Monday, October 18, 2021

Sermon - Pentecost 21 - Mark 10:23-31


On the heels of Jesus’ interaction with the rich young man, he sees the crowd looking on and continues the teaching moment.  In fact last week’s reading and this can really be thought of as a unit – on the dangers of riches and how difficult it is to enter the kingdom.

Some have said that the camel going through the eye of a needle here is really not a sewing needle, but the small door in the side of the walled city.  Not the main door for armies and caravans to come in easily, but a small door, big enough for one man to come through – and not much more.  Strategic for defense in time of siege warfare, it is suggested.  And if that’s what Jesus means here then it is quite a laughable picture.  Imagine some poor fellow pulling an irritated camel from the front (camels spit, you know) and another sad soul assigned to push the camel from behind.  It’s ridiculous, and laughable.  But you just might imagine with enough effort and cajoling they can squeeze that camel through and then be exhausted for the rest of the day or week. 

A modern analog to this might be, “It’s like trying to fit a sumo wrestler into a clown-car” or Andre the Giant into a coach seat on a commercial airliner.  It’s just not really designed for that sort of thing.

But in my study this week, I’ve seen some other convincing suggestions that this small-size-door explanation is really somewhat doubtful.  That it’s been around as long as maybe the 9th century, but that it likely isn’t what Jesus was talking about here.  That he really meant the actual thing - the hole in a sewing needle.  Something so small you can barely see it.  Try getting your camel through THAT!  Heck, most of us have a hard time even getting the thread in there.

Maybe the sewing needle is a better approximation of what Jesus is getting at here anyway.  He doesn’t mean to say it’s merely a challenge, to get into the kingdom.  It’s not just something that takes a lot of effort, or great reason or strength.  A really tough task, but, “you can do it eventually!”  Rather, he’s driving home the impossibility.  He’s driving us to despair of our own merit or worthiness.

You see, in ancient Israel they viewed the wealthy somewhat differently than many of us do today.  Today, the rich are often demonized in popular culture.  Or, on the other hand they are thought to be recipients of their own hard work and labor – good for them.  Or maybe you don’t think much of them at all, they are just like everyone else but happen to have more money.  Hey – maybe you are one of the rich!

But in Jesus’ day and age it was different.  The rich were seen as special.  They were to be looked up to and admired.  They were the best of the best, after all they had been blessed by God with earthly riches.  How much of a leap to assume, then, that he would also bless his favorites with blessings in the hereafter?  So the disciples would have reasoned, if ANYONE has a chance to make it into the kingdom of God, it’s the rich.  Right?

Wrong, Jesus says.  By this teaching he pulls the rug out from under one of their great assumptions.  It’s not the wealthy who have a leg up with God.  In fact, wealth is so often a distraction, a road block, an obstacle to even getting in the door.  And Mark says they were astounded.

If the rich have a hard time, then who, if anyone can enter the kingdom?  If they can’t do it, then where does that leave me?  Now you’re thinking the way Jesus wants…

Who can enter?  Jesus says, “with man it is impossible”.  Did you catch that?  It’s not just the rich anymore.  With man it is impossible.  No man can enter the kingdom.  No one is good enough, holy enough, without sin enough to enter the kingdom.  Rich or poor, mean or nice, loving or hateful – these are all human comparisons to other humans.  With man it is impossible, because just like the rich young man from last week, we can’t keep the commandments.  We don’t love God, and we don’t love our neighbor as we should.  We serve other gods and we serve ourselves rather than others.  We are helpless and hopeless and salvation, in this little phrase, Jesus says, is impossible.  No chance.  Out of luck.

With man.

But with God, all things are possible.  And friends, if you are with Jesus, you are with God.

Think of all the impossible things Christ has done for our salvation:

The virgin will conceive and bear a son.  God himself taking human flesh in the womb of Mary.  “How can this be?” she asked.  And the angel answered, with God all things are possible.

This Jesus, this humble man from Nazareth in Galilee, does all things well – he completes the perfect 10 of the law, fulfills all righteousness and is perfectly obedient to his Father.  No one else could do it, but with Christ, all things are possible.

And then this Jesus takes and drinks the cup of God’s wrath down to the bitter last drop.  He absorbs all sin in his body, he who had no sin is made to become sin for us.  And then he takes all that sin to a Roman cross and sin itself is dead, in him.  How can this be?  With God all things are possible.  After all this Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.

And of course that impossible miracle of Easter would follow.  For death cannot hold the Lord of Life!  And he would impossibly ascend into heaven, and he impossibly sits at God’s right hand and he impossibly rules over all things and will impossibly, but just as certainly, come again – to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

That kingdom that it was so hard, impossible, for you to enter – but in which you now stand by the grace – the impossible grace – of Jesus Christ our Lord.

He puts is grace in humble means for you – so that in a word, you are forgiven.  His name and some simple water wash away your sins.  And under bread and wine he himself comes to be present, truly, for you.  And yet with God all these gifts and blessings are not only possible – they are promises.  More certain and sure than the sun rising and setting each day.  More reliable than death and taxes.  God’s grace for you in Christ is the foundation of everything.

Sounds good.  Sounds like it’s worth leaving everything else behind and following Christ.  The disciples did.  And we do, too, by faith.  When you trust in Christ as your ultimate good, your only God, none of the riches of this world truly matter.  And then he sets another impossible surprise before us:

“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”

The blessings of his kingdom are many, and they begin even now.  The blessings of his kingdom are far more, far greater, than even the best things of this life – family, lands, treasures, whatever.  You may not see the hundredfold and more with your eyes.  But the promise of paradise the blest is already, even now, your own.  The inheritance of the kingdom, you have already received.  After all, the one you inherit from has died – though yet he lives!

Jesus does slip in this little phrase, “with persecutions”, to remind us that this side of heaven, this will sometimes be rough.  Part of our inheritance is to get what Jesus gets – and so he received scorn from the world, so do we.  He was persecuted by his enemies, so is his church.  He had to carry his cross, and he calls us to take up our own and follow him.  The Christian way is the way of the cross, with all that it entails, even persecution.

But we also inherit life from him, eternal life.  Just as he is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, so shall we.  He is the firstborn of the dead, we will certainly follow.  We already have in baptism.  We are buried and raised with Christ.  When we die we Christians rest in peace in the arms of Christ.  But one day even our graves will open, and he will call us forth to eternal life in all its fullness. 

Does it sound impossible?  It is.  But with God, in Jesus Christ, all things are possible.  And his impossible promises are instead a sure and certain hope.  Therefore put your trust in him, and you will never be disappointed. 

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