When Jesus says “Don’t”

Matthew chapter 18 verses 6 to 9

The first part of this chapter speaks specifically about children, to be like children and in these four verses don’t mess with children. The New International Version (NIV) put it like this,

6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones — those who believe in me — to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

The church is often in the media when the latest story unfolds about one of its members abusing children. When I read these words of Jesus those reports come to mind. But I am also wondering what happened to ‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ when I read “…it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea”. It doesn't say what it is better than or does it? It goes on to talk about how it is ‘better to’ gouge out your eye or cut off your foot or hand and here comes the answer ‘than be thrown into the fire of hell’.

Hell! That old-fashioned word. Whatever the place it has conjured in our imagination a place we would not want to go. It is a deterrent. So we humans need deterrents. Well, we don’t need to look to the Bible to see them as they exist from parenting to the justice system. It indicates that we will be held to account for our behaviour and we will receive a sentence. This passage is a reminder that Jesus said many things that are not always consistent. It is for us to make sense of it. So while we may enjoy the liberty of being forgiven we also need a reminder to behave. How this all works itself out we will only know as we experience it.

I read that the idea of fire originated in Ancient Egypt as a place for the dead to be refined. If we all have that of God in us it may well be that the fire represents a sifting process whereby that which can be burned will be and that which can’t will remain.

Perhaps the key is to stick with Jesus and as he said to the thief on the cross where he will be so will thee.

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