SSPIRITUAL SURGERY
(Matt. 5:29-30)
When would it be proper and constructive to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand? Well, as long as the eye is healthy and functioning, that would be ridiculous. As long as the hand is whole and useful, that would be ridiculous. If the eye became cancerous, however, it might become necessary to sacrifice the part to save the whole. If the hand became gangrenous, it might become necessary to relinquish a limb to salvage a life. One of Christ’s most disturbing teachings concerns this matter of priorities.
I. Christ said: “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy right hand offend thee cut it off.”
The first key word in this verse is thy. Note that Christ doesn’t say “If thy neighbor’s right eye offend thee pluck it out or if thy neighbor’s right hand offend thee, cut it off. This is the typical behavior, but it’s destructive. This is the typical behavior because most of us are very defensive. We try to blame others for our shortcomings. This behavior is neither Christlike nor useful. Criticizing your associates is like breaking your arm and sending your brother to the doctor. It won’t work. It’s our own problems and responses that get us into trouble. Don’t blame others. Don’t blame circumstances. It’s our own weaknesses and sins that must be admitted and remedied. If thy right eye or hand offend; remove them!
Oh, that’s such an important social principle. Someone very wise said, “Reformers try to fix others. Saints fix themselves.” Christ told us very bluntly to mind our own business: “And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?” (Luke 6:41).
Do you realize that brother you’re trying to fix may see your log very clearly? Christ called such misguided “fixers” hypocrites. he said, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye” (Luke 6:41-42).
You see, until we’ve taken care of our own problems we’re not in any position to help others. A certain blind man would stand at a corner and hold out his hand. Usually someone would take his hand and guide him across the street. Once, however, just as he lifted up his left hand, another hand touched it. He thought it was a safe hand and they started out into the street together, only to be run down by the traffic. When the two men were carried to the hospital, it was discovered that both of them were blind, and each was reaching out for help. Neither was in a position to help the other.
One sinner trying to correct another sinner’s faults is like the blind leading the blind. Furthermore, taking care of our own flaws is a full time job. If we do that well, we won’t have time to condemn others.
Are you as critical of yourself as you are of others?
Just because you attend church doesn’t mean you don’t have problems and sins that others observe.
II. The next key phrase is offend thee. Christ said, “If thy right eye offend thee. . . . If Thy right hand offend thee . . . .”
To offend means to entrap or ensnare. “To offend thee” means to become a hindrance or a stumbling block to you. Now, what can do this? Unfortunately, almost anything can do this. It’s significant that Christ specifically used eyes and hands as examples because this shows that even good, helpful and beneficial things can become liabilities. It’s also graphic proof of the relative nature of evil. Morality isn’t black and white. Morality isn’t absolute. Morality isn’t simple. Morality can’t be predetermined.
Evil is not in objects. It is in their use. It’s obvious that an eye is good. It’s obvious that a hand is good. They only become evil when they are misused.
Some folks separate their eyes and hands from their minds. They’re like the three year old who was making holes in the couch. When his mother scolded him, he answered, very seriously, “Mommy, it wasn’t me doing that. It was my hand doing that!”
It’s easy to disassociate ourselves from our sins. In fact, immature believers want certain people and certain events and certain objects to be permanently and clearly labeled good or bad. That would be nice, but it can’t be done. The same knife that can remove a diseased appendix when used by a surgeon, can kill a baby when used by a criminal. The same medicine can cure or kill depending upon how it’s taken.
Paul dealt with this matter in what some orthodox Christians would consider a very lax and liberal way: He said, “I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean” (Rom. 14:14).
“To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled” (Titus 1:15).
Christ said if your eye or your hand offends you or hinders you, then destroy it. Now the $64,000 question is this: Who decides what’s an offense or a hindrance? In this regard, verse quoting is impossible. Doctrinal creeds and legal systems are worthless. Authority figures are incapable of such discrimination because they have no knowledge of our particular situation. Other people can’t decide what’s good for us! We must decide for ourselves! Suppose someone asked a chess champion, “Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?” That’s nonsense. There simply is no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from the particular situation of the game and the particular skill of the opponent. The same holds true for human existence. We can’t formulate one absolute ethical standard. Each individual has his own specific place in life. Each individual must carry out his own special mission.
The priesthood of the believer, the autonomy of the soul and the self-discipline of the individual are essential in this matter.
Do you have hang-ups in your life that need to be dealt with?
III. Then Christ said, “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out; and if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off.”
Sometimes drastic steps must be taken. Sometimes painful tradeoffs must be made.
Again this involves difficult situational decisions. Good versus bad is not the question. Everyone would agree that it’s good to have two eyes. It’s good to have two hands. So, the moral question is not a choice between God and Satan or good and evil. Instead, the moral question becomes one of relative merit and balance. It isn’t good to lose an eye or a hand; but it may be better to have only one eye or one hand, than to let two eyes or two hands destroy us and our effectiveness.
Christ never offered a cheap grace or an easy morality. Being a Christian involves complex decisions. We must face our personal problems honestly and openly, realizing that there are no perfect answers or solutions. Losing an eye or a hand is certainly not a perfect answer or solution to the dilemma of evil. It’s a compromise. Job expressed it well. “If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me; if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse” (Job 9:20, KJV).
An old homespun philosopher said it this way:
Now, my preacher, he says I’m a sinner,
And the criminal says I’m a saint.
But, they’re both of `em bound to be lying;
`Cause I’m neither of them! I ain’t!
I’m a man, and a man is a mixture:
He is good and he’s bad from his birth.
There’s a part of him comes down from heaven;
And a part of him comes from the earth.
---Adapted
You see, we are mixtures. As earthly creatures we constantly face such ambiguities. Paul was a great apostle, but listen to him. “For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish” (Rom. 7:15,19).
Anyone who claims he adheres to perfect and absolute moral standards is fooling himself. Solomon said, “Who can say, `I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin’?” (Prov. 20:9).
It’s also obvious that our own uncertainties and blind spots preclude the judging of others. Paul said, “Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things” (Rom. 2:1).
IV. Finally, Christ said, “cast it from thee.”
We must make a clear break. We must put hindrances out of our lives. They say “If you lie down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas.” They also say “the birds may fly over your head, but you don’t have to let them build nests in your hair.”
We must get away from our stumbling blocks. We must be willing to leave them behind and go on.
The story is told of an old mountaineer who loved his booze. He was finally convinced to abstain, except for medicinal purposes. After that he always carried a bottle of “snakebite remedy.” A cynical friend remarked, “Yeah, and he’s the only guy I know who also carries around his own snake just to be sure.”
Christ said, “Don’t keep your temptations handy. Don’t nourish them! Cast them from you! Throw them away!”
So, what type of moral surgery do you need? What is hindering you in your Christian walk? What might be a stumbling block to other weaker ones that look to you as an example?
What are you holding on to that should be cast out? Could it be greed or resentment or hostility?
If you want true happiness; if you want inner peace; if you want God’s presence, then every hindrance must go! There’s no other way. Christ said, “a merchant seeking fine pearls . . . upon finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matt 13:46).
It takes all you have to be a disciple. You can’t leave out certain parts of your personality or mix in a lot of excess baggage! Christ said, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matt. 19:21).
It takes renunciation of material things to be a disciple.
At Christ’s invitation, James and John “left everything and followed Him” (Luke 5:11).
It takes total commitment to be a disciple.
Christ said, “whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25).
It takes your whole life to be a disciple.
When Christ said, “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell,” (Matt. 5:29-30); he was telling us that even good things can be hindrances, if they come between us and God. If we’re serious about our spiritual relationship, we must be willing to trade some good things for the best thing.
Ask yourself: Is this the best use of this money? Is this the best use of this day? Is this the best use of this energy? Is this the best use of this ability? Is this the best use of this gift?
Furthermore, when it comes to hindrances, little things are as bad as big things. A fable says, “A bird can be held captive by a thread as surely as by a chain.” Whatever is blocking your spiritual progress must be removed. Spiritual surgery isn’t pleasant, but it’s necessary. Spiritual surgery isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. Plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand is painful, yet Christ said, “Do it anyway!”
Is something hindering you today? Let it go! Is there a hidden thing in your life that dampens your joys? Let it go! Is there a secret vice that limits your productivity? Let it go! Is there a pet sin that mars your witness? Let it go?
These things alienate you from God and they’re not worth it! In a certain society, young women were given hope chests. During the years of their childhood and youth, linens and china were put into the container, so that at marriage they would have what was necessary. One girl, however, insisted upon keeping trinkets and trash and other stuff in her chest. In fact, it was little more than a waste basket.
Finally, just before her wedding, the young woman’s wealthy Godmother came by to see her. The girl wasn’t home, so the would-be benefactor left this note: “Dear child, I wanted to fill your chest with treasures, but I couldn’t because it was already full of junk!’
Is that your situation? Are you full of junk? God can’t fill you until you’re empty of negative attitudes and unproductive hang ups. Don’t hold on to hindrances. Let them go!
If you will get rid of the destructive things in your life, God can fill you with the Holy Spirit. He is patiently waiting for you to make that move.
From: Special Requests from People In the Pew, Vol. I, Problems and Temptations, by Maralene and Miles Wesner, Diversity Press, 1990 (Plastic Comb binding).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(WC2365)
Copyrighted 2009 by Miles and Maralene Wesner, Idabel, OK. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THIS MESSAGE IN ANY WAY YOU THINK IS APPROPRIATE. The only thing we ask is that you give credit for original material in PUBLISHED works.
NEW PERSPECTIVES is a free service from Diversity Press.
You may find other messages and a book list on our Webpage:
www.ForMinistry.com/USOKSOBCOFBC5
or www.diversitypress.com
Email: wdiversitypress@aol.com or milesewesner@gmail.com
Phone: 1-580-286-3148
Miles E Wesner