Stephen
Terry, Director
Teaching
Disciples: Part I
Commentary
for the August 17, 2024, Sabbath School Lesson
"If your eye
causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom
of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast
into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Mark
9:47-48, NASB
I remember as a child, the
common belief was that hell was someplace underground, perhaps
in the center of the earth, a fiery place of heat and torment. An older
child, taking advantage of this superstition when he found me digging in a sand
box told me that I was digging too deeply, and he could see the tips of the devil's
horns starting to poke through the surface. Frightened, I dropped my toy shovel
and ran for my life while he laughed himself silly over my naivete. Growing up
in a generation that was somewhat more churched than
today, the juxtaposition of heaven and hell, good and evil were more common
topics then. With the rise of the literary antihero, it has become more difficult
to distinguish the two. But something in our nature demands these dichotomies,
for despite the graying of morality in general, we seem more divided than ever.
Perhaps this is because religion
thrives on divisions. In times when former evils become tolerated, if not
completely acceptable, new evils must be identified to
stoke the divisions that keep humanity corralled into two herds like proverbial
sheep and goats. While the original parable (Matthew
25:31-46) separates all based on love, compassion, and empathy for others,
the modern iteration wants to separate us based on political affiliation,
gender, ethnicity, culture, speech, or any one of dozens of other differences
that are readily discernable and do not require any heart level understanding
of the other side that might bring rapprochement. This is a dramatic evolution
of social relationships, one that facilitates division by focusing on these
differences and hinders the communication and understanding that would allow
the achievement of common goals. Even though we technically speak the same language,
our differing vocabularies where "progressive" is positive to one group and
negative to another, with the same thing happening with "conservative," our
willing embrace of this is as effective a generator of chaos as was the
confounding of the languages at the Tower of Babel. (Genesis
11:1-9) Now as then, great projects are unable to proceed because of the
divisions. As I write this, astronauts are trapped on the International Space
Station unable to return to earth because their craft was damaged, and earthbound
humanity would rather kill one another than rescue these compatriots by working
together to develop a meaningful rescue plan. While they put up a brave face
for the media, I cannot begin to imagine how terrified they must be.
Jesus had tremendous patience
with his disciples' tendency toward divisiveness. (Mark
9:33-37) Although he was aware of their constant arguing he set an example
with his humbleness and urged them toward that same model. One of the better-known
examples of that was at the Last Supper when he humbled himself to wash the
disciples' feet. (John
13:1-17) His example stands in marked contrast to much of Christianity
today. Instead of humble service, both institutional and independent religious
leaders, often with pretentious titles, focus on how much money they can
collect to fund their ministries. They encourage others to humbly give to fill their
coffers much as the Roman Church did in the Middle Ages to build cathedrals and
basilicas, displaying the antithesis to humility in their ostentatious
ornamentations. We have come far from the simplicity of the poor itinerant
carpenter. And the more material goods we possess, the more we resist the
socialism of the early church. (Acts
4:32-37)
The disciples not only had
trouble overcoming their divisive nature, they also did not recognize Jesus as
the long-promised Messiah. When Jesus asked them about this, some referred to
him as a prophet, others as Elijah or resurrected John the Baptist. Only Peter
declared him to be the Messiah, (Mark
8:27-30) but he betrayed his lack of understanding of what he was saying when
he drew rebuke for opposing Jesus and his mission. (Mark
8:31-33) But the Jewish leaders of his day, despite being far more educated
than a common fisherman, were no better at being able to receive and understand
the Messiah. Things have changed little since. Recently, I had a woman rebuke
me for my faith because she was of the seed of Abraham and that was her
salvation not Jesus. In his time, Jesus responded to such arrogance by pointing
out, "do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'
I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham." (Matthew
3:9)
Another area of divisiveness is
disagreement on what happens after we die. There are those who say we immediately
go to heaven or hell upon dying. Others say we bide our time in purgatory prior
to moving on. Still others deny that there is any such thing as hell. Other ideas
include universal salvation, and an eternity of punishment for the lost. This
latter idea is remarkably like ideas from Greek mythology with Sisyphus
condemned to eternally roll a huge boulder uphill that would constantly roll
back down and need to be rolled up again. Another example is Prometheus, condemned
by Zeus to be chained to a rock where each day an eagle would eat his liver and
each night it would grow back to be eaten repeatedly for all eternity. The idea
of eternal torment precedes the Christian concepts and perhaps informs them.
But it challenges the character of God as being loving, (1
John 4:8) especially for those who believe immortality is conditional. It
means that lacking that immortality, God must sustain the individual to endure eternal
torment.
We have the passage in our opening
verse "cast into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not
quenched." This is repeated three times in Mark, chapter nine. The first two
are later additions not found in the oldest manuscripts. As a result, those two
are often presented in parentheses. But the third one is present in those early
Greek texts and is quoting from (Isaiah
66:24). This appears to endorse the idea of eternal torment. Commentators
have said that they feel that Jesus is just speaking with hyperbole which is
just another way of saying he exaggerates. That also is problematic for it
means he stretches the truth which is a euphemism for calling someone a liar.
The New International Version (NIV) of the Bible attempts to skirt the issue by
saying that it is the worm that consumes them that does not die, and the fire
is unquenchable which leaves room for the sinner to die, but not the sources of
torment. However, this is not what the Greek says. I must agree with our King
James Version (KJV) preferring friends in this instance that the King James renders
a more accurate if enigmatic translation than the NIV. If we allow the Bible to
speak for itself, we will find challenges that may parallel other faith
traditions and challenge our own beliefs.
The temptation of apologetics is
to fashion interpretations to sustain what we hold to be true based on what
others have taught us and denominations have long held as truth. However, this
is what led to the idea of switching Sunday keeping for Sabbath keeping eighteen
centuries ago. While this idea has conquered most of Christianity and is
championed by those theologians indebted to these Sunday-keeping denominations
for their sustenance, it is very thin gruel compared to the massive biblical
support for the true Sabbath, past, present, and future. These same apologetics
distort our understanding of death and any afterlife. Practiced long enough and
we are talking millennia here, the lie becomes the defacto truth and the truth itself
becomes heresy. This brings us to the enigma of eternal punishment. Is it true?
Is God a masochist delighting in everlasting torture of his victims? John, the
disciple who understood that God's character is love better than anyone, told
us that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John
3:16) Did you catch that? John gives two options. 1) The saved have eternal
life. 2) Those who are not saved perish. There is no mention of eternal torment,
only that they perish. Jesus himself said he came to give life implying that without
a relationship with him there is no life. (John
10:10)
We face the same choice today.
God does not drive us to him through threat of eternal torment. That is not
love. Fear is often used to manipulate people, and the church has been using
fear as a tool for centuries. But "God is love." That love brought Jesus to die
upon the cross. He said that his death on the cross would draw humanity to him,
drawn by his love. (John
12:32) All enigmas and hyperbole aside, everything boils down to that one
word -- love.