The film 127 Hours tells the true story of Aron Ralston, based on his memoir Between a Rock and a Hard Place. In 2003 Aron’s forearm became pinned under a boulder for 5 days with no rescue in sight. Out of desperation he freed himself by cutting off his right arm with a blunt penknife. This gruesome scene in the film caused many horrified customers to walk out of cinemas. Some became physically sick or fainted as they watched Aron removing his appendage.
Jesus told His disciples to carry out a similarly horrific self-amputation. “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. . . . If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away” (Matthew 18:8-9). Why such drastic, gruesome self-mutilation?
Thankfully, Jesus’ instructions were not meant to be taken literally. Jesus was using intentional overstatement to show the severity of sinning and the necessity of drastic, decisive actions to stop doing it (Matthew 5:28-30; Colossians 3:5).
Removing our hand or eye can’t remove sin, because sin comes from deep within our hearts (Mark 7:20-23). A blind man can still lust and a man without a hand can still steal. We must control what our eyes gaze on (Psalm 119:37; Matthew 5:28; 1 John 2:16), what our hands do (Isaiah 59:3) and where our feet go (Isaiah 59:7).
The metaphorical, not literal, cutting off a hand or gouging out of an eye is needed for spiritual survival. “It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet” (Matthew 18:8).
No matter how pleasurable a sin is, it’s not worth facing the harshness of hell.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: John 3:22-36
More:
What does Paul say about temptations and how to overcome them so that we can avoid sin? (1 Corinthians 10:12-13).
Next:
Have you been or are you presently fighting a temptation where you may have “to cut off your hand or foot” in order not to sin? What does it mean practically for you to ‘amputate’ that hand or foot?
alli on June 20, 2012 at 12:46 pm
yeah, its such a grusome idea but i guess its that way for effect, the penalty for sin is much worse, i think people forget to mention that there is pleasure in sin, but the payoffs of sin are not worth the short lived pleasure you must know this otherwise you will still repeat the behavior. its a hard lesson to learn but the probably the first one you need to learn.
alli on June 20, 2012 at 1:06 pm
i have a temptation problem with lust, it might mean i may not get married or that i have to go through an embarassing trial to be free or that i might even be a martyr and possibly lose my life i dont want to be going to hell though. So whatever He puts me through will be better than going and experiencing hell.
daisymarygoldr on June 20, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Thanks KT for this important teaching on amputation! Agree; Jesus wants us to see “the severity of sinning and the necessity of drastic, decisive actions to stop doing it”. However, I do not agree about Jesus using an intentional overstatement. Treatment of lethal infections like gangrene often requires amputation. Remember, Jesus is the great physician. He simply used the example of a surgical technique to show us that, if physical life is worth such drastic action, then spiritual life is worth even more.
I may not have the courage to do what Aron did to save his physical life. But the very thought of sin separating me eternally from God compels me to separate myself from anything that causes me to sin. Practically speaking, if a member of my body is causing me to sin, then it must be put to death i.e. lose its function. If my eye is looking at sinful things, I need to go blind and avoid looking at anything that leads me to sin. If my hand is doing sinful deeds, then I must become crippled in order to prevent my hand from sinning.
So yes, it is not literal mutilation of the physical organs but the mortification of the natural members of the body. The natural and the spiritual cannot co-exist. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit. Oswald Chambers says: “If you are going to be spiritual, you must martyr the natural. Sacrifice it! If you say ‘I do not want to sacrifice the natural for the spiritual’, then Jesus says to you ‘You must martyr the spiritual for the natural’. This is not a punishment, but an eternal principle”. We cannot do this on our own but through the power of the Spirit we put to death the deeds of our sinful nature.