Sacrifices
‘And if your foot makes you lose your faith, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot than to keep both feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye makes you lose faith, take it out! It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to keep both eyes and be thrown into hell. There “the worms that eat them never die, and the fire that burns them is never put out”.’ (verses 45-48)
Read Mark 9:42-50
Suffering is a law of the kingdom of God. Jesus did not escape suffering. He told his disciples, ‘The Son of Man will be handed over to those who will kill him’ (Mark 9:31). To bring in God’s rule over sin, death and Satan, Jesus suffered. Christians too can expect suffering for the sake of the kingdom, not as punishment, but as part of the mystery of God’s ways.
Sometimes we need to make very painful sacrifices, of those things which keep me from God, my pet sins, which cling to me so tenaciously. Without such sacrifice we face ruin. But God’s kingdom is worth more than all our suffering. The alternative is ‘hell’. This is the translation of the word Gehenna. Originally Gehenna referred to the Valley of Hinnom close to Jerusalem. The valley told a tragic story of ruin. Here children had been sacrificed to the god Molech (2 Kings 23:10). After the time of King Josiah, the place became Jerusalem’s rubbish tip. That explains the imagery of worms and fire (Isaiah 66:24). This terrible place warns us of how important sacrifices are for the sake of God’s kingdom.
Heavenly Father, give me courage to make sacrifices for your kingdom. Grant me now a taste of your kingdom, so that I am encouraged. Amen.
by Ray Schulz, in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1998)
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