No mistake. This is a hard text. Jesus was often given to double-edged sayings, paradoxes and extreme comparisons. He spoke ironically and often with biting humor. Here he uses the images of cutting off a hand, a foot, or plucking out an eye.

The text begins with the disciples concerned with protecting their turf. All people have vested interests and will go to great lengths to defend themselves against encroaching threats. The disciples tell Jesus that they have found someone else working in his name; but, since the man was not one of them, hand-picked by Jesus, they told him to stop. Jesus responds with an unexpected twist. If the man is not against them, then he is for them. Sooner or later he will not be able to speak against the work of Jesus. Why, even a cup of water given in Jesus’ name merits a reward.

I am reminded of many Christian groups who will not accept a person as a Christian unless they have had an experience exactly identical with the one shared by the group. Only then can real salvation be affirmed. “Are you saved?” “Yes, I’ve been a Christian all my life.” “But, I mean, when and how were you saved?” The other looks blankly, so the reply comes, “Aha! You are not really saved if you don’t recall the precise saving experience.” Jesus counters, “There are lots of people out there doing kindly deeds in my name. If they keep up these good works, soon they will be unable to speak ill of me. After all, if the person is not against us, he is for us.”

Jesus calls for his disciples to be reasonable. They should show common sense. “How can you expect the cause to grow,” Jesus says in effect, “if you don’t invite new people in? They come and will grow into a closer relationship with us.” A lesson is here for us all. Doing quiet and helpful works ranks with believing. Quiet works are as important a part of the faith as theological speculation, doctrine, and emotional sincerity.

The hardest part of our text is Jesus’ admonition to cut off the hand, foot, or pluck out the eye. If these body parts cause us to sin, it is better for us to enter life lame, maimed, or blind than with two of each to go to hell. Of course, Jesus is using this hyperbolized, and very dramatic, image to convey essential truth; Jesus is telling us: “Going to hell is not a matter of being excluded from the right group. Going to hell is a matter of having two good hands, two good feet, and two good eyes -- and still not using them for the work of God.” What good are two of these body parts unless we do good work with them? What is the good of being physically whole, when we are spiritually maimed? And this leads to the third part of our text, salt.

To be salted is to be fully alive, vital, filled with spirit. Such a person can stimulate life in others. Sprinkled, with just enough of self and ego, a zesty sparkle manifests itself wherever the person comes to be known. Once more, a not-so-subtle lesson: the salt in us is tested by the actions it sparks! Unless our salt is salting, it is of no consequence. We are to be people who bring life alive in the world around us.

Here are three instances in which Jesus underscores qualities of daily life familiar to all of us: gentleness, helpfulness, serving, caring, and encouraging. In fact in some way he seems to hold these qualities to be more pertinent to human growth than belonging to the right group, holding proper theological beliefs, and an exact cataloguing of experience. He calls us to be alive, causing life to blossom wherever we may be.

These daily qualities, though highly prized by Jesus and readily desirable by us all, seem hard to acquire. How do we get them? Let’s look closely at the parable of losing the hand, foot, or eye. Perhaps it contains the key to entering the fellowship of Jesus. Suppose we are tempted to steal. We cut off a hand to prevent us from stealing. Does that stop our thievery? Of course not! Thieving is in the soul. Sooner or later we will devise other ways to steal. Computer crime can be done with one finger. Stock markets can be rigged over lunch. Corruption, fraud, and graft require only clever minds, a few good connections and a devious smile. With the literal loss of a hand we still rob, showing that the flaw lies, not in the hand, but in the soul that motivates it.

Suppose our sin is to run away from problems, leaving behind pregnant wives, disappointed friends or saddened churches. We cut off a foot. Does that stop us from running away? Hardly! Avoidance lies in the soul. We discover that we can run away from our responsibilities simply by sitting idly by, keeping silent when there is a need, being uncaring when cries for help go out to us, and demanding more and more from others. The flaw lies not in the runaway feet but in the soul that motivates them.

Suppose, by looking, we are tempted to lust. Remember how President Carter was ridiculed because he confessed lust in his heart? Suppose we pluck out one eye; does that stop us from lusting? No! Lusting, too, is in the soul. In the early days of the monastic movement, hermits scattered throughout the desert, thinking that if they could not see an object of lust they would not lust. But they carried with them ingrained explicit sexual fantasies which filled their souls when there was nothing physical to look upon. The flaw lies, not within the seeing eye, but deep within the soul that looks upon its own fantasies.

Nothing external prevents us from sin. We find other ways to steal than by using our hands. We find other ways to run away from responsibility than by using our feet. We find other ways to lust than by looking with our eyes. Jesus uses hyperbole to teach us the real task of moving away from the self-destructiveness in the soul. What else is it than self-destruction when, having two good hands, feet,and eyes, we risk hell? After all, though hell seems far away, a craven self-seeking soul is with us all the time, impossible to avoid, and it isolates us from giving our best.

A man faces separation from his wife at her demand. How long has the process of estrangement been going on? Many years and in many ways. Now, at last he sees. He simply did not give a helping hand nor see when he looked upon her unhappiness. Many times she asked for a new rug, but he did not hear. After all, they were saving money. She wanted a decent looking car. Again, he refused because he could not countenance buying it. It put too big a dent in their projected savings. To all her requests he turned a deaf ear. In fact, he did not even hear them. To provide for their future he worked all the time. There were no vacations with her alone nor with the family. As for evenings out, he was too busy or too tired. When invited to accompany her to parties or groups, he did not feel like going. So the story comes out, predictable and dull. Long years of subtle remarks, angry accusations, and even stated pain and distress. He never heard. See! He was slow to help, but that had nothing to do with hands, for he was eternally busy with his own projects. He ran away from the problem without using his feet. He failed to see, even though his eyesight was perfect. Without involving his hands he held on to his own way and will. Without involving his feet at all he ran from responsible reactions. He saw only what he wanted to see. All the time he lived in a hell of isolation and frustration.

Jesus yearns for us to see that the problem lies deep in our souls, where our private wills take over and prevent us from seeing, doing, and being. Of course, he uses hyperbole. Jesus would hardly counsel amputation! Rooting out the real flaw requires deep soul-searching. People wallowing in self-love cannot get to heaven until they drop the most interior source of sin, which means that they must go through the needle’s eye. All that encumbers the soul must be excised.

Look and see! Consider addictions. No amputations can cut off the desire to gain the substance which gives the fix. Human cleverness is well pictured in a television ad. A pilot is flying the latest military plane. He reaches up to take a soft drink out of its cradle, but it will not come loose. A nearby pilot sees his predicament and taunts him. Smiling, the man turns the plane upside down, collecting the drink in a glass. “Look, no hands!” In a similar way the addict turns the world upside down to obtain the desired substance. Even so with destructive traits. Angry people keep on being angry even when it does them no good. They try argumentation, criticism, and finally sarcastic sweet despising. If verbal abuse does no good, they try violence. The world will be turned upside down to get their way. Liars keep on lying; thieves keep on thieving; lusters keep on lusting; people who live on excuses keep on -- and all of these people get better and better at their skills. The sin is in the soul.

It is at the Cross of Christ that the real source of sin is challenged for what it is. The burden of our souls rolls away. And what is this burden? Our chief, prized possession -- the self. Until we drop that burden which insists forever on its own addiction, anger, excuses, and self-will, there is no passing through the narrow defile into the Kingdom of God. No true life, salted and effective, no genuine discipleship with Jesus, no healing of our flaws, and especially no physical, mental, or spiritual health -- none of these can be ours. We can never be salt for the world when the essence of the self is a carefully guarded and protected private possession to be served at our own pleasure, never counting the expense to others.

Only my self do I bring to the Cross, my self-will and selfishness, ego and vanity, my subtle ways of keeping on with my desires. At the Cross I make a gift of myself to God. Then at last I can accept God’s gift to me in Christ Jesus. For the first time in my life I am free. Free to receive and enjoy God and Christ, my self, and others. My hands, feet, and eyes are able to serve the highest and best without being deflected by my narrow willfulness. I can, at last, share the salt in me with others, sprinkling the world around. Free at last, I can now use my hands, my feet, and my eyes to do good, carry news and behold his glory.