Outrageous
I have often wondered about this scripture and how very outrageous these Words of Jesus seem:
Matthew 5:29,30
"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." NIV
or in Mark 9:43-48
"If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where 'Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.'
"And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where 'Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.'
"And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— where 'Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.'" NKJV
Over the years, I have thought about these verses as being figurative. In other words, Jesus didn't REALLY MEAN to gouge out an eye, cut off a foot or lop off a hand!
Recently I've been using the Chronological NKJV for my study of the Gospels. It offers an interesting perspective since it has combined the first four books of the Bible and placed them in order as the events unfolded during our Lord's earthly ministry. Therefore, many of the repeated parables and related events of the Gospels appear together, creating a unique overall impact.
So, when reading through these words of the Lord this time, it occurred to me that His meaning may have been LITERAL. Of course, that makes the meaning of these words even more outrageous! Could Jesus really have MEANT that we are better off BLIND and CRIPPLED? And if the answer is YES - then what is Christ’s deeper meaning -(because certainly no sane person is ready to maim themselves under any circumstances)?
One of the footnotes I ran across today mentions that Jesus may have been using “rhetorical overstatements, a common Jewish teaching technique.”
In order to make it clear to hard-hearted mankind that He meant SERIOUS BUSINESS when it came to dealing with sin in our lives, Jesus used strong and violent words. Outrageous images, but real and visually understandable actions if we are too stubborn to repent and change our ways! Our reaction to sin shouldn’t be a shrug and a wink. Jesus was saying STOP SINNING or GO TO HELL. Sin is killing us, killing our families, killing our neighbors. Jesus did not want us to sin. After all, our sin killed Him too.
Matthew 5:29,30
"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." NIV
or in Mark 9:43-48
"If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where 'Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.'
"And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where 'Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.'
"And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— where 'Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.'" NKJV
Over the years, I have thought about these verses as being figurative. In other words, Jesus didn't REALLY MEAN to gouge out an eye, cut off a foot or lop off a hand!
Recently I've been using the Chronological NKJV for my study of the Gospels. It offers an interesting perspective since it has combined the first four books of the Bible and placed them in order as the events unfolded during our Lord's earthly ministry. Therefore, many of the repeated parables and related events of the Gospels appear together, creating a unique overall impact.
So, when reading through these words of the Lord this time, it occurred to me that His meaning may have been LITERAL. Of course, that makes the meaning of these words even more outrageous! Could Jesus really have MEANT that we are better off BLIND and CRIPPLED? And if the answer is YES - then what is Christ’s deeper meaning -(because certainly no sane person is ready to maim themselves under any circumstances)?
One of the footnotes I ran across today mentions that Jesus may have been using “rhetorical overstatements, a common Jewish teaching technique.”
In order to make it clear to hard-hearted mankind that He meant SERIOUS BUSINESS when it came to dealing with sin in our lives, Jesus used strong and violent words. Outrageous images, but real and visually understandable actions if we are too stubborn to repent and change our ways! Our reaction to sin shouldn’t be a shrug and a wink. Jesus was saying STOP SINNING or GO TO HELL. Sin is killing us, killing our families, killing our neighbors. Jesus did not want us to sin. After all, our sin killed Him too.
