you right, and some folk are not. Jesus is saying that people are not going to be indifferent towards those who follow him. Jesus’ message is that you all need to know that it matters to me how you are treated.

One thing I can tell you is that the Christian community to whom Mark was writing this Gospel were not the power brokers in Rome making policies and laws so that life could be good for them. The people who followed Jesus were a much smaller percentage of the total population, with limited influence, and there were going to be plenty of people who didn’t like the fact that they were following this Jesus. And it meant that in lots of places they were going to catch hell. And Jesus wants them to know, “I see it. I’m not blind to what’s happening to you. Not only do I see it, and I see you, but I care about. Not only that, I’m still working on people.” Here’s part of the challenge for the church. We would rather not be in the position of needing of giving us a cup of water because we belong to Christ. We often only think of ourselves as the ones who are in the position of giving to those in need. There’s certainly ample instruction in Scripture of God’s people giving to those lacking resources. But we can create a false narrative as if something is wrong if the church finds itself needing a cup of water from others. We actively or passively follow two sides of the perverse prosperity gospel coin. The one side that says God wants us to be the head and not the tail, so the only vision of blessing is the accumulation of wealth and resources. The side that says we need to maintain positions of political power so that we can prevent Christians from losing their rights in the country. Jesus’s words here are a challenge to that mindest.

Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to me, that person will absolutely not lose their reward. Jesus isn’t talking about people practicing random acts of kindness. He’s talking about people who are motivated to give practical help specifically to those who belong to him. Which says that belonging to Jesus can indeed result in a situation where you’re in need of practical help. That need is likely due to mistreatment. The reason why the person who gives the water receives a reward isn’t because they treated Christians nicely. It’s because in their giving they are identifying themselves with Jesus and his people.

There’s reward and punishment in these two verses. I love the fact that Jesus refers to his disciples as “little ones.” The twelve he’s talking to here are grown men! Why are they little ones? Here are two reasons Look back at vv. 33-34 in this chapter

Mark 9:33–34 ESV

33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

…Look at the next chapter,

…Look at the next chapter,

Mark 10:35–37 ESV

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

MK

His disciples literally act like children sometimes. Reading through Mark’s Gospel can leave you scratching your head about the disciples. They’re following Jesus on one and they’re consumed with their own desires and expectations on the other hand. Jesus says to people like that, “I got you. I see you. You all matter to me.” Our hope is not based on how righteous we are. Our hope isn’t based on how mature we are. They were neither, and Jesus says, “I got you. Once you belong to me, I’m on the look to take note of what’s happening to you. And I want you all to live and persevere with that perspective.”

vv. 35-37…His disciples literally act like children sometimes. Reading through Mark’s Gospel can leave you scratching your head about the disciples. They’re following Jesus on one and they’re consumed with their own desires and expectations on the other hand. Jesus says to people like that, “I got you. I see you. You all matter to me.” We make this point regularly here at our church. Our hope is not based on how righteous we are. Our hope isn’t based on how mature we are. They were neither, and Jesus says, “I got you. Once you belong to me, I’m on the look to take note of what’s happening to you. And I want you all to live and persevere with that perspective.”

That’s the second reason they’re called little ones. They belong to him. He identifies himself with them, and they are identified with him. What that means is that, as jacked up as they are, they’re going to start looking and sounding like him.” What are our expectations if we’re Christians? No one loved people like Jesus loved people. His love was so complete that the religious elite accused him of being a glutton and a drunkard. His love was so deep that he wasn’t afraid to look like he was dirty. It’s messy business to love people, affirming their dignity because they are made in God’s image, while at the same time declaring their distance from God because of their sin. That’s messy.

This mess is seen in our conversations in the church today around the issues of race. There are lots of Christians who participate in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations against racial injustice. They do so because systemic and historical racial bias in American policing against black and brown people is an affront to God. Black lives matter to God just as much as other lives do. Yet, there is much within the Black Lives Matter movement that Christians can’t affirm; that Christians must, in fact, speak out against. So it’s messy. Jesus is letting us know that trying to live as light that engages the darkness is costly and disruptive and messy. There are those who Jesus is drawing to his light who are going to empathize, and there are those who will always hate the light the Jesus shines on sin. They will respond violently.

Jesus says, “I know it’s messy y’all, but y’all have to live right now like you know that I see you and that I’m going to take care of all that in the end. I’m the giver of reward and punishment, and while both of those things are future oriented, I want you to live now with that in mind.”

Warning

Jesus then turns the disciples’ attention from how people on the outside will respond to them to what’s happening on the inside. He now gives them this warning. The warning is this, don’t think that your problem as those who believe in me is only going to be what those who don’t believe in me think about you and how they treat you. In fact, your primary challenge is going to be an internal one.

In v. 42 he said whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to sin has a horrifying fate awaiting them. It’s going to be so bad that they would’ve preferred drowning. Let me talk about this phrase, “to cause someone to sin.” What does that mean? In one sense it’s obvious. Solomon, giving words of wisdom, says in ,

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; …we shall fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”―my son, do not walk in the way with them;… they set an ambush for their own lives.”

In one sense, causing someone to sin is enticing them to do something that they shouldn’t do. People say, bad company corrupts good morals. Who among us has not been influenced by someone else to do something we know we shouldn’t do? Don’t you know that pull? You might not have ever been tempted to commit armed robbery like Solomon warns his son of is , but you know if you’re hanging out with friends and they use certain gestures, it’s bad business…it’s decision time. Are you going to get to steppin’ out, or are you in? From the street gang to the Wall Street gang, to the Capitol Hill gang, and everything in between, we all know what it’s like to be tempted to do evil.

What Jesus is talking about here is deeper than that. This phrase means causing someone to stumble, causing someone to fall so hard that their discipleship is threatened―to fall so hard that they no longer appear to be following Jesus.

The shocking thing is that after spending only one verse talking about what will happen to those on the outside who do this to his little ones, Jesus spends the bulk of his message warning his people against doing it to themselves. He says,

“If your hand causes you to live like you’re no longer following me, cut it off. It’s better that you enter into life crippled, than with two hands go out into hell, into the unquenchable fire. If your foot causes you to live like you’re no longer following me, cut it off. It is better to enter into life limping, than with two feet be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to live like you’re no longer following me, pluck it out. It’s better to enter the kingdom of God as a one-eyed man, than with two eyes be thrown into hell, where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire isn’t extinguished.”

His warning is, “your larger problem is going to be you.” In vv. 41-42, and down in v. 50, the pronouns are plural. It’s “you all,” at the beginning of the passage, and “yourselves” at the end of the passage. But in the middle, every “you” and “your” is singular. Jesus describes for the believer what we might call a trifecta of temptation. With the hands you actually do the deed. With the hands you commit the sin. With the feet you make your way to the place you’re going to do the deed. Through your eyes the temptation enters your mind in the first place. In other words, the impact that sin has on us is comprehensive.

Remember here that Jesus is talking to his disciples, not to the unbelieving world. It’s helpful that he doesn’t actually give us a list of these causes of sin. He’s saying that each of you has to do the work of examining your own heart. One of the things that Jesus, in his mercy, does is turn the focus of his light inward. It’s so easy for us to look at other people and make a judgement on what’s wrong with them. It’s so easy for us to look at the brokenness and the evil in society and make a judgment on what’s wrong with the world. We’ve had another week of horrible events in this world that leave us lamenting and crying out to God again―”How long, O Lord?” ―mass murder in Nice, France, attempted coup in Turkey; more lives lost unnecessarily. It is so clear to us. But it is harder for us to embrace the truth that Jesus will not let us simply concern ourselves with the problems of the world. He will turn the light inwardly and shine it on our own darkness.

The guarantee that he will do it is in the fact that because we belong to him, he has given us his Spirit, and that’s part of what the Spirit does. The reason it’s important to realize that Jesus is going to deal with you if you belong to him is because you can fool other people. I can hide my stuff from you if I work hard at it.

A good brother and friend shared an update on he and his wife’s newborn daughter on FB yesterday. She was born extremely prematurely in February of this year. She has been in the NICU from day one, fighting for life with all kinds of internal organ issues. She was having trouble with her breathing and yesterday morning she had to be re-intubated. The doctors and nurses say that she’s one of the sickest babies in the NICU, which, considering the hospital, makes her one of the sickest babies in their entire state. This is what he said about he and his wife’s pain.

One of the problems is that outwardly she looks so healthy. It can be deceiving because outside she looks healthy so we sometimes see her face and little body and forget that on the inside she is very sick…We are really at a point where it is not just a day at a time, but taking things one breath at a time. Every breath is precious, and every day that we have with her is a gift. It has been hard but we know that God is working in this.

They are a precious couple with a precious faith in the Lord. The fight that beautiful little baby is enduring is a picture of the same fight that Christians have to endure. We can look healthy on the outside, but be deceived about how sick we are on the inside. One of the things that Jesus is saying to us here is, “I do not want you to be deceived about the corrosive effects of the sin that you allow to linger and grow in you. Don’t you realize that I give you myself, I give you my Spirit so that you can fight?”

Do you hear the intensity of the language? It is vivid. In April 2003, Alston Ralston was stuck at the bottom of a dark, cold chasm, hundreds of feet beneath the Utah desert. He had been exploring a remote canyon when disaster struck. He had dislodged a huge bolder, and it fell on him, pinning him to the rock wall by his forearm and hand. He was stuck there, trapped in that canyon for five days―having only a bottle of water and almost no food―unable to move the boulder or chip away at it to free his arm. He said in a 2011 interview that he began see his right forearm as his enemy. So, using his bodyweight he broke the bone in his forearm. Then he began the process of cutting of the limb with his pocket knife. He amputated his right forearm to free himself from the prison that boulder had trapped him in. He cut it off because it was better for him to go out living the rest of his life crippled than with both of his arms die in that dungeon!

Do you hear what Jesus is saying? The value of the life he gives, the value of life in the kingdom of God is beyond measure! That is a life where there will ultimately be no more sin. All causes of sin will be done away with. There will be no more threats to your life as a disciple. But part of being a disciple means not ignoring the sin that so easily entangles you. Yes, Jesus’ imagery indicates to us that dealing with our sin in the here and now is painful. It’s hard, but it’s necessary. Nobody wants to be crippled. Nobody wants to be disabled. We all want to appear as though we’ve got our act together, but we don’t. You know what Alton said about cutting off his arm? He said, “It was the most beautiful moment of my life…It was ecstasy.” The pain of the amputation was nothing compared to the joy of life. He’s more than willing to live with a limp but be free.

Wisdom

Here’s the difference though between what Alton experienced, and where Jesus is going with his message. Jesus is speaking to each of them about rooting out and cutting off, by the power of his Spirit dealing with the sins that are tempting them to fall away from him. But he’s not telling them to deal with their sin in this way so that they can live nice, happy, pious lives as individual Christians. He goes right back to talking about their lives together. He says in vv. 49-50,

For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if it becomes tasteless, how will you season it again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

Salting with fire here isn’t a negative. Jesus is talking about a good thing. Salting with fire is about purification. Yes, fire is hot and it burns. So, following Jesus is costly, but that’s the way of wisdom. That’s why Jesus can say, “salt is good.” Salt here is a metaphor for wisdom. So, as one commentator put it, “the process of ‘salting with fire’ produces a ‘salty’ disciple.” A salty disciple grows in wisdom to live at peace with her brothers and sisters in Christ. How is that so? The only reason that she’s willing to cut off a hand or foot, or pluck out an eye is because her focus is set on the kingdom of God. She knows that hope in the hereafter isn’t a hustle. Jesus’ disciples hear how much he talks about eternal life, about the fullness of the kingdom of God. They trust him, they take him at his word, knowing that it’s alright if they have to limp now. They become seasoned with salt enough to know that to trade the life Jesus promises for what seems really pleasurable now is a bargain for a fool.

There is the most profound connection between this internal wisdom the Christian has and the external harmony they want to see in the church. Let me put it another way. To refuse to be willing to deal with my own sin, to think that it’s just a private matter, and nobody’s business is to wreak havoc in the church. To refuse to be willing to limp because we don’t want the light to shine on our sin in order to cut it off, is to be a destroyer of peace. Jesus says, “Salt is good…Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with one another.” Dealing with our sin causes us to limp, and in many respects look as though we’re disabled because we won’t hide our imperfections. But that the way of wisdom. That’s the way of peace. That’s the way of living with an eternal perspective. We might limp, but we limp together as we make our way into the glory of God’s kingdom.

We talked last week about our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united in mission and purpose; existing in perfect harmony and love. That inner life of God serves as the basis for our life together as people who image him. The problem is presence and corrosive power of sin. That’s why, with joy, we can come to this table every week, experiencing the reality that Jesus has dealt the death blow to sin. He’s dealt the death blow to death…