Reflections

Mark 9:42-48 (HCSB)

 “But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me —it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes your downfall, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell—

the unquenchable fire,  where

Their worm does not die,

and the fire is not quenched.

 And if your foot causes your downfall, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell—

the unquenchable fire,  where

Their worm does not die,

and the fire is not quenched.

 And if your eye causes your downfall, gouge it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,

where Their worm does not die,

and the fire is not quenched."

I'm not an expert in communication; but when someone repeats something three times in a row, it's for a reason. But why? Don't we all know this about hell? To understand this repetition you only need to view the chapter as a whole.  Mark chapter 9 addresses Jesus' claim as Savior. We can use fancy words like King, Prophet, and High Priest, but really this is when Jesus shines as our future savior. We call Jesus' direct claim here the Transfiguration. It's a misleading word, because Jesus doesn't change into the Savior at this moment, he is savior from Genesis to Revelations. Its at the beginning of Mark chapter 9 he intends his follows to see, to know his true identity.  He shines the brightest white, shows his otherness, reveals his divinity(see verse. 1-12). In addition, Jesus is seen speaking to Moses and Elijah--a sign that Jesus is authority of the Law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah). To further establish these points Jesus continues on his healing mission(14-29). He presents in this chapter a glimpse of the future, that as messiah he came to ultimately heal by dying on a cross and raising again 3 days later (30-32). Even though the disciples were around for all of this, they did not understand. The disciples start to argue amongst themselves about who is the greatest (33-37). The disciples even question Jesus about who is in their special club (38-41). This annoys God. In a climax Jesus sorts this problem out by directing the disciples attention to proper priorities. He says three times that there is a hell, describes it as a horrible place where the worm--the thing that eats and consumes, does not stop, does no die. Jesus says hell has a fire--a thing that by its very nature destroys, but this hell-fire will destroy without consuming or stopping. Try to look at this chapter. Connect the dots. You'll see that God places himself above all. He doesn't hide. He attempts to make his will as evident as possible. Yet his disciples, God love them, miss the point. His disciples fight over skin deep issues: Who among us is the greatest? Who is part of our club? Should we just let anyone claim to know God--without being around us and him?! We can imagine Jesus saying to this kind of thinking, " stop, just stop." In no way does Jesus want people to literally harm themselves. We are not in the business of removing hands, feet, or eyes. God goes to this extreme exaggeration to draw comparison to the Disciples misplaced priories. Jesus values the innocence of children. It should become obvious, that Jesus is only stressing the importance of the eternal over the temporary. Once again it becomes a simple question; is it about us, or is it about him?