The reading
Mark 10:17-31
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt
before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal
life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God
alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit
adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not
defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have
kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You
lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was
shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked
around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have
wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these
words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children,
how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom
of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be
saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not
for God; for God all things are possible.’
Peter began to say to
him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I
tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother
or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good
news,* who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and
sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to
come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be
first.’
The message
A few weeks ago, I spent 6 days being rich. I went on a trip
to Mexico City to visit a friend and explore that gritty but beautiful and
historic city. During my visit, the
Mexican Peso hit a record low against the US dollar. I was getting more than 18 pesos to 1 dollar in
a country where the minimum wage is about 90 pesos a day. That meant tens of millions
of Mexican people live on around 5 dollars a day and that I could basically go
wherever I wanted and buy whatever I wanted. This difference became obvious to me one night
when I was counting the pocket change I accumulated throughout the day and
realized it was more than many people’s daily salary. Full dinners at some of the top 10 restaurants
in the country cost me less than a steak at your average local diner here in
NY. I looked around some of the antique
shops in one of the upper class neighborhoods and as soon as I walked in and
said Hello, I was obviously the most important customer. The owner would instantly welcome me and
frantically find the person who spoke the most English to assist me. You also had to protect yourself and be very
careful, just by being an American there, regardless of how you were dressed,
what you spent or where you went, you were a target for pickpocketing, robbery
or kidnapping. The most surprising part,
that I never really adjusted to, was that I could buy whatever I wanted and I
could eat and drink wherever I wanted. There was virtually no concern about
what things cost and after most purchases, I did some math, converted pesos to
dollar and was left thinking “I can’t believe it was that cheap”.
This morning, in our reading, Jesus meets a rich man,
someone able to buy and do whatever he wanted in a 1st century world
also filled with economic inequality and severe social class separations. The rich man does not appear to be horrible
or cruel. If we believe his claim that he has kept all the commandments since
his youth, he is actually a pretty good guy. He approaches Jesus with great
respect, kneels to him and calls him “Good teacher”. Knowing that he could depend on his wealth to
buy whatever he needed or wanted in this world, he is concerned about the next
and asks Jesus a simple question “what must I do to inherit eternal life” The man proceeds to list the ways he has
earned it, that he has kept the commandments and wants to verify that he is not
an evil rich man who cheated or abused people to get where he is. After this, Jesus’ response is one that has
challenged people and organizations of faith ever since: “You lack one thing;
go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ The man is shocked, the price sticker on
eternal life is “everything you have” and there is no room to negotiate. This
is an unfair cost and too expensive a price for him, eternal life is something
he cannot buy.
Jesus response is not just shocking to the rich man, Jesus
own disciples, who are by no means rich and who have pretty much given up
everything to follow him, start to worry. Jesus disciples start to talk amongst
themselves, wondering how wealthy is
wealthy, would they have to give up even more to inherit eternal life,
certainly Jesus would accept their personal sacrifices and they would enter
heaven right, or where they just wasting their time. Jesus repeats himself “How hard it will be for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!’ and again “Children, how hard it is to enter the
kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God”.
The disciples become even more frustrated, annoyed and
confused, basically asking Jesus “okay mr know it all, this makes no sense, who
then can be saved”. Jesus responds “ For mortals it is impossible, but not for
God; for God all things are possible.” At this time, the disciples are
desperate for a straight answer, to hear Jesus at least say “you John, don’t
worry, you have done enough, you will inherit eternal life” , “you James, don’t
worry, you have done enough too, you will inherit eternal life”. But they do
not get that answer. Now Peter gets involved, he starts to tell Jesus all the
things that they have done with him and for him, leaving their jobs, homes and
families, traveling around healing the sick, casting out demons, boldly
teaching all the things Jesus taught them. Peter begins an argument on why they
should receive eternal life. Look, we
have left everything and followed you. Before Peter can even get started, Jesus
interrupts him to let him know, he, the
disciples, all of Jesus followers will have eternal life “But many who are
first will be last, and the last will be first.’
Those words end the recorded conversation. After this, Jesus
and his disciples move on to the next place. Jesus cannot really say anymore about how all
things are possible with God, or why he is so sure they will have eternal life.
Even Jesus initial words, hints about what God is doing in the world, do not
make any sense yet. These things only make sense after Jesus death and
resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins and the restoration of us and God
to a relationship of eternal peace.
After Jesus death and resurrection, we see why it is impossible for the
wealthy man to earn eternal life, to enter the kingdom of God based only on
what he does or gives, why it is impossible for the disciples to earn eternal
life based only on the amazing things they do.
God’s gift of eternal life comes to us because Christ has died and
risen. It is not something we earn, buy,
get by being nice or receive by being good enough. Instead of wondering and stressing about
“what we have to do to earn eternal life”, we are driven to the cross, to the
only place where we can be certain of our salvation. God’s greatest gift to us is the assurance
that because, and only because Christ is Risen, we will arise. Even Jesus own disciples were unable to
understand, anticipate or consider this a possibility (as we saw last week when
Peter yells at Jesus and rejects his statement that the son of man will suffer,
die and rise again)
Our church comes out of these questions “what must I do to
inherit eternal life” and “who then can be saved”. Martin Luther saw the stress and anxiety in the hearts, minds and
faith of the people. They were worried about their salvation. He personally
struggled to hear and understand that his sins were forgiven, that he would
inherit eternal life. Luther also knew
that God would not be born as one of us, that Jesus would not teach, heal,
struggle, pray, suffer, die, and rise again so we would have to be anxious
about our salvation. Eternal life must
be a gift that God gives out of love, that is the comfort and joy of the Gospel.
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