+ 22ndSunday after Pentecost – October 21st, 2018 +
Series B: Ecclesiastes 5:10-20; Hebrews 4:1-13; Mark 10:23-31
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I don’t know about you, but I have a hard enough time putting that little thread through the eye of a needle, even on a good day. It’s a lot harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
But it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
And it’s even hard still – without the stumbling block of our stuff – for anyone to enter the kingdom of God.
“Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God” Jesus declares.
It seems like Jesus is telling us that getting into the kingdom of God is more than difficult. It’s impossible. That it’s going to take a miracle.
That’s exactly Jesus’ point. It takes a miracle to get a rich man into the kingdom of God. It takes a miracle to get anyone into the kingdom of God. It takes a miracle to get you and me into the kingdom of God. And if all that sounds a bit strange to our ears, we’re not alone.
Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words.
Remember the rich man in last Sunday’s Gospel reading? “What must I do to inherit eternal life”, he asked Jesus. After a short catechism review of the second table of the Law - all the commandments pointing us to our neighbor – Jesus fired a first table of the Law homing missile right at the rich man’s heart. “Go and sell all you have and give to the poor.” And he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
The disciples were astonished. If anyone is blessed by God, it’s this guy. The disciples were measuring God’s grace by the gold standard. The greater your wealth was, the more favorably God looked upon you. The more stuff you had the more God must love you.
We hear the same false Gospel from TV prosperity preachers today: “If you have favor with God, God will favor you with success; that Tacoma Dome traffic will part for you like the Red Sea; your IRAs and 401ks will be busting at the seems like the disciples’ nets on the sea of Galilee.”
No wonder the disciples were exceedingly astonished. Jesus turned their entire way of thinking upside down. The guy they thought had it all walked away from Jesus sorrowful. “Jesus, if a camel has a better chance of making it through the eye of a needle than that rich, moral, pious man – what hope is there for any of us? Who can be saved? It’s impossible!”
Indeed, with man it is impossible. We cannot save ourselves. Our wealth and possessions won’t save us. Our portfolios and bank accounts won’t save us. The Beatles were right: money can’t buy us love. With man, the stuff we own quickly owns us. With man, we focus on the gift and ignore the Giver of all things. With man, it is impossible.
The rich man’s problem. The disciples’ problem. Our problem. It’s all the same. Whether we have a lot of earthly stuff or a little, we all have the same problem. The wages of sin is Death. With man it is impossible.
The real miracle isn’t that we would sell our stuff; it’s God’s gift of faith. That’s the real miracle. Faith in Jesus Crucified. For I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. It takes a miracle to get us into the kingdom of God. It took Jesus becoming man for us. It took Jesus becoming our sin for us on the cross. It took God Himself dying on the cross to drag us through the needle’s eye into the kingdom of God.
In God’s kingdom, his grace and favor isn’t measured by who has the most possessions, but in Christ who though he was rich yet for our sakes became poor, so that we, by his poverty might be made rich. In God’s Kingdom there is only one transaction that saves us: Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us. In God’s Kingdom, the true and only Rich Man joined us in our weakness and lostness to thread us through the narrow door of the cross. Jesus became the man of sorrows for us. Jesus took the last place on the cross to give us the first place at His table.
With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. Indeed, believing any of this is impossible for us. But not for God. He does the impossible. He gives us faith. He works the miracle. The very same miracle the Holy Spirit worked in you on the day of your Baptism, and every day since. The Holy Spirit continues to work this miracle of faith in us as he calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with his gifts, sanctifies and keeps us in the true faith.
That’s all well and good we say. Eternal life is covered. Faith is a gift. I’m forgiven. But what about now? Today? We left everything and followed you,” Peter said.
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, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time – houses, brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands – with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
Really? A hundred times more than what we have now? That sounds just as impossible to believe as a camel going trotting through the eye of a needle. And yet, it’s true.
Believe it. Today. Whether you live in a one-bedroom apartment or a large home with plenty of land, you have 100 times more than the rich man who thinks this is all there is. Knowing that all we have is a gift from God gives us infinitely more than the Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Paul Allens of the world. Knowing that all we have – our daily bread and possessions – are blessings from God, gifts that flow from Jesus’ death on the cross, makes all our earthly things worth more than all the billionaires combined. As Solomon writes, whatever wealth and earthly possessions we have are gifts from God. Gifts to enjoy and gifts to use in love for others.
On our own, that’s impossible to believe. But not with God. All things are possible with God. God’s free gift of salvation for you. God’s countless gifts of daily bread given to you.
God specializes in making the impossible possible for us in Jesus crucified. He does it every Sunday. Every Baptism. Every absolution we hear. Every “I forgive you” that’s announced. Every crumb of bread and drop of wine that gives us Jesus’ body and blood for our forgiveness, God is doing the impossible for you. With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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