It was all my 6 year old brother’s fault. I was 7, but I was still innocent of any wrong doing. Tom and I, along with our step-sister, were supposed to be on our way from school - going directly to where our mother worked. However, two of the three of us were more than a little stuck.
You see, Tom and I were actually hiding from our step-sister. We had ducked into this tunnel on several other occasions. But Sandy always found us. This time, we reasoned, we would go deeper into the tunnel. Then she couldn’t see us when she looked in.
Well, what Tom and I did not know was that our tunnel of choice was a pipe with three more pipes inside. Each pipe smaller in circumference than the one before. In we go, with book bags on our backs. When we realized we were both stuck we both panicked. More than because we were stuck, I think we panicked because we knew we were in BIG t r o u b l e. So, what else to do, but to yell for Sandy to go get help. Like she would hurry!
This morning we meet in Mark’s gospel a man who is heavily burdened, but doesn’t know just how much. He also has worked himself into a tunnel of sorts. And he wants more than anything to be free.
Read Mark 10:17-27.
Jesus is leaving town. We watch as this young man approaches Jesus, literally running up to Jesus. He kneels in front of Him. What enthusiasm and sincerity, in wanting an answer to the burning question of his heart. And yet, this enthusiastic man who calls Jesus “good” has no clue with whom he speaks. You and I know he kneels before God Himself, in the flesh.
Clueless or not, his sincerity does push him onward to ask his burning question: “What must I do to get eternal life?” He probably believes he is good enough, but is thinking in terms of things he can do - actions. “Will I be asked to hand over much silver? Or perhaps I will be asked to fund the maternity wing at the local Jerusalem hospital. Ahhh, providing all the schools with more scrolls will be the just ticket.” Whatever the specifics of his thoughts he, no doubt, shares the attitude of the Pharisees of his day. That attitude would be the piling up of a (sort of) credit balance-sheet with God by keeping the works of the law. Jesus understands this. Jesus brings to this man’s mind only a few of the do not’s of the actions of the Ten Commandments, the Law.
“Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not testify falsely. Do not cheat. Honor your father and mother.” These Commandments about person-to-person relationships are ones with which you and I are familiar. The Scripture or Law- of the Old Testament with which this young man is familiar, holds over 600 commandments. To say nothing of the Pharisees’ loophole-version. Good Jews are expected to keep them all as evidence of their loyalty to God. And we see this man not missing a beat in his response. He says he has never once broken any of the laws, from his youth up. But has he?
Really, what child, or any person is there who has always honored their parents? Where is the person who loves their neighbor as their self, “from youth up”? Even if this man had avoided the grosser sins on the list, he has certainly not avoided them all. And Jesus knows this.
And yet , in verse 21, we see, that, “. . . Jesus, looking at him, felt a love for him.” In this we have one the loveliest statements in Scripture. There is no other encounter with people where it is said of Jesus, "He felt genuine love for them." How or why Jesus loved him is beyond our knowledge, and ability to fathom. But then, so is His love for all people, then and for you and me now. There must be something different in this encounter between Jesus and this man.
Whatever that difference, it is in that love that Jesus tells him what he lacks and what he must do. That is a challenge that Jesus brings forth with one statement: "Go, and sell all you have and give to the poor." Jesus has hit the dollar sign on the head. This man's love of money, or more directly, his pride of accomplishment and self-effort because of his money, is the barrier that will keep him from a deep, personal relationship with God. This young man thinks that he can perform something worthy enough to ensure God's acceptance of him into His kingdom. Many of us, like him, falsely assume that we can merit or earn eternal life. That very attitude keeps him, and us, out of the Kingdom. At hearing that he must go and sell everything, the young man is SHOCKED. He turns and walks away from Jesus, grieved.
And no matter the deep emotion and love that Jesus feels during this encounter, Jesus does not lower His standards...the more easily to win the man into the company of His followers. Jesus does not, at this point, go after this person, catch his arm, and then say, "Wait, just sell some of what you have. It's alright to covet what you don't have. Oh yea, that deal about being good, you are good enough. So how about it? Now, now, will you follow me?"
NO! Jesus honors the young man’s decision. Jesus honors our decisions today. He still loves us, but is no doubt heartbroken when we decide against Him. But Jesus does not change His way.
Just like Jesus shows His genuine and unchanging love for this man, He shows us the same love. Even though He knows we might not follow Him, He still tells us the way to go and to grow. Love is able to give tough advice. Love does not hedge the truth. Christ loved us enough to die for us. He loves us enough to talk straight to us. If His love were superficial, He would give us only His approval. However, because His love is complete, Jesus gives you and me life changing challenges.
In this same way Jesus challenges His disciples. He turns to them and moves this encounter into a teaching moment. He tells them how difficult it will be for anyone who has wealth (that is, any obsession or idol that fills the heart) to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples are very confused. So He says it again in that verse we have heard often, in one context or another. "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." Just when the disciples think they know Jesus. . . .He says this.
You see, the disciples share the common Jewish view, and perhaps the view that many of us have today, that God enriches and prospers the righteous, the morally upright. The disciples know their Scriptures. So they have many examples of this: Abraham, Solomon and Job are a few. If salvation was hard for people like that, then it must be nearly impossible for those less blessed.
Of course, it makes common sense to them that a rich person is very much like an ungainly camel. The disciples understand this animal is too self-sufficient, and is loaded with all that burden it carries on its back, to say nothing of being too big, to get through anything as small as the eye of a needle. But now did it make just as much sense that people who hold onto many riches are also loaded down, carrying a burden in the heart, as well as on the outside? They know it is impossible for either human or camel to get through the eye of a needle. Now they hear it is difficult for such people to enter the Kingdom of God as well.
But then we hear Christ clarifying his comment to His disciples. He says: “Yet with God all things are possible.” Jesus did not say: It is impossible for those who hold riches to get into heaven. He said it would be difficult. Jesus says that meeting strict and rigorous requirements for committed discipleship is humanly impossible. Yet this is presumed, BY GOD, to be do-able - because of His love and grace. We sinners can never bring about our own salvation. So it is that Jesus assures the disciples, and us. Salvation is always a miracle of God.
Yet, there is a cost of salvation. Salvation for certain people is everything. You and I, we are each, certain people. This passage speaks differently to different people. For some the Holy Spirit is clear in His message of the exact word, “go and sell all that you have.” For others the message is: give more of your resources away to help and assist those who have less. For some, possibly the majority of us, the Holy Spirit is clear in our need to give something of ourselves over to God's care, purpose and control. For each of us, no matter our financial status, this passage speaks to whatever barrier continues to keep us from following Jesus with our whole heart.
So what is the cost for you to follow Jesus with your whole heart. What demands is Jesus placing on your life? Or, is God asking you to give to Him what gets in the way of your entering, for the very first time, in this new life of following Christ?
To prime the pump now and for our small groups this week, let me ask: Do you think of yourself in same way as perhaps this young man does, that you are “a good person” doing good things, and therefore, “good enough” to get into heaven? Is your life similar to his, one that is filled with wealth? That is not just the actual dollars but rather all that those dollars stand for and can provide, things, items, certainly, but also the perceived idea of comfort, power, pride and self-effort. And what about that job? Not necessarily because of the paycheck you bring in, but rather your perception of your competence. “After all, if I have a position, a job, then I am perceived as being competent, therefore I must be competent.” Is God wanting to work in your thinking, or obsession, of maintaining a perfect house and perfect family and perfect life? Is your barrier your family? Yes, even the particular members. Is God asking for control in their lives, and wanting you to give up your control? For some, Christ might be asking us to let go of our obsession over health. “If I don't have my health, I have nothing.” Some within this community of faith have been asked to give God their health. This includes their own physical as well as inner healing, or that of a relative.
Lately security is heavy on all our hearts. Is security what Christ is asking you to give to Him. That includes not knowing where your next meal comes from, how the bills will get paid, the home you live in, the neighborhood your home is in.
You see all these things I’ve listed from our lives and our habits, attitudes, personal relationships, together with our feelings of anger, guilt, fear, and resentment, and our need for approval - all of it replaces God in our lives. I find it ironic that the attitude of this man from our
passage actually makes him unable to keep the very first Commandment: Let nothing be more important than God (Exodus 20:3). He cannot meet the one requirement Jesus gives. That is, to turn his whole heart and life over to God. He walks away grieved. When we turn all these and our whole life over to God, that is repentance. We are then given a change of mind and heart. We turn from their hold in our lives, rather than turning from Jesus. The cost of following Jesus is high. But, the cost is not perfection or accomplishments. Rather, the cost is everything and our direction of life in Christ. That is our following Jesus with our whole hearts, to have a rich and abundant life in Him.
Well, even though it felt like hours, Sandy did go for Mom, and her boss. However, it did not take them long at all to figure out what needed to be done. Our book bags were caught on a sharp point in the pipe. I am sure you have already guessed that we just needed to unbuckle our book bags. Then we dropped to our stomachs and inched out backwards. We had to let go of something we had. We had to let go of our burden before we would be freed. Like Mom knew for Tom and me, Jesus knew immediately what the man needed to do to be really free to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus also knows what you need to let go or give over to His control for life with Him. You don’t have to be like the young man and “go away grieved?” Rather you can unbuckle and turn and follow Jesus, for abundant life in Him.