I’m not sure what it is about us that keeps us from understanding. No matter how hard we try, there are a few things we just don’t get. The radical compassion that Jesus brought to show us and share with us is one of those things. And today’s gospel portion is an excellent example of that.
As this part of the story begins, Jesus and the disciples have been traveling all over the country—teaching, preaching and healing. They have just arrived at Capernaum. They’ve just passed through that incident on the road to Capernaum—the one where the disciples were arguing as they walked about who among them was the greatest. Today’s passage feels like John is trying to change the subject and bring the disciples into a better light with Jesus.
As this part of the story begins, Jesus and the disciples have been traveling all over the country—teaching, preaching and healing. They have just arrived at Capernaum. They’ve just passed through that incident on the road to Capernaum—the one where the disciples were arguing as they walked about who among them was the greatest. Today’s passage feels like John is trying to change the subject and bring the disciples into a better light with Jesus.
The interesting part of all this is how we hear the rest of the words Jesus spoke that day. After he tells the disciples that everyone who acts in his name is on his side, Jesus says, “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.” Harsh words, and we don’t really have a lot of tools to help us capture Jesus’ meaning. We don’t have video of this teaching. We don’t have an audio recording. Even the length and shape of the sentences we attribute to Jesus is someone’s best guess, because the written Greek of Jesus’ time had no capitalization or punctuation—just lines of words running across the page.
I think our lack of tools—and our own tendency to demonize the other—has led us to miss the core of this message down through the ages. Since the early days of Christianity, we have used these words in the context of the Body of Christ. Throughout the history of our faith, individuals and groups of people have interpreted these harsh words to justify our harsh actions. Over the years, we Christians have divided communities, broken homes, and destroyed relationships—all in the name of Jesus and quoting the words we’ve just heard. We have killed and we have destroyed lives—all in Jesus’ name. If we haven’t liked what another part of the Body of Christ is doing—whap!—we’ve lopped it off—and claimed to be on the side of the angels as we were doing so.
Listen again to these words. Jesus says, “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.” If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. Jesus doesn’t say a word about our neighbor’s hand or foot or eye. Jesus tells us to stop pointing at the other as the source of our woes. Jesus tells us to look to the ways we bring trouble into our own hearts—to the ways we cut ourselves off from God—to the ways we get in our own way. Jesus tells us to look at ourselves and take the action we need to take to open our hearts to God’s love.
But why does he use such harsh words—cut off your hand—pluck out
your eye? In Jesus’ time, the maimed person was a second class citizen,
condemned by the Law and dependent on society for the basics of life. To cut
off one’s hand, to pluck out one’s eye would be to put oneself at
the mercy of God and of the community, to move away from independence and reliance
on self to reliance on the power of God. In his advice to cut off the hand or
pluck out the eye that is leading to sin, Jesus is urging people to turn away
from self-worship. He is insisting that those who have allowed pride to diminish
their relationship with God must turn again to remember the source of their
lives and work. He is reminding us that the true barrier to the Reign of God
is not what the other guy is doing—it’s what we ourselves are doing.
Things haven’t changed a lot since that day in Capernaum. In our post-modern world, people of most faiths are being intentional in their approach to understanding and respecting the beliefs and customs of other religious traditions. We in the Episcopal Church have entered communion with a branch of the Lutheran Church, and we’re exploring ways of being in communion with our cousins in the Methodist Church. The strife between faith traditions seems to be lessened, but what about the strife within the churches?
Since the General Convention of 2003, the Anglican Communion has been filled with mutterings and finger-pointing, with threats and posturing—from people who stand on both sides of issues. Letters and resolutions and conferences have been flying thick and fast, and I have heard it said more than once that “those who oppose those actions of General Convention are the legitimate expression of the Episcopal Church.”
That has a familiar ring to it, doesn’t it? “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.”
Once again, people of good faith—people of good faith, seeking to do God’s will, are separating themselves from those they see as different from themselves. The problem that so often results in division in the church is that people of good faith, doing their best to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, frequently have strongly divergent understandings of God’s will for human behavior. Sometimes the disagreement is about something as central to human life as sexual orientation. Sometimes the disagreement is about how to fold altar linens or how best to incorporate new people into the parish community or any one of the customs that become cherished parts of any community. Because we are humans, each with our own particular understanding of God’s experience in our lives and with our own particular understanding of God’s will for lives, we will probably always disagree. We will probably always be at least a little suspicious of people who claim ministry in the name of Christ but whose ways seem very different from our own. But, as children of God, made one with Christ in baptism, we are called to move away from focus on our own tiny selves and look to the glory of God.
Today, we celebrate the life and teachings of St. Francis, whose life was a praise for God and all God’s creation. His life shows that when we focus on God’s goodness, there’s not a lot of room for focus on ourselves. His life shows us that when we show respect for all God’s creation, there’s not much room for division and animosity. His life shows us that when we focus on the greatness of God’s love, there’s room for all creation at the table.
Thanks be to God.