The Surgical Removal of Sin ( Matthew 18: 7-14 )

Introduction.

7 Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! 8 “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.

10 “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. 11 For[c] the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

(Matthew 18: 7-14)

Let’s begin in the way I usually do by revisiting this passage verse by verse.

Jesus Warns Against Sin.

There are two senses in which this passage can be interpretated. It may be taken purely personally. It is saying that it is worth any sacrifice and any self-denial to escape the wrath of God.

We have to be clear what that punishment involves. It is here called everlasting and this word everlasting occurs frequently in Jewish ideas of punishment. The ancient Jewish writings speaks about eternal judgment, about judgment for ever, about punishment and torture for ever, about a fire which burns for ever. Josephus called hell an everlasting prison. Apocryphal books like the Book of Jubilees speak about an eternal curse and the Book of Baruch says that "there will be no opportunity of returning, nor a limit to the times." There was a very famous teacher at that time of Christ called Rabbi Jochanan ben Zaccai who wept bitterly at the prospect of death. On being asked why, he answered. "All the more I weep now before they lead me before the King of kings, the Holy One is less wept in eternity”.

All these words and passages paint a background cultural picture, but we must be careful to remember what it means. The word we see translated here as everlasting literally means, belonging to the ages; and is only one person to whom the word, eternal/everlasting truly can properly be applied, and that is God.

There is far more in this word eternal than simply a description of that which has no end. Punishment which is eternal is punishment which it befits God to give and punishment which only God can give. When we think of God punishment, we can only really say what Genesis will tell us in a few verses, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" Our human pictures, and our human time-scheme, fail to grasp that this is all in the hands of God.

However, there is one clue which we do have. This passage speaks of the place of punishment as Gehenna, of fire. Gehenna was a place beside Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnom, a valley below the mountain of Jerusalem. It was for ever accursed, because it was the place where, in the days of the kingdom, the renegade Jews had sacrificed their children in the fire to the pagan god Molech. In the days of Jesus, it became the refuse dump of Jerusalem; a kind of vast incinerator. The refuse was always burning there, and a pall of smoke constantly and I assume a stench permanently overhung it. Gehenna was the place into which everything that was useless was cast and there destroyed. In some sense this perhaps tells us that, God's punishment of sin in some way addresses those who make no contribution to life of others, for those who hold life back instead of urging life on, for those who drag people down instead of lifting life people up, for those who are an impediment to others and not their inspirations.

Again and again the New Testament teaches that the person who through being in an unregenerate state becomes an evil influence on others, The simple fact of their living in that unrepentant sinful state drags people down and there remain in danger of remaining in that state permanently unless God, surgically removes from their life those things which make them hindrance to God and His will, that they have become.

However it is not just possible to take this passage as applying to us individually but also to see it as having an application to the church (The community of believers) Matthew has already used this saying of Jesus in a different context in Matthew 5:30, but here there is a difference. The whole context here is about children, and perhaps especially about children in the faith. This passage may be saying, "If in your Church there is someone who has an evil influence, if there is someone who is a bad example to those who are young in the faith, if there is someone whose life and conduct is damaging the body of the Church, they must be rooted out and cast away."

The Church is the Body of Christ; and if that body is to remain healthy and health-giving, that which has the seeds of a cancerous and poisonous infection must be surgically removed. One thing is certain, in any individual or in any Church, whatever there is a seduction to sinful living it must be removed, however painful the removal may be, for if we allow it to flourish a worse punishment will follow on. In these opening few verses there is stressed both the necessity of abandonment of sinful practices for both the Christian individual and discipline for the Christian Church.

The Shepherd and The Lost Sheep.

(Matthew 18: 10-14)

This is surely one of the most straight forward of all the parables of Jesus, for it is the simple story of a lost sheep and a seeking shepherd. In Judaea it was easy for sheep to go astray. The pastureland was on the hill country which runs like a backbone down the middle of the land. This ridge-like plateau was narrow, only a few miles across. There are no restraining walls built along its edges. And, therefore, the sheep were ever liable to wander off; and, if they stray from the grass of the plateau into the gullies and the ravines at each side, they have every chance of finishing up on some ledge from which they cannot get up or down, or being marooned there until they die. These first century shepherds were experts at tracking down their lost sheep. They could follow their track for miles; and they would brave the cliffs and the precipice to bring them back.

In the time of Jesus, the flocks were often communal flocks; they belonged, not to an individual, but to a village. There were, therefore, usually two or three shepherds with them. That is why a single shepherd was able to leave the ninety-nine. If he had left them without another guardian shepherd, he would have come back to find still more of them gone. However, he could leave them in the care of his fellow-shepherds, while he searched for the wanderer. The shepherds always made strenuous and the sacrificial efforts to find a lost sheep. It was the rule that, if a sheep could not be brought back alive, then at least, if it was at all possible, its fleece or its bones must be brought back to prove that it was dead. We can imagine how the other shepherds would return with their flocks to the village fold at evening time, and how they would sometimes say that one shepherd was still out on the mountainside seeking a lost sheep. We can imagine how the eyes of the people would turn ever and again to the hillside watching for the shepherd who had not yet come home; and we can imagine the shout of joy when they saw him striding along the pathway with the weary wanderer slung across his shoulder, safe at last. Perhaps, the whole village would welcome him, and gather round with gladness to hear the story of the sheep who was lost and found.

Here we have what was Jesus' favourite picture of God and of God's love. This parable teaches us many things about that love.

Firstly, the love of God is an individual love. The ninety-and-nine were not enough; one sheep was out on the hillside and the shepherd could not rest until he had brought it home. However large a family a parent has, we will not abandon, even one. For God too, there is not one of us who does not matter to him. God is like that; God cannot be happy until the last wanderer is gathered in.

Secondly, the love of God is a patient love. Sheep are notoriously foolish creatures. The sheep has no one but itself to blame for the danger it had got itself into. God is patient, people however are apt to have little patience with the foolish ones. When they get into trouble, we are apt to say, "It's their own fault; they brought it on themselves; don't waste your sympathy on fools." God is not like that. The sheep might be foolish, but the shepherd would still risk his life to save it. People may be foolish, but God loves even the foolish individual, even the one who has no one to blame but himself for his sin and his sorrow.

Thirdly, the love of God is a searching love. The shepherd was not content to wait for the sheep to come back; he went out to search for it. That is what the Jew could not understand about the Christian idea Of God. The Jew would gladly agree that, if the sinner came crawling wretchedly home, God would forgive. The idea of God revealed here by Christ is a God who is far more wonderful than that, for in Jesus Christ, he came to seek for those who wander away, seek those who are lost... God is not content to wait until we find our way back to him: he goes out to search for us no matter what it costs him.

Fourth, the love of God is a rejoicing love. There there is nothing but joy on these occasions, there are no recriminations; there is no receiving back with a grudge and a sense of contempt; it is all joy. So often we accept a penitent person with a moral lecture and only when we see a clear indication that they regard themselves with what we consider a suitable level of self-loathing. It is human nature to refuse to forget someone’s past and always to remember his sins against him. But God puts our sins behind his back; and when we return to him, it is all joy.

Finally, the love of God is a protecting love. It is the love which seeks and saves. The love of God is a protecting love which saves someone for the service of their fellow human beings. God’s love is a saving love that makes the saved one love his fellow human beings, a love which makes the wanderer return, the weak strong, the sinner pure, the captive of sin. That day and evermore.