Mark 9:43-48
Some
people will use drastic measures to achieve their goals. Weight loss comes to
mind. If you think about all the diet fads that have run their course over the
last 50 years you would get dizzy thinking about it. You can pick just about
any random combination of foods and there was a diet that fit those
ingredients.
Let’s
not talk about all the surgeries to shrink the stomach in order to lose weight.
Or liposuction to remove the fat. Or the tucks. How about exercise to the point
of obsession and addiction. People will go to almost any lengths or achieve their
weight goals.
Look
at the drive to chase the goal of being ‘rich’, and how far it has taken
people. The scandals and corruption are almost unbelievable, if they weren’t
true. People willing to risk everything just to own another boat or condo or
mansion. They compromise all sense of decency trying to chase a dream.
Jesus
speaks about some drastic measures to take in your quest for heaven. He speaks
of cutting off hands and feet, and gouging out your eye if those things get in
the way of your quest for heaven. These are pretty drastic, even though
hundreds of millions of people around the world feel they are perfectly
acceptable punishments for crimes committed.
There
is nothing worth keeping if you lose heaven. The stakes are so high, that even
losing one of these body parts, does not compare to the loss of eternal life.
Jesus is not expecting us to cut off our hands, but to make the appropriate
changes to our life so as not to jeopardize eternity with Him.
The
alternative, hell, is no picnic. Whatever might be said about the gentle,
teacher, hell was among His topics. He pictures it as the alternative to
heaven. If heaven is real, then hell must be real also, or Jesus’ statements
are nonsense. And the picture isn’t pretty. Fire and flesh eating worms that
last forever is the picture.
I’m
not a fan of fire on the skin. I try to avoid it, don’t you! I can’t imagine
enjoying flesh eating anything, can you? And this is the picture Jesus gives of
hell. No wonder He uses such striking images of the lengths we should go in
order to avoid it and gain heaven.
No
cost is too great, nothing is worth keeping, no stone should be left unturned
in our pursuit of the LORD. Jesus has provided everything we need. He gives us
grace to meet all of life’s challenges. We need to recognize this and not allow
anything to get in the way of that grace working in our lives.