When Jesus talked about drowning the kids, that was hyperbole, an exaggerated statement meant to get your attention. Jesus continued with the hyperbole by returning to an idea he taught in the Sermon on the Mount: Cutting off body parts versus going into the landfill.
“When your hand trips you up, amputate it. Better to go, maimed, into life rather than go off, with two hands, into the landfill, into the fire they never extinguish.When your foot trips you up, amputate it. Better to go, limping, into life rather than be thrown out, with two feet, into the landfill. When your eye trips you up, throw it away. Better to go, one-eyed, into God’s Kingdom rather than be thrown out, with two eyes, into the landfill, ‘where the worms don’t stop working, where the fire is never extinguished.’” —Jesus,
The lines, “Where the worms don’t stop working, where the fire is never extinguished”—a quote from Isaiah—are found at the very end of this lesson, in verse 48. But at some point in the 400s, some bible-copier decided to insert those lines after every single reference to the landfill. More than likely, someone had made a worship song of this passage, and “where the worms don’t stop and the fire won’t stop” made a catchy, if grisly, chorus. Copiers usually made their mistakes by trusting their memory instead of copying what they had in front of them. In any case, the editors of the Textus Receptus decided those choruses should stay in, and the translators of the King James Version agreed. Other bibles drop ’em.
“Landfill” is my translation of géhennan, which refers to the Hebrew name Gai ben-Hinnóm, which people nowadays call Gehenna. It referred to the landfill—the garbage dump—just outside of Jerusalem. Gehenna was where people brought their trash and dung, and burned it. Since this burning was pretty much non-stop, the “fire they never extinguish” refers to those trash fires.
The “worms don’t stop working,” on the other hand, refers to something the LORD said through Isaiah:
- “From month to month,
- from Sabbath to Sabbath,
- all flesh will come to worship before my face,”
- says the LORD.
- “They go out. They see corpses:
- People who rebelled against me.
- For their worms don’t die.
- Their
burial -fire doesn’t go out.- All flesh will find them disgusting.”
—The LORD,
- from Sabbath to Sabbath,
This was part of a prophecy about God re-establishing Israel—or establishing his Kingdom, if you want to look at it that way. God gathered people from every nation to worship him in Jerusalem. And outside, kinda in Gehenna, are the bodies of God’s opponents, who fought him and lost. They’re thrown onto the trash heap, rather than getting a proper burial. Since the trash fire is not a proper cremation, it’s not doing the job. It’s nasty and stinky and offensive.
Gehenna is not hell. But hell is like Gehenna, which is why Jesus used Gehenna to describe it. Translators, rather than take the time to explain all this, just skip over the hyperbole and translate it “hell.” Problem is, when you do this, you half-interpret Jesus’s teaching, and half-don’t—which inevitably means you’re gonna confuse people.
Don’t sin.
God is very much anti-sin. Very very much. Way more against sin than we humans are.
We humans sin, and figure God’s grace takes care of it—we figure he’ll forgive us no matter what—so we blow off how important it is to stop sinning, and don’t try to do any better. We figure God has us covered.
It’s like United Nations diplomats who take advantage of their diplomatic immunity. Thanks to the immunity rules—’cause without them, diplomats fear they might be hassled for political reasons, instead of valid ones—diplomats simply can’t be prosecuted if they commit crimes. The New York City police aren’t allowed to arrest them. Now, when they do commit crimes, the State Department can ask the diplomats’ homeland to remove their credentials so they can be prosecuted. But the State Department doesn’t bother when we’re talking petty crimes and misdemeanors—like parking tickets, like shoplifting small items. As a result, diplomats break those laws all the time. And New York cops find it infinitely aggravating.
Well, many Christians are precisely like those diplomats: We sin, and totally take advantage of God’s generosity, and don’t think anything of it. But Jesus wants us to think of it. He wants us to stop sinning. It’s important to him. Important enough for him to say, “Better you amputate your hand. Or your foot. Or gouge an eye out.”
Of course he doesn’t mean for us to literally do this. But he does mean for us to recognize just how bad sin is. We need to stop being jerks who take God for granted, and start being followers who love God and stop doing what aggravates him.
Rebels against God.
For if we continue to do what aggravates God, it’s a really good sign we’re not really his. Why would someone who loves God—truly loves God—insist upon their right to do what offends him? If a man claims he loves his wife, yet beats her regularly, he clearly doesn’t love her; he only loves possessing her. It’s the same with God: Those who claim they love God, yet don’t obey God, don’t love God; they only love calling themselves God’s kids. But they’re not. They’re rebels.
And where to rebels go? On the trash heap. Into the landfill. To be burned along with the trash, and to be just another offensive stench people pass on their way past Jerusalem.
Is that us? I surely hope not. God’s kids should take God’s offense at sin far more seriously than any Christianist who’s all talk and no relationship. Like Jesus, we should take it seriously enough where we likewise think of amputation as better than sin. Whatever we have to do to get rid of our sin—other than, of course, ridiculous justifications for our bad behavior—we’ll do. We want to be more like Jesus. We want to be ready to enter the Kingdom. We never take God’s grace for granted. We thank him for it all the time. We’re glad it’s there, ’cause we need it. But we’re using it to move forward.