Mark 9:42
I
think one of the worst ways to die would be drowning. The more you struggle the
more you realize you can’t hold your breath forever. And then comes the first
lung full of water. We are not fish, so that water is violently rejected, and
then another lung full comes. And unless you get rescued, the end is near. Not
my favorite way to die!
In
the ancient world Jews imagined that the pagans would execute using death by
drowning as the means. And in the pagan mind the spirit of the person drowned
would stay at the place where they entered the water. Their soul would never
find rest, so this punishment would be especially disturbing.
Our
text talks about having a millstone hung around your neck and then being tossed
in the sea to drown. In that time period there were two types of millstones in
use. The first was the personal millstone, often used by the women of a family
to grind their family’s grain. It was small and portable, kind of like a modern
day food processor, but heavy. They could be lifted and moved, but they were
still cumbersome.
The
other kind of millstone was turned by a donkey and would serve a community.
Think grain mill in the Midwest with its grain silos dotting the skyline. These
were extremely heavy. It would take a team of animals and men to move it. This
is the millstone hung around the neck in our text. It would be impossible to
stay afloat with this pulling you down.
So
why does Jesus use this picture? Causing someone who believes in Jesus to turn
away from Him is about the worst thing anyone could do to another human being.
Eternity is at stake. This is no small matter. If you turn away from the only
means of getting to heaven, then all is lost.
Jesus
uses this picture to push the disciples, and us, to realize how important this
matter is. There is no more important connection we can have in life than our
connection to Jesus. If this gets cut, we lose everything.
The
disciples had stopped someone from outside their immediate circle from acting
on Jesus’ behalf to help another person. He wants to stop them dead in their
tracks. Their actions are so against what Jesus stands for, that He must be
extreme in His illustrations. He must wake them up. He must get their
attention.
Are
you standing in the way of someone coming to Christ? Do your actions speak
louder than your words in sending a contrary message about the sufficiency of
Christ’s death and resurrection?