This sermon is the property of Jennifer Hibben.

It may be used with proper citation and credit given, all other uses will be considered plagiarism. My grandma was a double amputee; she lost both her legs to diabetes during my life time. As a child I was kind of grossly fascinated and scared by the fact that someone had cut off her legs. Both legs were amputated below the knee and she used prosthesis on both legs to get around. But when I think about it, it didnt really stop her from too much. She was a pretty social lady, she still went out with her friends, played bridge, taught us card games and lived the rest of her life in a two story home without adaptations for her disability. Ill probably always remember her doing scissor exercises with her legs on the couch. She wasnt letting the part of her legs that she had left to go to waste. Although Im sure having her legs removed was a huge transition, we all knew that medically it allowed her to live a longer healthier life, that life would just be one without her own legs. Now Jesus talk about cutting off body parts is a little less sterile in the scripture for today. Honestly this is a scripture I would prefer to skip over. And if we have to talk about it, Id rather turn this into a great big metaphor thats not quite so bloody. But its not so easy because this is something we believe that Jesus said, and no matter what language you read it in, it still has the same kind of gruesome imagery. Dr. Daniel talked last week about paradoxes and how the

disciples seemed to have a hard time understanding what Jesus was REALLY saying. And in the beginning of the scripture for today we see the disciples thinking theyve got it right, only to be rebuked by Jesus. Theyre actually kind of tattling and Jesus is not having that. Now we dont have a lot of information about what was going on with the person who was healing in Jesus name; if he had met Jesus, if he had heard that Jesus apparently was the magic healing word, we dont know his qualifications, we dont know his story, we just know he wasnt part of the in crowd. The disciples say we tried to stop him because he wasnt following us. He isnt like us, hes not doing it our way, he didnt ask us first. I imagine that they were trying to protect Jesus, that they wanted to protect his reputation, make sure he wasnt being misrepresented, but Jesus tells them, Cut it out. We see here that Jesus isnt worried about it. He tells them that if someones doing good in my name, bringing healing, hope and power, then dont stop him. Whoever is not against us, is for us he says. Jesus is not concerned with his reputation or with being the one who does the healing, his priority seems to be that regardless of how God works and through who people are healed, that acts of mercy and justice are done, that hope is given and that new life is started. I think that healing especially is a sign that the kingdom of God is here. We talk about your kingdom come, your will be done, but Jesus said that the kingdom of God

is at hand. So I really began to see this week that this unknown Jesus healer was really a sign of the kingdom of God. Regardless of the circumstances, he was bringing the kingdom of God to earth, just asked the person that he healed. Jesus does not want to hold back the kingdom of God and he doesnt want the disciples doing it either, he wants them to cut it out. But Jesus lesson for the disciples doesnt end there, this is a teaching moment for him. Jesus isnt just telling the disciples to Cut it out in regards to their exclusive behavior or their natural inclination to hold back this other man, hes inviting them to look into their own hearts, to see whats holding them back, and telling them to cut it out. Your hands holding you back? Cut it out. Your foots causing you problems? Cut it out. Cant seem to keep your eye under control? Cut it out. Easy as that right? Those are extra body parts anyway, nonessential. It actually sounds like a big bloody painful, vomit-inducing mess. Im not even going to ask you to imagine what that would be like. Although some of you will now anyway. But Jesus says each time that he tells us to cut out another body part that its better to enter into life without these things than to be thrown into hell. Now what I found interesting about this part is that Jesus does mention hell, but hes not juxtaposing it with heaven, the other option is life. Even if we go back to the Greek, the word that is used if life, it is better for you to go into life.

Jesus is not just talking about the end game, hes not just talking about where you go when you die, hes talking about your life. Now I dont want to lose the grossness or the gut reaction to the idea of cutting off one of your body parts, but Jesus is not speaking literally here. We know that our hands and feet and eyes dont act independently from our hearts and minds. But what Jesus is telling the disciples to do is to identify those things in their hearts and minds and lives that are holding them back from life and cut it out. Jesus gets that this isnt easy, I think thats what he chooses this metaphor. Sometimes cutting out those things that hold us back are like trying to amputate our own hand. Its not easy, its guaranteed to be painful, messy, potential vomitinducing. A lot of times its because we have become so attached to these things that they feel like a part of us, like a part of our body that we cant imagine living without. They can be addictions, bad habits, unhealthy relationships, bad attitudes, grudges, pain from past experiences, even distrust of God. And Im not saying you dont have a good reason to feel that way, or to act that way, I dont want to minimize the pain youve experienced or the ways youve learned to deal with those things, they are like a part of your body. But theyre holding you back from life.

When I was in Chicago I worked with an organization called The Night Ministry. And The Night Ministry went out 6 nights a week from 6-12 on a giant RV to provide food, medical care and support to people who were homeless. And one of the biggest shifts in thinking that I had to make was understanding and accepting that some people dont want to stop being homeless. I thought my job was going to be to get as many people as possible into housing, thereby greatly improving their lives. But a lot of people didnt ask me to help them find housing, some people rejected my offers to help them find housing, and others showed me just what a struggle it is for them to find and keep housing. And its not because they enjoyed living off the charity of others or because they were so wrapped up in some kind of addiction that thats all that mattered, but because being homeless had become an integral part of who they are. They didnt know anymore how to be a housed person anymore. And while I dont judge their decisions and I recognize some of the factors that contribute to their situations, I cant help but think that its holding them back from life. That whats holding them back from life feels so ingrained in who they are that they cant see another way. Jesus talks other places about how he came to give us abundant life and I think theres that the kind of life hes talking about here too. These are the things that hold us back from the life that God invites us into. A life so good that its worth limping into without your foot. This was quite literally my grandmas

situation, not that her legs caused her to sin, but that when she had to make a decision about keeping her legs, she chose life. She chose to watch her grand kids grow up, to spend more time with her friends, to show others how to live fully with a disability. Sometimes its hard to trust, but past those things that hold us back there is abundant life. Jesus command here might seem a little blunt, cut it out. As if it were easy. I personally would prefer a step-by-step manual with tips on how to reduce the pain and messiness. But thats not what we get. We get what the disciples got, blunt instructions and Jesus. Were not left on our own here. Jesus is not going to grab your metaphorical hand and saw it off, but he will be with you. He will show you the way and give you the strength and love that you need to cut it out. God has provided people in your life that will support you, that will walk through it with you, and God will speak through them. Even in those things that hold us back from God, God is there. So whats holding you back? Whats it going to take for you to just cut it out? I pray that will be on your mind this week and that God will show you the way and provide you the love, strength and peace that you need to move further into abundant life. Amen.