Say What? Hyperbole?

Hyperbole. Have you ever died of embarrassment?

Have you ever been caught outside as it was raining cats and dogs?

Did you walk to school in the snow, uphill, both ways?

Maybe you said yes. But the answer is actually no.

Because those are not true.

They're exaggerations.

And then, somehow, at the same time, they're all true.

Because when someone says, I have a ton of work to do,

no one thinks they actually have 2,000 pounds of work to do.

They know what is meant.

We know exactly what they mean. Exaggeration.

Hyperbole is just a normal way of talking. We do it all the time.

It's common. Expected. Frequent.

Hyperbolic statements are like Starbucks. There's one on every corner.

One of the best parts of hyperbole is that it requires the use of our imaginations.

If I say that Usain Bolt is faster than lightning,

what's the luck of someone being born with the name Bolt and then being fast?

But if I say that he's faster than lightning, we both get to use our imaginations.

We think of a runner. We think of lightning.

We imagine just how fast that person would have to be to actually be faster than lightning.

We know Usain Bolt is not faster than lightning.

But we'll all agree that somehow at the same time, he's faster than lightning.

So why does this matter?

Because we tend to be really good at recognizing and accepting hyperbole as a helpful tool,

even though it's not literal, as long as we aren't emotionally invested in the alternative.

What do I mean? Well, if you've ever been in an argument and someone has said or you have said something like this,

you'll know exactly what I mean.

It's the moment when these words exit someone's mouth. You always act this way.

Most of the time, someone says something like that, they're being hyperbolic.

You always pick that restaurant. You always wear blue. You always cheer for the underdog.

But in certain moments, our emotional investment won't let us hear the hyperbole.

And so we take it literally.

Somehow, our investment in what is right or what is wrong or how we feel in the moment affects how we hear hyperbole.

I think specifically, I think that we tend to have a very difficult time acknowledging hyperbole when we need to be right.

Now, I'm not justifying poor conversational skills.

I'm pointing out how sometimes our investment in a feeling or a belief might change the way that we hear or read something.

And we should ask the question, what happens when Jesus is hyperbolic?

So let's take a look at that today.

In today's message, the last installment of Say What? Guaranteed to be the best sermon you've ever heard.

See what I did there?

All right. So we're going to be in Mark chapter 9 in our Bibles. Mark chapter 9. It goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans.

Mark 9 · chapter mention Mark 9 · chapter mention

It's in the newer testament, the second testament.

And if you don't have a Bible, we have Bibles out in the lobby on the bookshelf. You're welcome to take one of those home.

We would love for you to have one of those. Otherwise, if you have a smartphone, a smart device, you can download a digital Bible from any of the digital app stores.

We like to have a tradition. We try to give the Scriptures our full attention.

When we're reading them, you can do that in any number of ways.

One of the ways is to stand as you are able. And so as I read, if you would like to stand with me, you're more than welcome to do that.

We're going to be in Mark chapter 9, starting in verse 43. It says this.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell where the fire never goes out.

And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out.

It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.

Let's pray.

Literally, not hyperbolically.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Scriptures. We thank you for the teachings of Jesus. And I pray that today, whatever you have for us to learn,

pray that it would stick, that it would become a part of the framework of our faith, that our faith would become stronger, as we become more like your son, Jesus.

Amen. Thanks for all we can have a seat.

Now imagine that everybody here probably agrees that Jesus is being hyperbolic.

He's exaggerating to make a point.

And this isn't the only time that he does this.

He said to the Pharisees, you go over land and sea just to make one convert and then you turn them into twice the son of hell that you are.

He was asked, how many times must we forgive Jesus? Seven times? No.

I tell you, but 70 times seven you ought to forgive.

He describes how difficult it is for a wealthy person to enter the kingdom.

He says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

None of these are literal.

The Pharisees didn't travel great distances to make converts.

It's actually part of Judaism. Conversion, the attempt of going out to try to convert people in Judaism, is not a normal part of Judaism.

They did not travel great distances to do this.

Jesus isn't saying that we can stop forgiving each other after the 490th time.

And it is physically impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

He's being hyperbolic.

He's exaggerating on purpose to make a point.

And he's using our imaginations to illustrate something.

That we shouldn't sin.

At all costs, we should make every attempt to avoid it.

And that sin, whatever that be, is serious.

And I think we all get that.

And how do I know that we probably all get that?

Is because I think I can say with a high level of confidence that none of us has literally gouged out one of our eyes after we sinned.

Or cut off one of our arms or cut off one of our feet after we failed to do what we knew was the right thing to do.

We instinctively know that he's exaggerating.

And we understand.

But then, in the same passage, where we all agree that Jesus is being hyperbolic, that cutting off an actual limb is not what he meant.

In the same passage, so many think that Jesus turns on a dime and switches immediately from the hyperbolic to the stone cold literal statements.

About what?

About hell.

Somehow we think he's being hyperbolic about this, but then suddenly he's being 100% literal about that.

That doesn't smell right to me.

Jesus says, if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. Hyperbolic.

It's better for you to enter life maimed hyperbolic than with two hands than to go into hell literal?

If Jesus is being hyperbolic about cutting off hands, why wouldn't we also understand that he's being hyperbolic about hell?

That doesn't mean that Jesus is saying there's no consequences to how we live.

That's not what I'm saying.

And that's not what he's necessarily saying.

But I do think that he's being hyperbolic in the same way about both.

I think that there's enough teachings from Jesus to support the idea that there's accountability after this life of some sort.

What I'm saying is this, that it seems foolish to agree that Jesus is being hyperbolic about what we should do to our bodies,

but then that he's being 100% literal in the same sentence about hell.

In other words, we need to let hyperbole create a humility that keeps us from the hurry to simply be right about something we might believe.

Does that make sense?

Especially when there's more behind a passage than what is just there on the surface.

What are you talking about, Greg?

Where is this going?

For instance, the word for hell in this verse is actually the word Gehenna.

Jesus didn't say the word hell, the word hell, he didn't say hell.

He said Gehenna.

Everyone say Gehenna.

Gehenna.

So what is Gehenna?

Around 600 years before Jesus' ministry, Gehenna was a known place, a real location,

a real place of child sacrifice, where the Canaanites would sacrifice children to the false gods of Molech and Baal.

Until, it's a funny coincidence, if you read the passage we read and go back one verse,

it starts by saying, if anyone causes someone to stumble, one of these little ones to stumble.

An interesting thing is that in this reference back to Gehenna,

that place where children were sacrificed, it was destroyed then by a child king named Josiah.

He destroyed all of their altars.

And then it became a part of the Jewish rabbinical literature and tradition to think of that place

as where you would go after this life for some sort of punishment.

A real place marked by real atrocity, unthinkable, real historical events.

And in Jesus' day, it was still a real place.

When he mentioned it, Gehenna was also known as what was called the Valley of Hinnom.

Pastor Chris, we've been to Jerusalem.

We've seen it from across the hill.

I don't know if you actually got to go to it.

We had to look at it from across the hill.

The Valley of Hinnom is a valley that goes all the way down the west side into the southwest of Jerusalem.

It's a real place.

And Jesus knew that because of its history, Jewish rabbinical tradition,

that Gehenna was considered the spiritual place of judgment.

That is what's behind what he's saying right here.

This is the place that you might go after you die, but there's still more.

While they thought of Gehenna as a place of spiritual accountability, buckle your seatbelts, everybody.

Jewish tradition also taught that most Jews would never go to Gehenna at all.

They would go straight to paradise.

That only the greatest sinners, the most retro bait of sinners is what the commentaries said, would ever see Gehenna.

And even if they did, Jewish rabbinical literature and tradition taught that the longest that they would go to Gehenna,

the worst of sinners, of the Israelites, the longest they would go.

Any guesses?

Twelve months.

If you were Jewish and you were the worst of the worst, the longest you'd go was twelve months.

Anyone that grew up Catholic, your antenna should be going off a little bit about the concept of a purgatory, right?

These concepts are important to understand because Jesus was a Jew.

Jesus was called a rabbi. And Jesus had all of the Jewish and Judaism and all of the history and literature

and understanding behind everything that he taught that most of us post-enlightenment, rational, biblical literalists don't tend to have.

So there's great value in going back and learning some of the things that maybe Jesus had in mind when he was talking about these things.

Because then we find out that some of the things that are so common to think about are far cry from what they might have meant when it was being said.

So listen, this is the God's honest truth.

We do not know exactly what happens after this life.

Because, and I said this a couple weeks ago about apocalyptic segments, most if not all of the verses about what happens after this life

are spoken or written in parabolic terms, in apocalyptic terms, or in hyperbolic terms.

They're coded in creativity and imagination.

But to whatever extent Jesus is exaggerating about what happens then, he's doing so for a reason.

Because he cares how we live now.

This passage has three don'ts that are built in.

This, and in this context, in this culture, Judaism, when he mentions your eye, your hand, your foot, your eyes were connected to your thoughts.

Those were in your head. Your feet connected to your location. What were you willing to go and be near?

Your hands were connected to the actual action of doing something.

Reminds me of Psalm 1.

Some of you are probably familiar with it, but it begins like this.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in the step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Jesus very simply, he's saying, if you can help it, don't even think about sin.

He's saying, if you can help it, don't even go near it.

He's saying, don't do it.

Take it as seriously as you would the idea that there is major negative consequences after this life.

That's how seriously you should take your choices in this life.

I had a therapist once that talked about our orbit around God.

And, you know, we could imagine, I don't know what we should think of here, but this pole right in front of me is God.

And we want to know how far away from that pole can we orbit, but still not sin.

Where's the sin? Is it this far out? Is it over here?

How far can my orbit be? Can I be Pluto? Can I be in orbit and on axis?

How does this work?

He said the problem is that when we're that far out and something happens, if we make a mistake, if we fall into some kind of sin,

we find maybe we feel like the gravitational pull isn't as strong the farther out we get.

He said our goal in following God is to orbit as closely to the Lord as possible,

so that the gravitational pull of his love is strong.

That when we eventually do sin, because we will, that we will have already been close enough to the Lord,

that there's no question whether we will stay in the orbit of his gravity.

Jesus is trying to tell us, stay close to the Lord.

Stay as far away from sin, whatever that is for each of us.

Stay as far away from sin as you want to stay away from Gehenna.

Does that make sense?

Because if you're dancing on the edge of sin, you may find yourself falling into the valley of Hinnom,

when you want to be walking in the way of the Lord.

Amen? Amen. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for your word.

I pray that we would all feel a sense of conviction about something that we have been traveling too closely to.

That you bring it to heart, not for shame, not for guilt,

but for an honest, healthy sense of conviction that this is something that you want us to move away from

in favor of being more closely orbiting with you.

That we would not walk in the way of the wicked, that we would not sit with mockers,

that we would not find ourselves standing with the foolish,

but that we would find ourselves so close to you that we feel the gravitational pull,

your grace, your love, your goodness, for all the days of our lives.

In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.