Radical "Surgery": Doing What is Necessary

Some of Jesus' hearers must have wondered what He was talking about. How did a teaching that started with the ethics of the kingdom of God got around to include plucking out an eye? Cutting off a hand? Would God's kingdom be filled with one-armed and one-legged people? The voice of the Teacher echoed across the audience: "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee . . . And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell" (Matthew 5:29-30, KJV).

Of course, Jesus was using hyperbole, exaggeration, a common method of teaching then in order to make a point. Using the analogy of an amputation, He wanted to teach yet another important spiritual lesson: "If a person, in order to save his or her life, will remove an eye or amputate a limb, should he or she not also amputate an evil desire/tendency in order to save his or her soul?"

A malignant tumor is not one that is treated with the intent of saving it. Because of its tendency to become progressively worse and to potentially result in death, such a tumor must be removed. As such, physicians and specialists radically deal with it one way or another. As it is in the physical, so it is in the spiritual. The attitudes and behaviours that threaten our spiritual health cannot be allowed to proliferate in our lives without getting our attention. It is easy to dismiss and excuse these "diseased" attitudes and behaviours as insignificant, yet they are the ones that could potentially keep us out of God's kingdom. For that reason alone, they require radical surgery; they require "amputation"! To Jesus’ point, if we would do everything to save our lives, we should be more than willing to do everything to save our souls. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

There is nothing easy or pleasurable about an amputation, but it often saves lives. From a spiritual perspective, isn't it better to face the pain – possibly severe pain - of dealing with the issues that threaten us now, than to face the eternal pain of being separated from God due to a stubborn, persistent refusal to live life His way? Whatever is going to keep me out of the kingdom, I can do without! What say you?