The Offending Hand and Eye

The gospel this Sunday was Mark's "If thy right hand offends thee..." selection, always a fascinating tract on so many levels. How is a body part an actor without the brain? With motive so important in Christian thought, how does attacking the directed organ and sparing the motivator make sense? If it is advice on how symbolically to become more spiritual, where does one stop the operation? And what in heaven's name does the fundamentalist do with this passage?
Indeed the positioning of the miracle worker "who is not one of us" with this passage is crucial here. Christ makes it clear that the message, the idea of Christianity, is the important point. Keep your offending eye on the point; the circumstances are distractions. He is much more forgiving than the apostles about the way the message is given. (Imagine the god of Muhammad saying that.) The god of Muhammad would speak of mutilation as a sacred act; Christ offers it as symbolic of a way where subtraction enlarges the whole. But what is being shed is the limiting physical circumstance of the spirit; no New Testament surgery is implied.
Houseman had a poem with the line, "If it chance your eye offend you, cut it off, lad, and be whole.." Ralston, the mountain climber who amputated his own arm after four days of being trapped by it on a rock face, said: "My self-amputation was a beautiful experience because it gave me my life back."
Harming oneself is not an issue here.