Articles
Jesus' Figures of Speech - 3
“And if your hand makes you sin, cut it off.” (Mk 9:43)
Perhaps the most jarring of Jesus’ figures of speech involves His direction concerning the avoidance of sin. For hands and feet that lead into sin, cut them off He says. Eyes – pluck them out. It is sad to see on occasion a mentally unstable person act out these words literally, and that is the point. Jesus does not advise literal self-mutilation. He speaks figuratively to drive home a point about the seriousness of sin and our effort to avoid it.
But how do we know Jesus is speaking figuratively? First, by comparing what He says elsewhere about the origin of sin: “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries …” (Mt 15:19). Sinful actions are willed in the mind; our bodies merely follow the dictates of the mind. Second, Jesus speaks of entering the kingdom maimed or lame or with one eye, another non-literal reference given that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 15:50).
So what is Jesus conveying in this graphic figure? He says that sin is so destructive that we must be willing to rid our lives of everything that promotes it. As vital as hands, feet and eyes are to the body’s function, we would be better off without them if they led to our destruction. What in this world is worth hanging onto if it leads to our soul’s destruction?
