The "M" Word

I recently taught on Matthew 5:21-31 and realized something which I think is worthy of noting. This section of scripture is in the middle of Jesus' famous "Sermon on the Mount." In verse 21 Jesus begins talking about murder, in his discussion he states that if anyone is angry with his brother he is guilty of murder. Jesus then further clarifies his statement by with the examples of calling a brother raka or you fool. Later in verse 31 Jesus brings up the subject of divorce, in his discussion he states that there is no reason to divorce other than unfaithfulness. Again Jesus clarifies this by stating that anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
The passage I skipped over, the one which goes from verses 27-30 are the verses I would like to pay special attention to. In this section Jesus is confronting adultery, again like in the other passages he furthers (fulfills see v. 17) the command against adultery saying that if anyone has looked at someone with lust he has committed adultery with that person in his heart.
Here comes the part which caught me off guard. In Jesus' discussion on murder and divorce he made his argument and then explained it further. In this instance Jesus uses an unusual way to explain his argument. He says that if anyone lusts after another woman he should gouge out his eye or cut off his hand. At first cutting out your eye does seem to go right along with lust, I mean lust usually happens after seeing something. Yet it is this second part which intrigues me. What does your hand have to do with lusting in your heart? Hopefully you have all caught on to my new discovery. If, not let me explain. I can only think of one reason cutting off your hand could be related to lust and that is masturbation.
I believe that many years have passes where we (main stream Christianity) has thought that masturbation was wrong (I know that not all of us feel this way) but when pressed could give no biblical basis for it. Well, I believe that Jesus in the "Sermon on the Mount," one of his most popular speeches, is dealing with this exact issue. I also believe that the reason it has been overlooked is because we have sterilized Jesus. We never think that Jesus might have beaten around the bush on certain things, or used some sarcasm. I tend to wonder what hand motion he was making when he said to cut off your right hand (body language can speak much louder than words). I am almost positive (although I could be completely wrong) that in this passage Jesus is telling us that it is better to cut off your hand than it is to wack off with it. Although let me clarify that I do not believe we should be going around cutting off our hands, I think that Jesus is using the extreme of dismemberment to show the seriousness of what he is talking about.
This then brings me to a deeper issue. In all of these passages Jesus focuses on building relationships. We shouldn't be angry with others, we should be reconciled to others, we shouldn't divorce so quickly we should reconcile troubled marriages. So, it comes as no surprise that masturbation can be equal to adultery. In adultery a married person robs their spouse of sexual relationship and gives it to another person. In masturbation a married person robs their spouse of sexual relationship and hoards it all for themselves. Masturbation is one of the greatest forms of anti-relationship. Sex and sexuality is to be shared in relationship (in a marriage relationship). We were created as sexual beings which can only be truly satisfied in relationship with another person. Masturbation removes the other person from the equation. Masturbation takes something which is great in relationship and turns it into something which isolating and imprisoning. Masturbation is a completely selfish act, and I do not see how our god can see it any other way.