“The Burning Question”
18 Pentecost B (Pr. 23)–
Mark 10:17-31
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Grace and Peace to you from our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
What is the “burning question” in Mark’s gospel this morning? The burning question, which is voiced in three ways by three different characters, is this:
how must we live to receive eternal life?
The rich man asks the question this way: What must I do to inherit eternal life? The disciples, on the other hand, are knocked back in their heels by Jesus’ saying: “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 heaven.” So, they ask this question of one another: “Then who can be saved?”
Finally, Jesus has his own way of asking the question, which sort of turns Jeopardy on its head by phrasing his question in the form of answer: “for mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
By presenting the burning question as he does, Mark shows the scope of God’s judgment and salvation. And this word today we see that they are really the same thing.
When the rich man comes to Jesus, he is really bringing himself to be judged by Jesus. He seems to be confident, but not cocky. He’s pretty sure he’s got it right. You can almost sense that when he asks the burning question, he pretty much knows what the answer will be: “Good job, rich man! You obeyed the commandments. You’ve been a model rich man. Here’s your ticket for heaven.”
The rich man is sincere, but clueless. So, when Jesus tells the rich man what he has to do, and he cannot obey, the man is shocked. He grieves because he knows he is lost and yet is powerless to do anything about it.
It is this image of the rich man, his face in his hands, crying probably, shoulders slouched, turning from Jesus, that artists have captured for centuries. He has asked the burning question, he desires salvation, yet now he can see only the fires of damnation before him.
It’s easy to say, “Hah, serves the rich so and so, right.” But it’s his wealth is not the issue. The truth is that Jesus is asking “Who do you love?” “Where is your heart?” “Have you not seen God in the face of your neighbor, in the hand of the widow and orphan asking for food?” You can be a good, law-abiding citizen of this world and still not see the kingdom, let along enter it.
But as surprised as the rich man is at Jesus’ response, Jesus sees the judgment of the rich man differently. Notice that he does not tell the rich man you are damned. Instead, Jesus looks at him lovingly and says “come, follow me.”
Here is the most remarkable thing in this story. If you are taking sermon notes, underline it -- the judgment of God is not a judgment of doom but of grace and hope. Jesus does not tell the rich man, “you are lost forever.” No way. For God all things are possible -- life out of death, forgiveness of sin. Not mortals, not you or me, but for God and God alone is everything possible.
Instead of a death sentence, Jesus words of judgment are an invitation and an offer of exactly what the rich man is looking for -- eternal life. Yet he cannot say “yes” to what Jesus asks because he cannot see that his judge is also his Savior. The rich man cannot believe that Jesus would willingly be judged in his place. Come, follow me, is all it takes.
An open invitation, no time limit. The rich man is so shocked and saddened that he doesn’t sense the mercy in Jesus’s words of judgment. Jesus still loves him and will welcome him again if he asks his burning question again.
The episode of the rich man reveals that Christ’s judgment is an act of mercy. The depths of that mercy are only experienced when we are shown to be who we really are when, like the rich man, we stand in the presence of God. It is, at the same time, the greatest nightmare of our sinful self. And the only hope to enter the kingdom -- in the present and throughout eternity as a redeemed child of God.
Yet even the disciples fail to hear the good news in the exchange between the rich man and Jesus. That failure prompts them to ask their burning question. They look at themselves, see that they’ve done the thing that rich man would not do, and yet Jesus says that salvation is impossible for mortals. They are so focused on who will be saved, they overlook the real question: who will save us? Who will get us through the eye of the needle?
Stephen Mitchell looks at the saying about the camel going through the eye of the needle from the camel’s point of view -- which is, of course, our point of view. He writes:
The camel catches his breath, wipes the sweat from his brow. It was a tight squeeze, but he made it.
Lying back on the unbelievable lush grass, he remembers: all those years (how excruciating they were!) of fasting and meditating and praying until finally he was thin enough. Thread thin, almost unrecognizable in his camelness: until the moment in front of the unblinking eye, when he puts his front hooves together. Took one long last breath. Aimed. Dived.
The exception may prove the rule, but what proves the exception? “It is not that such things are possible,” the camel thinks, smiling. “But such things are possible for me.”
Mitchell understands, correctly I think, that the camel realizes, as Jesus tells us today, that eternal life (plunging through the eye of the needle) is not made possible for him by his -- or our -- doings in this life. Even Jesus could not save himself. That was the taunt of the scribes, lawyers, elders, soldiers to Jesus on the cross -- “Come down from the cross. Save yourself!”
It is only by the will and mercy of God that eternal life is possible for you and me. Such an act cannot be analyzed or figured out. It is unimaginable, hidden beyond any possibility of our understanding. It is approachable only through faith, experience only in love.
By the same token, today, in this day that God has given you, you may like the disciples, have left everything and followed Jesus. But what of tomorrow? Tomorrow, you may be the rich man.
How must we live in order to receive eternal life? Confess that we do not deserve it. Believe we will be forgiven. Come and follow Jesus. Can’t do it today? Let me introduce you my friend the rich man. He is me and you.
Thank God, that all things are possible for Him. Even projects like us. And that he loves us and is sorrowful for us while we walk away shocked and grieving -- for we have many possessions.
Amen.
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