"Not Minimizing Sin, But Maximizing the
Savior" based on Mark 9:43-48
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost -
Pastor Troy Slater - Our
Ask any five year old who has been to
Sunday School much and they can tell you what Jesus has
done for us. "Jesus died on the
cross for our sins," is the good and certainly a correct Sunday School answer to the question of what Jesus has done. I have the pleasure of meeting with the
preschoolers every other week for chapel and a couple of weeks ago in our first
chapel for this year I asked if any of them knew what Jesus had done for
us. And, as usually happens, one bright
eyed little girl excitedly raised her hand and said with that wonderful and
bold child-like faith, "Jesus died on the cross for our sins." It's what our faith is all about. Jesus' death is what gives us hope and
purpose and meaning in life. The cross
is where our salvation from sin and death was won. We know it, we believe it, we confess it, we
rejoice in Jesus and His cross.
But truth is,
there is a danger even for us who know so well who Jesus is and what He has
done for us. There is a danger even for
those who are so familiar with the old, old story of Jesus and His love.
And that danger is that we who have
forgiveness in Him, well, we begin to take sin lightly. We begin to regard God's grace as sort of a
"get out of jail free" card; we begin to treat the cross as a license
to sin. Not consciously I suppose, at
least not usually, but nevertheless, it happens. For in a world where God's name is flippantly
used as an expression of surprise; where God is indiscriminately called upon to
"damn" this or that, do we who bear the name of God by virtue of our
baptisms, do we become just as callous and indifferent toward sin as anyone
else?
In a society
where God's gift of intimacy is reduced to recreation; a society in which all
sense of shame and modesty has been thrown out; a society where all sorts of perversions
and immoralities are regarded as normal and good, do we as God's people even
try to keep ourselves unstained by the world, or are we just as carnal and
pleasure-seeking as anyone?
In schools and
workplaces where God has been thrown out and greed and lying rule the day, do
we even care that Christ has called us to be "the light of the world"
or are we content to merely confine our faith to an hour on Sunday? …
Actually
And in fact
that is one of the points that Jesus makes in our Gospel reading for today from
Mark, chapter nine. Using some rather
serious language, Jesus points out that sin is not to be taken lightly - it is
to be avoided at all costs for it leads to only one place - hell - the place of
eternal torment. For here Jesus warns, "if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to
hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if
your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown
into hell. And if your eye causes you to
sin, tear it out. It is better for you
to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into
hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.' " .. A
serious warning on a most serious matter.
And so again, "Shall we go on sinning so that
grace may increase?... By no means! For we died to sin; how can we live in it any
longer?" Sin damns. And so how can we live in it any longer? How can we not avoid it at any cost? …
This reading
here and the seriousness of what Jesus is saying reminds
me of the story of the preacher who delivered a powerful sermon on the subject
of sin, damnation, and hell. After the
service, one of the church leaders confronted him and offered him
suggestion. He said, "Pastor, we
don't want you to talk as openly as you do about sin and hell. If our boys and girls hear you it will be
very easy for them to fall into temptation.
Call sin a 'mistake'; call hell by another name; but please, please
don't go into detail."
The pastor
then removed a small bottle from a shelf behind his desk and said, "This
label, it says 'Strychnine'. And
underneath the name, in bright red, there's a skull
and crossbones and the word 'poison'.
Should I change the label? Should
I write 'Pirate Candy' over the skull and crossbones? Of course not, that would be dangerous, especially
if children came across it. But yet
that's what you're asking me to do with something far, far more dangerous. You see, the milder the label, the more
dangerous the poison." … We mustn't minimize sin and its effects. Jesus sure didn't. …
And no doubt
many who listened to Jesus talk about cutting off feet and plucking out eyes
would have preferred He speak a little more mildly. And certainly many today do just that as they
say that Jesus was just exaggerating and we shouldn't take Him too
seriously. But minimizing the warnings
of the Savior is a dangerous thing to do.
Sure Jesus did have a sense of humor, but when He speaks about the
dangers of hell, it's time for all who hear to sit up and take notice. It's time for us to take notice. Jesus speaks
about amputating many parts of our anatomy if that part causes us to sin. Now certainly Jesus could have included many
other body parts on that list: tongue, brain, and parts below the belt
line. And should we follow Jesus’ words
literally, I would expect to see nothing but limbless, blind and mute torsos in
church! But really it is not too
difficult to get the drift of what Jesus is talking about. He is talking about
drastic action, not taking lightly what causes us to sin. Get rid of it. Stop playing with sin. Let's call a spade a spade, sin a sin. Let's quit minimizing the dangers for all sin
- every sin - even what we might call a "little" sin - is a turning
our back on God and His ways. Every
single sin damns. And so get rid of any
temptation to sin - get rid of anything that causes you to sin.
For sin is crouching at your door,
wanting to lead you ever deeper and deeper into it's
deadly trap.
Yes harsh
words to be sure. And while with those
words we do not minimize sin and its
affects, let's also be sure not to minimize God's words of Jesus. In fact let's maximize the good news of the Savior, the
good news of what Jesus came to do. For
Jesus came to have his life "cut off
from the land of the living." He
came to be led like a lamb to the slaughter, like a criminal to his execution.
Jesus came to be abandoned, rejected, mocked, spit upon, whipped, hung on a
cross, buried. That's what Jesus came to
do.
And why?
Why did the Son of God leave His throne in heaven just to do all that? …
He did it so that He might save us from our sin, becoming sin's sacrifice. Jesus came so that He might take our place in
our damnation, being forsaken by His Father who is in heaven. Jesus came so that He might rescue us from the
fires and the flames of hell. That's
what He came for. He came down from
heaven that we might not be damned to hell; He died that we might live; Jesus
gave His life in our place so that we might no longer be captive to sin and the
grave. That's what Jesus came to do. That's what He did. …
That's what
He did, and now, that is all yours. As a
baptized child of your heavenly Father, as a sinner made a saint through the
blood of Jesus, as one marked with the cross of Christ the crucified and risen
one, as one fed and nourished with the body and blood of our Lord, it's all
yours. Salvation, life, freedom from sin
and the grave, victory over Satan, it's all yours in Jesus. It's all yours.
So let us ever walk with Jesus. Let us daily die to sin, not minimizing its
danger but heading Jesus' warning. Let
us repent of all shame, "throwing
off the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race
that is set before us." Let us
maximize the good news of our Savior as we "fix
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our
faith, who, for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Yes let us look
to Jesus, going to the cross where, with that child-like faith, we know, we
believe, we confess, we rejoice in that wonderful truth that Jesus died on that
cross for our sins. Amen.