Losing Your Eye or Hand to the Easy Yoke

In the midst of a 90-day abstinence from all sexual activity, I was struck by these words of Jesus:

“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30).

“If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell” (Matthew 18:8-9).

In Matthew 5 the context is adultery, which Jesus points out occurs in the heart even if one is “just looking.” In Matthew 18, the context is causing “little ones” to stumble (children have just been referenced in verses 1-5).

Most of the discussion of these passages that I can remember focuses on not taking what Jesus said “too literally.” As if anyone has in recent times! I read a comment that if we did, there would be a lot of one-eyed single-handed Christians walking (or limping) around.

If it’s not so literal, what did Jesus mean? That seems to me a much more useful and important discussion. In my case, it meant that I should be willing to go to some pretty extreme efforts to avoid sinning sexually, whether that sin involves committing adultery in my heart or causing someone else to stumble as the result of my actions.

Some find a 90-day commitment to sexual abstinence to be “pretty extreme.” Believe me, it is! At times it felt like giving up my right hand or even both eyes would have been far easier! But I want to follow Jesus, and these words of Jesus spoke to me and encouraged me. The remark in the book of Hebrews is very true: In my struggle against sin, I have not yet resisted to the point of shedding my blood as my Lord has (Hebrews 12:1-4).

I cannot take any credit or claim any strength for going the 90 days. Also in Matthew, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (11:28-30). My sins certainly weary and burden me, and I have nowhere else to go. God’s grace and gifts are, indeed, amazing.

Does our aversion to taking extreme measures on behalf of our own souls reveal a misunderstanding of Christ’s easy yoke?

[This post was adapted from an email I sent to a few men who are my “circle of accountability.”]