September 06, 2011
Amputation
Local logger Jon Hutt was involved in an accident that pinned his toes
under a piece of heavy equipment. Unable to get help Mr. Hutt did the only
thing he could do to free himself, he cut off his toes with his pocket knife. Mr.
Hutt has a great attitude, “I don’t feel
bad about what I had to do, because it could have been a lot worse. I lost my
toes; it’s not going to end my life.” On the religious landscape I love
this image of Jesus offering us similar advice. “If
your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is
better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two
feet and be thrown into eternal fire.” (Matt 18:8 NIV)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I don’t know who first coined the expression or where I first heard it, but I’ve adopted it into my own thinking, because it’s truth is so platinum: “I don’t take the Bible literally, I take it literarily.” That is to say I take the Bible literally when it is being literal, and I take it ironically when it is being ironic, and I take it allegorically when it is being allegorical. The Bible is the greatest piece of literature in mankind’s possession, not only because of its various and colorful expressions or its bold handling of difficult topics, but also because it alone expresses flawless truth backed by a literary technique unknown to any other work (though claimed by some) - cover to cover fulfilled, fulfilling, and fulfillable prophecy. That it is the work of God’s mind does not require it’s every word be taken literally, as Matthew 18:8 shows. We would expect His mind, above all men‘s, to masterfully use literary technique. And our minds, when reading it, ought to search for which technique He is using.
-----I know you have in no way insinuated a literal reception of Matthew 18:8. In the earlier centuries of Christianity, however, it was not uncommon for men to put the knife to themselves and thenceforth forebear a squeak in their voices for the riddance of certain impulses. So this scripture used to bother me much. Even though I knew it was not literal, some had taken it that way. And although this historical fact did not rise to validate a literal meaning, it did realize the grotesqueness of its literary expression.
-----And I think that grotesqueness is precisely what Jesus intended. It was a way with Him, like He grossed out the Jews in the synagogue at Capernaum by telling them they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood, and like most of the world was grossed out by His subjecting Himself to a horrific crucifixion. The picture of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, the genocide of many Canaanite towns commanded by God, the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah, Noah’s riding out the flood that drowned the world, and the Bible is stocked to the brim with God’s shocking actions. Like many of His disciples after that little talk in the Capernaum synagogue distanced themselves from Jesus, the world distances itself from this “bloody” God.
-----To their own chagrin they do it. I imagine it is difficult to hear that what feels like fish against you when your favorite swimming hole is the cesspool aren‘t really fish. It just isn’t a reality someone would long to discover. Although it has many oases for relatively descent living, the world is not a descent place. It is filled with tragedy like Mr. Hutt’s and the young man’s in Utah a few years ago, and those are birthday parties compared to the rest. So if the Bible did not address the pits of the earth for what vulgar indecency they are and warn of the impending doom cropping up on this place in terms realistic of its horrors, I would think of it as failed literature.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment