18:8,9
If Jesus had stopped at the last verse being what we are we would have spent our lives blaming others for our sins, and, of course, there are many who do that today. Indeed, ideologies like critical race theory and intersectionality thrive on that and encourage it. But Jesus did not stop there, “If your right hand ...” Even though others may, indeed do, have responsibility for causing others to sin, I am still responsible for my own sin. Just because someone does something that might cause me to sin, I do not have to sin. The victimhood movements are utterly destructive, and demean people. We are the pinnacle of God’s creation, and that means we have great responsibility. So, regardless of what other people are or are not doing, we should take serious steps in order to avoid sinning, and not putting ourselves in positions where we are liable to fall to temptation. Needless to say, Jesus is using hyperbole here, we are not to literally gouge eyes out or chop hands off!
18:10
The “little ones” theme continues. We must not despise “little ones”, that is people who are “of no account” (see James 2:1-7). There are plenty of references to angels in the Bible and they are a part of God’s economy. In Jewish culture there was a belief in guardian angels, and angels “who see the face of God” were the highest rank of these angels. So what Jesus is saying is that while you may not consider the “little ones” to be of any importance, God most certainly does. And of God considers someone to be of great importance then so should we.
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