About that plucking out the eye thing...
If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these
little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great
millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If
your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to
enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the
unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble,
cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two
feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes
you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom
of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. - Mark 9:42-48
One of them came in wet with a millstone and a rope
knotted
around his throat gasping for air having dragged
the damn
thing up from the bottom of the river
where he
once was baptized a while back
because he had
cursed at a child for high pitched screaming
Another came
in with her right hand
hacked off –
she was left-handed –
and she
dripped crimson drops all the way
down the
hall to Jesus' living room
admitting she
had used the missing appendage
to flip
someone off in traffic for cutting in
One more
limped in with a lopped off foot
in his hand
and he dropped to the floor sobbing
because he
had tripped someone in line
in front of
him to get a better seat
at Bonnaroo
this year to see Radiohead
Then there
was the disciple who had an eye patch
and fumbled
her way through the door
having glared
at her next door neighbor with
a bitchy
stare because she looked so freaking good
in that new
dress and those shoes with red soles
and wished
she would trip and tear her ACL
They
gathered around Jesus, each face
with a
seriousness that puzzled the good Lord
except for
the one with the plucked out eye –
it was hard
to look puzzled with the patch and all.
He looked at
them and said,
holding back
an uncharacteristic chuckle:
For God’s sake, stop damaging yourselves.
You know I was kidding, right?
Have you heard of hyperbole, people?
Just don’t do those mean things anymore
and if you do, say you’re sorry, make
amends, and move on.
Lift up the lowly and respect the
helpless.
It’s just not that hard.
Come on, folks! Get over yourselves!
You're not that bad, and you're not that good.
And then
they ate supper and he taught them
many more
things that they misunderstood.
That was awesome! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a parochial school in a city neighborhood. Right up the street from the church was the barbershop that all of the neighborhood boys knew had a table between to waiting chairs, and that table had a drawer with magazines young boys (and probably men too) ought not look at. Man, we couldn't wait to get our hair-cut, and this was in the late 60's. I remember perusing one of those a fore mentioned magazines(for the articles of course) before my haircut. A couple days later we had this text in our religion class and I was scared s-less. I was about 8 years old at the time. I even practiced walking around with one eye shut, figuring I could probably escape the flames of hell by just sacrificing one eye.
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