The Hell with Sin
The Rev. Dr. Timothy Ives
October 1, 2000
Mark 9:38-50

There is something amiss in this passage. And it is not the obvious. Surprisingly, I don’t really mind that Jesus is encouraging us to cut off our hands and feet. I don’t mind that he is conjuring up a scene from those horrible “slice and dice” movies that seem to be ever popular. The gory image of some pious follower maiming himself to the glory of God is not what is wrong here. I say that because I know he is not being literal. (This passage has got to be tough on those who profess to take the Bible literally! All right Mrs. Jones I know you didn’t mean it but that was sinful so we have scheduled your surgery for next Thursday. Oh yes I know Mrs. Jones everyone likes having two hands but you wouldn’t want to go against what it says in the Bible.)

I am not worried about such talk from Jesus. I know he is using these examples to make a point that isn’t about actually maiming oneself. I know that because in this passage he is talking about what we call hell, or what sounds like hell. And when Jesus speaks about hell I am sure that he is using it as an example to make a point. I believe this because Jesus was a good Jew and a responsible teacher and the truth is that Jews were forbidden to speculate about the afterlife.

In the whole Hebrew Bible there is little about a place of torment where God sends those to be punished. For most of early Jewish history there was no doctrine or understanding about the afterlife. J. Edward Wright in his wonderfully informative and quite provocative book called The Early History of Heaven confirms this. “The teachers and prophets of Israel discountenanced necromancy and occult speculation (Deut. 18:11; Ps. 106:28; Isa. 8:19). "The secret things, says the Law, "belong to the Lord our God; only the things that are revealed belong to us." (Deut. 29:29) Consequently the OT offers no formal doctrine concerning the destination and fate of the dead; all that it says on the subject belongs to the domain of popular lore.”

Hebrew prophets and scribes believed the afterlife was God’s realm and so most speculations about our eternal fate were left to popular belief and folklore. It was a subject that pious Jews could and should leave alone.

So if Jesus took his scripture seriously (which from the number of times he quotes his scripture I think we can safely assume), then we can surmise that he was not teaching about hell in these passages because that is not what learned Jews did, for the most part.

But Jesus did live in a time when the whole idea of the afterlife was being transformed. The influx of Hellenistic values and culture in the first century made for a very exciting time in the history of ideas in Israel. It is in the first century that the many of the Greek ideas about the afterlife get widespread currency among Jews but that does not mean they gained religious authority. Judaism would take a long time to transform their ideas of the afterlife. And indeed much of Judaism today holds on to the old Hebrew notions. That is except for one sect of Judaism that emerged in the first century. I am speaking of Christianity of course. This sect adopted the most radical departures from Judaism in this area. There are many reasons for that but the most obvious one is simply not true.

Jesus did not have a well-developed understanding of heaven and hell. In fact he is quite ambiguous on the subject. He even seems to contradict himself. But please realize that such a lack of clarity stems from the fact that when Jesus mentions hell or the afterlife or heaven he simply is not teaching about them. In his teaching he used such examples, like the one in scripture today, to make a point about other subjects. That is, he used popular images current at the moment (that may or may or may not have had a religious background) to make his teaching more vivid and understandable to the general populous.

And in this passage he certainly did that. You can see the eternal fire and feel the pain of losing a limb. But again he is not teaching about hell, I hope you believe that because if you think he is teaching about hell then you must start sawing off parts of your body. The mandate would be inescapable.

He is actually teaching about sin and using the image of hell to make his point. Please remember sin is literally being separated from God. And so he says sin is so bad that you would be better off losing an arm or foot or even be thrown into the water with a huge rock tied around your neck than to have to live with sin. And it is so bad because it is that separation from God and being separated from God is far worse than any of these fates. See how vivid that is? The reader understands immediately how awful Jesus thinks it is to be separated from God. There can be no mistake about this teaching.

Now, I told you there was something amiss in this passage and it is not the part about cutting off limbs. That is just good effective teaching. And please remember he is not saying go and hurt yourself for God.

What is amiss in the passage comes in the next verse after this talk of the unquenchable fire. Jesus has used this image to describe that place where you are cut off from God. It is a popular notion of hell that he has invoked to make his point. So the reader has the image of fire, this terrible fire in his or her mind and then Jesus does something confounding with it.

He then uses in the same sentence salt and fire. “Everyone will be salted with fire.” (Mark 9:49) And then says salt is good. In about ten words Jesus has gone from describing sin as a fate worse than death, something like a horrible fire that will not go out, that should be avoided at all costs, as something that will come to everyone and to some extent have a positive outcome.

What? What?!!!

In other places Jesus has use d the image of salt and told his disciples to have salt in themselves. They are to be salt. That is all well and good except here the salt comes from this terrible sin that we are to avoid at all costs.

This is a provocative moment for Jesus. This is either a complete contradiction that is a mistake or it is something so profound that it isn’t easily understood. I choose the latter.

Jesus is clear about how destructive sin is. That is sin, the separation from God, must be avoided at all costs because it kills us more than dead. But having said he adds this last section because he has been around enough to know how pervasive the separation from God is. There is not anyone who does not feel the absence of God on occasion, and in fact today I would say the gap has widened so much so that we are surprised when God feels present more than we are surprised by God’s absence. I am surprised to see that more than half of the people in this country actually say they believe in God. (“Really, I didn’t think anyone believed in God anymore!”) Separation from God is completely common. The feeling and the reality of sin afflicts everyone. But as Jesus points out in this passage that does not mean we are lost, or dead, or condemned. In fact the sin or the separation from God that is so terrible can act as the very means of salvation.

In other words by connecting fire and salt Jesus is proclaiming the Good News. There is always hope in God. There is always a chance for growth in God. There is always a second chance in God. So even the separation from God can be an avenue to redemption and reconciliation with God. That is how much God loves us!

Jesus is telling a story more common than sin. Redemption in the midst of trouble, reconciliation when all seemed lost, a chance when God was no where to be found. It is the story of scripture. Humanity finding its way back to God.

Forty years in the wilderness, Jacob the scoundrel meeting Esau at the Jabbok, the disciples returning after their denial and abandonment of Jesus finding his spirit still among them, Paul the persecutor being transformed into Paul the devotee.