The unquenchable fire of hell, plucked out eyeballs, amputated limbs, and forced drownings – welcome to the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Mark (Mark 9:38-50). What a friend we have in Jesus. 

A mentor of mine says that sometimes the good news is bad news before it becomes good news. I think this is one of those times.

What do you make of today’s gospel? We hear it every three years and it never seems to get easier. So what do we do with it? What do we let it do with us? Does anyone think we ought to take it literally and start plucking out eyeballs and cutting off hands and feet? No one? Me either. We can’t take it literally but neither can we ignore it. 

Today’s gospel makes me think of my church history professor in seminary. He would say some of the most shocking and outrageous things. Then he would look at us, tilt his head slightly, squint his eyes, and say, “You know I’m given to hyperbole and if you quote me out of class I’ll call you a liar.” 

Maybe Jesus is given to hyperbole in today’s gospel. Maybe he’s trying to wake us up and get our attention. Maybe he’s trying to shake us up and get us to take seriously the stumbling blocks in our lives today. 

Maybe the shocking imagery and outrageous words in today’s gospel reveal the depth of Jesus’ concern and the urgency of his message. Maybe Jesus is simply reiterating what Hippocrates said centuries earlier,

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” (source)

For Jesus and Hippocrates, however, the desperate measures are a prescription for healing and life, not acts of retribution and punishment. The desperate measures in today’s gospel are less a comment on the brokenness of our lives and world and more an affirmation of their value in the first place. (Cole Arthur Riley, This Here Flesh, 98) Aren’t the cross and empty tomb of Jesus desperate measures testifying to the value of our lives and the world?

We might have different ideas about what is making our times desperate but I don’t think many would dispute that we are living in desperate times. I’m sure each of us could look at what is happening in our individual lives, across the United States, throughout the world, and see and describe desperate times. 

What does that mean and look like for you today? In what ways do the times feel desperate to you? What are the stumbling blocks in your life these days? 

Now before you answer that question about the stumbling blocks in your life today, let me offer a caveat. Jesus did not say that if someone else’s hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. And he did not say that if someone else’s eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. 

That’s retribution and punishment, not healing and life. Unfortunately, that is often our default response. We’re quick to look at and do something about the ways in which others are stumbling blocks but not so ready or willing to look at ourselves. You’ve seen that happen, right? Maybe you’ve done it; I have.

That’s what John is doing in today’s gospel. You may remember from last week that John and the others each want to be the GOAT of disciples. They each want to be the greatest of all time. John’s desire for greatness seems to be what is tripping him up in today’s gospel. 

John saw some other guy casting out demons in Jesus’ name. He tells Jesus all about it and says, “We tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” (Which might mean, “He’s not as great as us.”)

Jesus isn’t all that worked up about it. “Do not stop him,” Jesus tells John. And then Jesus changes the subject from this other guy to John and the other disciples. It’s as if he is saying, “This isn’t about him. This is about you all.” 

• “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones” it would be better for you to be drowned in the sea. 
• “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.”
• “And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off”
• “And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.”

Jesus is moving our focus from the other as a stumbling block to the ways in which you and I are stumbling blocks.

When have we caused another to trip and fall? When have we tripped and stumbled over our own two feet? In what ways are you and I stumbling blocks to another or to ourselves?

The greatest stumbling blocks are not outside us but within us: anger and revenge, the judgments we make of others, prejudice, our desire to get ahead and be number one, the need to be right, our unwillingness to listen, the assumption that we know more and better than another, living as if our way is the only and right way, pride, fear, guilt or shame, being exclusionary, busyness, lies, gossip, our desire for greatness and power and control. Have you ever tripped on any of that?

I know that when I stumble I usually take someone else down. Maybe you’ve seen that happen or maybe it’s happened to you. You lose your balance, start to fall, reach out to grab another, and both of you go you down. 

And it’s not just looking at ourselves as individual stumbling blocks. In some ways the greater stumbling blocks are systemic. In what ways is the legal system a stumbling block to justice for all? In what ways has patriotism become a stumbling block to another’s freedom? In what ways has the economy become a stumbling block to earning a living wage? In what ways is the Church a stumbling block to experiencing the divine life?

My sense is that desperate times are full of stumbling blocks.  And, as Jesus says in today’s gospel, they call for desperate measures. 

What are the desperate measures being asked of you and me today? 

Today’s gospel is not about disfiguring ourselves but about reconfiguring our lives; as individuals, communities, a country. It’s about finding the deep value and meaning in these desperate times and taking the desperate measures that can begin to heal our brokenness, recover meaning, and offer life.

So where do we begin? Here’s what I wonder. What if we each made a commitment to not add to the pain of another’s life or the pain of the world? What if we got up each morning and went through the day saying, “I will not add to the pain of another’s life or the pain of the world”?

How would you embody and live that commitment? What would it take to do that? What would it look like in your life?

Maybe we’d start to reconfigure ourselves from stumbling blocks to building blocks. And wouldn’t you rather build up than tear down?

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Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.