Mark 9:43-48: If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”
We once were having a little family time around the breakfast table. I read this bit about cutting off your hand and said, “Kids, my hand caused me to sin this morning; honey, get the cleaver.” Lisa promptly went to the cutlery and got a huge knife. I took it and wielded it above my wrist as the kids eyes grew larger. I quickly put the knife down and asked, “Is Jesus saying that we should literally cut off our hands?” They all furiously shook their heads and unanimously and simultaneously said no. “Then what was Jesus teaching us here?” Rachel replied, “To just stop it.” I like that. Simple, childlike, and true. “Did any of you think I was really going to chop off my hand?” Not really, they said.
Hell is always interesting. So I’d like to challenge our thinking on popular opinions outside the church and pop-theology within.
I’m always amused at how people who are so literal about things like hell refuse to be literal about cutting off their hands. This is the problem with thoughtless pop-theology—we can’t have it both ways. We need to think more deeply about this stuff. In Mark 9, Jesus compared hell to an “unquenchable fire.” Yet he also used the metaphor of “outer darkness” in Matthew 8:12. These mixed metaphors remind us to be careful about being dogmatic about what hell “literally” is. People sometimes say, “Do you believe in a literal hell?” My question is, “What do you mean by a literal hell? And what do you think it literally is?” See, if hell is literal fire, then it can’t be literal darkness, because fire, hello, creates light.
So if the word fire isn’t literal, then could it be a metaphor that means “never ending, unfulfilled burning, as in unfulfilled yearning or passion”? And if the word darkness isn’t literal, then could it be a metaphor that means “never seeing or relating, but utter isolation from God and people—an ultimate hell for us who seem created to be relational”? This would make “wailing, and gnashing of teeth” appropriate.
We’ll gather more clues in this doleful dark discussion in Part 2, coming soon. Insert evil laugh here… Muwa ha ha ha.
Mark