What Stands In Your Way? Series

If you have ever played racquetball you know how difficult and frustrating it can be, chasing a rubber ball around a wooden court surrounded by four walls. You need to be agile and built low to the ground. Somehow in racquetball I manage to be at the right place at the wrong time. I zig when the ball zags. The ball goes so fast that I swing the racket wildly. I even hit myself in the knee with a racquet and blacked out.

I also get in the way of the other player in racquetball. They call hindrance because I got in their way. They cry hindrance because the other player kept them from hitting the ball.

Jesus is the master teacher. He uses rebuke and warning to teach about hindrances. This is not in a game of racquetball but in real life with eternal consequences. Jesus talks about hindrances that keep people from Christ. In it contains sharp teachings about realities of hell.

Mark 9:42-48

42 “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where “‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’

Warning about being a hindrance for others to come to Christ.

In racquetball the other player yells out “hindrance” he says I kept him from getting that ball. He says I stood in his way. But what about someone who is a hindrance keeping another from Christ?

Jesus put it this way, 42 “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.

We live in a fallen world. There is a corrupt world system led by the devil. People will stumble, commit sin. But woe to the one to whom causes that sin and puts up the stumbling block. The one who keeps a person from Christ. How serious is that really?

Jesus says the one who is the hindrance and stands in the way, it would be better for that person to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown to the bottom of the sea. That is a pretty radical statement from peaceful Jesus. He said it would for the one who causes this spiritual hindrance, it would be better if you to be dead.

Jesus talks about being a hindrance to others. Standing in their way. Sometimes you need strong language to get across the seriousness of a situation. Having a millstone around the neck and thrown to the bottom of the sea is tough language. Instead of Jesus it sounds like Bugsy Malone in a mafia movie. It is Jesus emphasizing how bad it really is to hinder someone from Christ.

Don’t take hypocritical Christianity lightly. Those who model violent behavior, abuse others and put others down are in serious danger. Fathers and husbands are called to be spiritual leaders, but when they become hindrances it is tragic. If they keep others from coming to Christ it is serious. Jesus has strong words for such who cause the hindrance.

Put in the negative way don’t hinder anyone from coming to Christ. In the positive help people come to Christ. Help them not fall and stumble in sin.

Warning about hindrances in your own life that might keep you from Christ.

43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.

Now Jesus has switched from talking about being a hindrance to someone else, now he is talking in this verse about being a hindrance, or something being a hindrance in your life, keeping you from Christ. We find more surprisingly blunt warnings from Jesus.

Don’t let anything stand in your way. If your hand keeps you from Jesus cut it off. You are better off with one hand and come to Christ, then have both your hands and spend eternity in hell. Same with foot cut it off or eye pluck it out.