Mark 9 contains some stern words about the things which lead us into sin.
When it is a person who leads another to sin, Jesus says is would be better if that person had a millstone tied around their necks and they were thrown in to the sea.
If it is an eye which leads us to sin - pluck in out! If it is a hand - cut it off!
A wonderful sermon, heard more than twenty years ago, asked why there weren't more one-eyed, one-handed attendees at the morning worship service. Surely, many among us can recall a time when our eye or our had caused offense. And yet, we have not acting on Jesus' instructions.
An offer a few weeks back, regarding our tendency to want to blame "the Devil" for our our misdeeds, generated several responses. Hopefully, I am not misusing today's reading from Mark 9 to support my own thoughts, but the reluctance to cut off hands or pluck out eyes seems to indicate that we understand it isn't the eye or the hand which is responsible for the sin. We can only blame our volition; our desires.
It is difficult to confess a sin which has been deflected or blamed on another. Until we take responsibility for the act, we cannot honestly ask God to forgive. If we blame another (the devil, an eye, etc) then we aren't truly sorrowful, we are blaming.
I do not mean to blame you, or impute a higher level of guilt. Merely to encourage responsibility. I do so with the confidence that God is more prepared to forgive than we are to even ask for forgiveness. Seek that forgiveness, then re-train your eye, or your hand.
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