Difficult Words
Difficult words. Mark 9:38-50 provides a prime example of a
difficult bunch of words in three seemingly unrelated sections of Jesus forcefully
schooling the disciples. It starts out with an “us and them” conflict, which
settles into, “how about we just worry about us!”
The disciples complain. What else is new! They saw a man
casting out demons in Jesus’s name and tried to stop him “because he was not
following us.” Cue yet another heavy sigh for Jesus who is working overtime to transcend
the kind of “us and them” environment in first century Israel that pitted
Pharisees against Sadducees against Essenes against Zealots against the poor of
the land as to how the yoke of Roman occupation might be run out of town. “Whoever
is not against us is for us…let it go. No more of this us and them. I welcome
all outsiders who join in our work of repairing the world. Let’s concentrate on
the motes in our own eyes.”
Then come the most difficult words about stumbling blocks, scandals,
within the community. It was only last Sunday in the verses just preceding
these that the disciples themselves were arguing over who amongst them is the
greatest. There must be more problems because now Jesus goes into a tirade over
how unspecified “little ones” are being treated within the community of his
followers. This could be children, this could be the poor, this could be those
who are yet weak in their faith and might be misled by bad behavior such as the
disciples arguing over petty stuff. So, if you cause one of these little ones
to stumble “it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around
your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble,
cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands
and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to
stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two
feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it
out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have
two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire
is never quenched.” The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Evidently, we moderns have trouble with hyperbole. But
perhaps we can understand that sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice a part to
preserve the whole – in this case being eternal life in God’s ways, God’s
kingdom – a deeply held understanding in the community of faith known as Israel
into which Jesus was born, lived, moved and had his being. This is not a
literal commandment per se, but more of an analogy: just as a diseased limb is
sometimes amputated to preserve the health of the whole body, so it is with the
Body of Christ, his community of followers, later the Church. Jesus speaks with
prophetic and even apocalyptic sharpness to drive home the positive: the
supreme value of living in the kingdom of God, here and now lies in how we
treat one another, insiders, and those outside the community as well who do the
reconciling work we do whether or not they join us or even know who we are.
The consequences of causing others to misbehave, or even
misbehave yourself, is landing in Gehenna. Our text repeatedly translates this
as “hell,” which immediately brings to mind the later Christian idea of hell as
a place of fire and eternal punishment and beings with tails and pitchforks,
etc. Etc. The world of first century Judaism would have no idea what we are
talking about since to this day only a small minority of Jews even believe in
hell. What Jesus is talking about is either Sheol or Gehenna, two words that
since the King James English has been rendered “hell” in most English
translations. This is too bad. Sheol was understood to be that place where
everyone, good, bad or indifferent goes – a place of no punishment and no
reward. Gehenna is an actual place outside Jerusalem, a valley where long ago
before the time of Jesus forbidden pagan worship took place, and after the reforms
of King Josiah it became the city garbage dump. Trash would be burned. That
these fires burned continuously contributed to Gehenna becoming a byword or
slang for a place the wicked would be consigned for destruction. Note, the fires
are continuous, not punishment. For those consigned to Gehenna simply cease to
be. Fini.
And, of course, any talk about Gehenna or Hell is really only
based in our perverse desire to consign anyone we do not like to some place as
far away from us as possible. Inspired by an actual place, and by ancient Greek
and Roman mythology, Gehenna and Hell are simply symbolic of our inability to
seek reconciliation with those we do not like, and therefore not an actual
place at all – which, of course, was where the disciples at the beginning of
this difficult passage hoped Jesus would send with the man who was casting out
demons in Jesus’s name. Jesus is doubling down against any such thinking. As St.
Paul would later write to the churches in Corinth, “If anyone is in Christ, he
or she is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come. All
this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation.” [2Corinthians 5:17-18] We are to be reconcilers,
not dividers.
Finally, some enigmatic words about salt and fire – two elements
traditionally used to purify and preserve things like food. “For everyone will
be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can
you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
To be salted, or seasoned, with fire elsewhere in the New
Testament suggests the gift of the Holy Spirit. To scandalize others, inside or
outside the community of faith, is to lose the Spirit. Fire might also refer to
persecutions that will test the mettle of the community and may require the
kind of sacrifices Jesus speaks of in his tirade. Rather, we are to have salt
in ourselves suggests maintaining that quality of life, with all the sacrifice
it entails, to be a reconciling community, we will, despite all, live in peace
with one another; there will be no ‘scandalizing’ of the little ones, those who
most need the care, love and attention that Jesus freely gives to all from all
stations of life, without question or qualification.
Footnote: As we read these difficult words of Jesus this week,
we read in Friday’s Baltimore Sun that Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a co-founder of
the Taliban, “will once again carry out executions and amputations of hand,
though perhaps not in public [as had previously been done].”[1]
As scandalous and abhorrent as this news is, we must remember a few things. By
far the majority of Muslims and Muslim majority nations do not believe in nor
participate in such judicial severity. And we must remember that the other two monotheistic
communities of faith are not innocent of atrocity either: the Christian
Crusades and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians are only two examples of such
scandalizing behavior. And we must remember these difficult words of Jesus are
all too easily understood to be sanctioning religious violence.
That we may hear Jesus’s call to welcome outsiders, and become
a reconciling community of faith in peace with one another and all others, may
God help us. Amen!
[1] “Taliban
co-founder: Strict punishment, executions will return,” The Baltimore Sun,
Friday,
September 24,
2021, p8
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