Everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt

 "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.  If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched -- where

'Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.'

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched -- where

'Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.'

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, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire -- where

'Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.'

"For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.  Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it?  Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another." 

- Mark 9:42-50

On Saturday we read that Jesus and the disciples departed (from a place of confrontation with scribes) and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it.  For He taught His disciples and said to them, "The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him.  And after He is killed, He will rise the third day."  But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him.  Then He came to Capernaum.  And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?"  But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.  And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all."  Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them.  And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, "Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me."  Now John answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us."  But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works  a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me.  For he who is not against us is on our side.  For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward."

 "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea."  Jesus continues the discussion of the service that makes one first (see Saturday's reading above).  Little ones, my study bible says, include all who have childlike humility and simplicity, all who are poor in spirit.  We must remember that He is directly addressing those who will be the leaders in His Church, the Apostles.  He tells us what His version of leadership is all about.  Clearly, His words also apply to all the rest of us.

"If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched -- where  'Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'  And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched -- where  'Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'  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, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire -- where 'Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'"   My study bible says that the reference to mutilation is an illustration of decisive action to avoid sin.  It applies as well to harmful relationships that must be severed for the salvation of all parties (see Luke 14:26; 1 Corinthians 5:5).  If we remember that He is teaching the spirit of true leadership and the care of the little ones, we can view a hand as that which seeks to grasp what does not belong to it, a foot which can render violence, an eye that looks with envy and desire for power or materialistic perspective.  There are so many more ways, also, that we can understand that He is speaking of casting off habits, values, and ways of thinking that are abusive to His Church and relationships in it.  Jesus' repeated quotation is from Isaiah 66:24.  The fact that it is repeated three times tells us that this is a dire warning against abuses (see also Luke 17:1).

"For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.  Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it?  Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another."  My study bible says that to be seasoned with fire means being tested to see if one's faith and works are genuine (see 1 Corinthians 3:11-15).  Jesus quotes Leviticus 2:13 when He says that every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.  In that case salt stands for the remembrance of God's covenant with God's people.    We sacrifice the things in ourselves that stand in the way of real faith and living that faith; the sacrifice seasoned with salt is the one made in affirming the depth of that faith.

What does it mean to make sacrifices?  Have you ever had to let something go that was dear to you because you realized that your own growth depended upon it?  Faith will call upon us to change and transform ourselves as we agree to participate and be changed by the energies of grace.  We will find that there are things we treasured for one reason and another become errors or mistakes with new knowledge, and things we must discard.  There is a sense of higher purpose, and of something much greater and beyond ourselves that must take priority.  We sacrifice in order to be better citizens, so to speak, of something better than we know and bigger than we have understood before.  It's a question of what we love that determines what comes first.  It's like a child being born into a family, or a marriage.  Sooner or later an individual is faced with a decision that calls them to something bigger, broader, grander than their individual understanding and goals of the past.  A habit of nasty critical remarks must be discarded to help a marriage, perhaps.  Or a child demands our time and attention because it is helpless and completely dependent upon us -- we then must decide what kind of care and attention that child will have under our care.  An elderly parent, perhaps, needs care and decisions to be made for him or for her.  Then the child becomes the parent and must think about the sacrifice of time, attention, and wealth and what kind of care the parent will have when they become the one responsible.  All of these things ask us to grow into something bigger than we knew before and grander than ourselves alone.  Jesus is speaking to His apostles about what kind of leadership and responsibility He wants in His Church.  Those who would be first of all must be the servant of all.   To discard an arm, or a foot, or an eye is an indication to us of just how deeply our personal habits and ingrained ideas run within us.  He gives us a sense of how hard it might be to tackle parts of our own selfishness that we never stopped to think about, but have to come into question when better responsibilities and points of view are assumed, when we grow.  Christ calls us all to support His Church with a willingness to discard that which hinders our capacity for good relationships, and especially responsible leadership.  We recall that He is responding to the fact that the apostles were disputing on the road about who would be greatest, and He is setting them straight about what greatness is in His Kingdom.  It is time for each one of us to consider what that kind of citizenship means and what it calls on from us.  As Jesus Himself indicates, sacrificing a hand or a foot or an eye is worth the cost, considering all that we have to gain or to lose in that choice.  The faith we enter into us will plunge us into a kind of purifying fire where we will be asked to make choices of sacrifice.  As we grow in that faith, it becomes more incumbent upon us to consider the "little ones" and how what we do may cause them to stumble.  May we all know what it is that we gain in return.