Some people will use drastic measures to achieve their goals. Weight loss comes to mind. If you think about all the diet fads that have run their course over the last 50 years you would get dizzy thinking about it. You can pick just about any random combination of foods and there was a diet that fit those ingredients.
Let’s not talk about all the surgeries to shrink the stomach in order to lose weight. Or liposuction to remove the fat. Or the tucks. How about exercise to the point of obsession and addiction. People will go to almost any lengths or achieve their weight goals.
Look at the drive to chase the goal of being ‘rich’, and how far it has taken people. The scandals and corruption are almost unbelievable, if they weren’t true. People willing to risk everything just to own another boat or condo or mansion. They compromise all sense of decency trying to chase a dream.
Jesus speaks about some drastic measures to take in your quest for heaven. He speaks of cutting off hands and feet, and gouging out your eye if those things get in the way of your quest for heaven. These are pretty drastic, even though hundreds of millions of people around the world feel they are perfectly acceptable punishments for crimes committed.
There is nothing worth keeping if you lose heaven. The stakes are so high, that even losing one of these body parts, does not compare to the loss of eternal life. Jesus is not expecting us to cut off our hands, but to make the appropriate changes to our life so as not to jeopardize eternity with Him.
The alternative, hell, is no picnic. Whatever might be said about the gentle, teacher, hell was among His topics. He pictures it as the alternative to heaven. If heaven is real, then hell must be real also, or Jesus’ statements are nonsense. And the picture isn’t pretty. Fire and flesh eating worms that last forever is the picture.
I’m not a fan of fire on the skin. I try to avoid it, don’t you! I can’t imagine enjoying flesh eating anything, can you? And this is the picture Jesus gives of hell. No wonder He uses such striking images of the lengths we should go in order to avoid it and gain heaven.
No cost is too great, nothing is worth keeping, no stone should be left unturned in our pursuit of the LORD. Jesus has provided everything we need. He gives us grace to meet all of life’s challenges. We need to recognize this and not allow anything to get in the way of that grace working in our lives.
The Arnold Journey 