The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

© 2023, Dr. Tamilio

 Do you remember Hugh Hefner?  (Did you ever think you’d hear a sermon begin with that question?)  Hefner interviewed Jimmy Carter during the run-up to the 1976 Presidential election.  Carter said, “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust.  I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.”  Now, whatever you think of Jimmy Carter’s Presidency, it’s safe to say he is a good guy.  To this day, he helps build houses as part of the Habitat for Humanity ministry.  He is a Christian who truly lives his faith.  In his Playboy interview, then-candidate Carter was referring to this passage from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus says to the crowds, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  I don’t know a man who hasn’t done this.

When you look at the rest of what Jesus says in this passage it doesn’t get much better.  He also says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

Now, going back to what President Carter said, and realizing how sin is an unfortunate part of the human condition, it is safe to say that if we took this passage literally, then we’d all be walking around looking like pirates: we’d have patches over our missing eyes and hooks where our right hands used to be.

I have often interpreted this passage one of two ways.  First, it is metaphorical and instructional.  Jesus is essentially saying, it would be better for you to lose part of your body than it would be to continue in your life of sin.  That’s the interpretation that I usually go with.  Second, the writer of Matthew might be building upon the metaphor Paul employs in 1 Corinthians 12.  Paul uses the human body as a metaphor for the Church, the Body of Christ.  Paul says that all the parts of the human body are necessary for the body to work as efficiently and effectively as possible.  It would be better to lose a member of the body (a member of the Church) if he or she was causing problems for the rest of the church, as difficult or as unfortunate as that would be.  In other words, if “the hand” (whomever the hand is) is corrupting the body with heretical teaching, for example, it would be better to lose that member than to continue ministering with him or her.

Pastors often get stuck in their ideas.  In other words, we come up with (or come across) an interpretation of a particular passage in the Bible and we stick with it.  That interpretation is the valid one; it’s the one we always use.  We must open our minds and hear what others have to say, though, or we risk stagnation.  We must be informed by different voices and diverse ideas.  I was prepared to crowdsource today’s reading: I was going to put these tough teachings of Jesus on social media and ask my friends and colleagues, “What do you think these difficult teachings of Jesus actually mean?”  I mentioned this to my wife, who, being the feisty Italian that she is, said, “I’ll tell you what I think it means.”

Here’s Cindy’s reading of it: “Jesus is speaking metaphorically here.  If you have thoughts that are causing you to do things that are sinful or wrong, you need to ask, ‘How am I going to rid myself of this?  How am I going to change my ways and move past what’s causing those thoughts that engulf me?’  Whatever is causing you to sin will continue to pervade your thoughts and actions, so you have to try to work through those causes so that your thoughts and actions align with what Jesus taught.”  (“That’s really good,” I thought.  It sounds like she hangs out with a preacher.  Or maybe it’s good that this preacher hangs out with her!)

But it’s true: there are all kinds of thoughts that engulf us, causing us to sin.  The mind is strange.  We know so little about it.  I am not talking about the brain: that three-pound organ inside your skull that is responsible for everything we do.  The mind is different.  It is the seat of human consciousness.  Some thinkers equate it with the soul.  It is the part of us we most associate with our identity.  Along with all that gray matter in our heads, the mind is responsible for how we think.  Crazy thoughts enter our minds sometimes.  We know this by examining our dreams.  Sometimes, those dreams make no sense at all.  Sometimes they are so absurd that when we wake up in the morning, it takes us a minute to get our bearings.  We wonder, “What the heck was that?”  Why was I playing ping pong in the rain with Gordon Ramsey while wearing a red space suit and humming the theme song from Star Wars, and why did my paddle turn into a spatula when smoke started to fill the room through the light above his head?  (No, I never had that dream — but I think I’d like to!)

The point is that our mind thrusts all kinds of ideas into our heads.  We may have lustful thoughts, the way Jimmy Carter did.  We may be tempted to take the easy way out: to lie, cheat, and steal.  Jesus is telling us, if Cindy is right — and she always is — that we need to control those thoughts and master those desires.  We need to take control of them, not let them possess us.

That may sound easy to do, but it isn’t.  Our culture bombards us with unrighteous ideas, be it unfettered sexuality, drugs, apathy, devotion to political ideologies over God, and an ethos that encourages us to look after number one.  In the name of tolerance, we’ve lowered our standards where they really matter, too.  Did you watch the Grammy’s last Sunday night?  I confess that even though I am a musician, I didn’t watch it.  I have given up on ridiculous awards shows because they are about popularity, not talent.  The show featured a performance by Sam Smith (don’t worry — I didn’t know who he was either).  His performance of his song “Unholy” featured what can only be described as a celebration of Satanism.  The next day, I wrote the following on Facebook: “The Grammy’s have been terrible for way too long.  Now, they are jumping on the post-Christian bandwagon and are glorifying Satan, because that is so cool.”  (Obviously, I was being quite facetious at the end.)  Some people wrote to me privately asking, “Are you serious?”  Others said, “Wow, I didn’t know that you were that intolerant.”

Intolerant?  I am supposed to be tolerant of Satanism?  Isn’t the Church supposed to speak to culture rather than being shaped by it?

Many ideologies and temptations vie for our allegiance.  What gives temptation its strength is the belief that giving into it is no big deal.  Our culture seems to think so.  Jesus says otherwise, which is why these teachings are so tough.  It isn’t the violence and self-harm that disturbs us as much as the radicalism of it.  That said, no — Jesus isn’t really telling you to pluck out your eyes or to cut off your hands.  But he is saying that sinful thoughts are destructive.  Some may destroy your body, but all of them will work together to destroy your soul.  We cannot let them.  As Christians, we need to fight these.  As Paul told the Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (12:2, ESV).

Does this sound a little preachy?  Does it sound too evangelical?  Good.  Maybe that’s a good thing.  Maybe that’s what the world needs.  Amen.