Continuing from the conversation in which Jesus used a little child as the illustration of the humility we need to enter the Kingdom of Heaven: “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out. For everyone will be tested with fire. Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses it flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.”
I’ve just been to see mom. She lives in a memory care center in West Linn. Sometimes I take one of my grandchildren with me when I go to see her. When I do that we tend to attract a crowd, as residents slumped in their chairs, lost in their foggy past, suddenly come awake at the sight of a little child. They straighten up, smile and reach out, touching again wonderful moments when they too had small children to hold and care for. Children are precious good medicine. As we raise them we are responsible to help them gain knowledge of good and protection against evil. We are their first line of defense against the entry of sin into their lives. So Jesus warns that to cause a child who trusts in him to fall into sin is to risk a terrible consequence.
Sin is serious. It’s also out of fashion. In America we don’t talk about sin anymore, unless it’s the sinfulness of someone else, or of corporate America. But to Jesus sin was both very personal and very deadly. So, if it causes you to sin, cut off your hand, cut off your foot, gouge out your eye. Was he speaking literally? No, and the people to whom he was speaking understood that he was simply underlining the seriousness of his subject.
At the time of the Renaissance in France the new thinkers said that sin was old-fashioned. They held that man was fundamentally good; that given enough education and encouragement, environmental change and scientific advance, man could only get better and better.
The record of history is devastating to that belief. Jesus was the consummate realist with respect to the reality of sin. He clearly taught that within the soil of every person’s heart are the seeds of every conceivable sin. He listed some of them. They are familiar to us. I quote: “Evil thoughts, acts of fornication, of theft, murder, adultery, ruthless greed and malice; fraud, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.” Do you find yourself in there anywhere? All, he said, come from the heart of man.
What Jesus referred to as the heart is roughly equivalent to what Freud called the unconscious. It resembles a very deep well. The thick deposit of muck at the bottom is unseen and even unsuspected. But when the waters of the well are stirred by the winds of violent emotion and conflict, the most evil-looking and evil-smelling stuff bubbles up from the depths and breaks the surface—rage, hate, lust, cruelty and jealousy, and revenge. In our more sensitive moments we are appalled by our potential for evil.
Much of what we take for granted as ‘civilized’ society is based upon the assumption of human sin. Nearly all legislation has come about because human beings cannot be trusted to settle their own disputes with justice and without self-interest. A promise is not enough, we need a contract. Doors are not enough; we must lock and bolt them. The payment of a fare is not enough; tickets must be issued, inspected and collected. Laws are not enough; we need police to enforce them. All this and more is due to man’s sinful nature. We cannot trust each other. We need protection against one another. It is a terrible indictment of human nature.
Sin is real. Its effect is the distortion, if not the breakage and effacement of the image of God within us. We cannot blame it on some outside force. Satan may tempt us, but he finds a ready ally within us who is ready and willing, even eager, to accept the temptation. The devil cannot force us to do what we do not want to do and choose to do.
I’m going to continue this conversation tomorrow. For the rest of today I will remember that I once was that little child; that my raven-haired mother called me “Sonny” and laughed when I ran. I will remember those sweeter days and rest in the promise of Jesus, that his grace is greater than my sin, and that he did not come to judge, but to save. When he is finished with me that boy will run again, and my mother will be young and bright…forever.
Prayer: “Father of Mercy, sometimes I feel overcome by the power of sin within me. I do the very things I do not wish to do, and I feel completely defeated. I must stop, by effort of will, and remember that you have defeated sin and taken away its power. I know that to be true. But in the moments of a day of temptation, I still feel the struggle. Please, in those days, stand beside me and give me strength and encouragement. Help me to live by what you have done, not by what I fear. How great you are; greater than sin, greater than temptation. You hold hope strong in my mind so that I do not forget that I will inhabit eternity, free from temptation, finally at rest. Thank you! In Jesus name, Amen.”