Sunday September 30th,
2018 26th Sunday Ordinary
Time (Cycle B)
Cut It Out!
The tie in between
today’s readings: How do you view sin?
A person’s view
of sin is a good indicator of their attitude about salvation. Ever since Adam
tried to pass the buck in the Garden by telling God that the woman He (God)
gave him caused him to eat the forbidden fruit. (Gen 3:12), we’ve all looked
for ways to rationalize our failures. We blame our environment, our heredity,
or society. We compare ourselves to others and proudly soothe our conscience by
taking a higher position in our moral pecking order. “I know I’m not perfect,
but I’m better than so and so.” We cling to our relative moral standard and elevated
estimation of our own goodness. This leads to an easy believism in the church
and no appreciation of the crucifixion. It’s almost as if Jesus died to save us
from bad habits. On the contrary, a
serious evaluation of our transgressions against the perfect standard of a holy
God is devastating. At this point, we not only realize that we need a savior,
but we become desperate to find one. When we do, He gives us a new life in Himself
and forgives us by removing our sins as far as the east is from the west. We
love Him, because whoever is forgiven much, then loves much in return. True, after all is said and done, both types
of people still sin. The authentic born again person, though, struggles against
his sin nature… the other, not so much. Why fix something that really isn’t
broken? The difference is all in the
attitude.
In Psalm 19,
David asks God not to let presumptuous sin rule over him. This is the “jump off the Temple” kind of sin
Satan tempted Jesus with. It presumes on God and forces His hand, placing us in
charge. This kind of grace-abuse is
familiar in the pews. We call it: Carnal Christianity. It is a contradiction of terms and an
anesthetizing cancer in our churches. This “Carnal Christian” thinks salvation
is a policy from the “The Jehovah Fire and Life Insurance Company”. When Christ died on the cross, He paid the
premiums for everyone in the whole world. All you have to do to be saved is to recognize
a good deal when you see one. C’mon down!
It’s free! We’ll baptize you on the dotted line. Thank You, Jesus! There’s no compulsion to pray. Read the Bible
or grow in grace…why? When was the last time you dug your policy out of the
drawer? When you sin, you’re just placing another claim with God, as you cite:
1 John 1:8-9 and maybe throw in a little, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh
is weak.” The Carnal Christian needs to
wake up before it’s too late. He needs to examine himself to see if he really
is in the faith. The nature of your born again life requires that you forsake
your sin and become more like Jesus. If you won’t; if you just want to go along
your merry way, like the rich church people in James 5, file your sin claims,
abuse and presume on the grace from on High, then God has an answer: “I never
knew you.”
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In today’s gospel,
Jesus tells us that everyone will be salted with fire in Mark 9:49. I want to
use this as an illustration of salvation against my earlier insurance policy
example. Among other things salt is connected with judgment; remember Lot’s
wife. Fire is as well. I believe these are judgment metaphors. John the Baptist said that Jesus will come and
baptize believers with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matt 3:11, Luke 3:16).
Then, you have that strange scene when Jesus asks James and John if they could
be baptized with His baptism and drink His cup. They said yes. Jesus agrees
that they would (Mark 10:35-40, Matt 20:22-23). I think that this is a baptism
by fire that Jesus and all believers, in this case James and John, go through
for salvation. When Jesus drinks the cup at Gethsemane we, in a spiritual sense,
drink our sin portion with Him. Then we are baptized by fire (or judged)
spiritually along with Jesus through the crucifixion. We have passed through
the judgment of God. We die with Him and are spiritually born again with Him
when He resurrects on Easter Sunday. Salvation is personal and intimate. If I live,
you will live also. The Holy Spirit helps us to grow in our new life conforming
us to the image of His Son. Go and sin no more…well, at least make that your
goal.
There is support
in this new life. God provides an escape route when temptation comes along. He
also gives us each other to lean on when things get difficult, as seen in
Numbers 11. So if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your foot causes
you to stumble, cut it off. Stop playing
with sin. It has no place in your life. Get an appreciation for, “This is My
body given for you.” We are more than conquerors in Jesus.
