38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out
demons in your name, [6] and we tried to stop him, because he was not following
us.” 39 But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in
my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40 For the one who is
not against us is for us. 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, [7] 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, [8] to the unquenchable fire. [9] 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. [10] 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.” Mark 9:1-50
(ESV)
“For everyone must be salted with fire.”
“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it would already
be kindled. I have a baptism with which to be baptized with and how great is my
distress until it is accomplished.” Thus Jesus speaks of his death and
resurrection in the 12th chapter of Luke. And event by which he
would cast fire upon the earth, that in our baptisms in which we are joined to
his death and resurrection, we would be salted with the fire of the Holy
Spirit. That is we would be made to be living sacrifices holy and acceptable to
God, as the salt of the Old Covenant made the sacrifices of temple to be
consumed by the fire of God to be acceptable to him. We are salted with fire,
and the salt is the forgiveness of sins by which we live that we may never lose
our saltiness, but continually be at peace with one another.
Salted with fire that we would be living sacrifices before
the Lord, willing to gouge out our eyes, chop off our feet, and hands and throw
them into the fire that we ourselves would escape the fires of hell where the
worm does not die, where the fires are never quenched. That we would not
ourselves fall from the faith. This is what the temptation to sin is really
about in this passage. It is the temptation to apostasy, or the temptation to
give up the Christian faith. And it happens, often it happens as Christians are
given to the temptation to indulge the hungers and desires of the flesh in
manners not consistent with Christian morality, not consistent with the love of
Christ for the world, for others for us. Not consistent with the love we have
for God or the love we have for each other by which we live at peace with one
another. Instead there is a life in which we give into the covetousness of our
hearts, we take advantage of others, often when they themselves offer to be
taken advantage of.
If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is one of the
harder passages in scripture. How literally it is meant to be taken is perhaps
up for debate. Church history has recorded those who have taken this passage
rather seriously. The early church theologian Origen, the man was quite a
genius even if perhaps a precursor to the heresy of Arianism, which first
espoused the Mormon idea that as God once was we now are, as God is we can
become. Much of Origen’s work was later condemned even as it remained
influential for centuries, shaping Christian thought even today in some ways.
He is best remembered for the comparisons of biblical texts. However, as great
a scholar and genius he was, he was denied the priesthood after reading this
text because his bishop had considered him to have lost his manhood. And it
just goes to show, that following this text to literally would lead to another
sin, that of self-mutilation. God created us with two eyes, two feet and two
hands for a reason. But it was not so that we could sin, or tempt others to
sin, but that we could serve the Lord with and in our bodies. And this we do
not by tempting the little ones who believe in him to sin, but by raising them
up in the faith, feeding them and clothing them physically with hotdogs and mac
and cheese, but also spiritually with the love and righteousness of Christ, the
robes of righteousness given in baptism. These little ones who believe in me, I
love those words of Christ. There is here no question about the age of
accountability. No question about them being able to make a decision for
Christ. There is nothing but Jesus saying, don’t teach them to sin. They believe
in me, don’t make them to despise my word. Raise them in the faith I have given
them. And this is where a life of self-sacrifice hits home, because it is at
home and work that we live as living sacrifices salted with fire. It is there
that we have to bear with one another in love and forgiveness, even as we do so
within the church, that the salt would not lose its saltiness.
No, it isn’t being overly strict with ourselves and those
entrusted to our care that gives us our saltiness. This is actually a way to
lose the saltiness, to foster dissent, to cause little one’s not to believe. To
raise them up with resentment, perhaps because they can’t join the neighborhood
kids in the upcoming parade of costumes. People, there are satanic ways to
celebrate Halloween, and a parent is perhaps right to be concerned about the appropriateness
of a particular costume. But trick or treating, and Halloween parties are not
things that should be denied children in the name of Christ, any more than
Christmas presents, or being able to play on Sunday, or even work if they are
old enough, I have to shake my head at things sometimes, things parents do to
their children in the name of Christ. Santa and all the fun surrounding him is
not a misspelling of Satan. Neither does it take away from the true meaning of
Christmas, but actually has a way of adding to everything, if the parents
themselves would actually keep the true meaning of Christmas at the center. That
isn’t the saltiness. No the salt, the living sacrifice is often rather than an
embrace of love and forgiveness when it hurts to forgive, when that child
perhaps has given into temptations they would have done better to avoid.
Because the salt with which Christ salts us with is the forgiveness of sins and
the Holy Spirit, when he joins us to his death and resurrection and baptizes us
with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Now the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord Amen.
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