The Way of Christ

Mark 10:17-31
Greg In South Africa

A sermon inspired and directed DPS submissions. Thanks to all for an enlightening discussion.

There are some who say that the “eye of the needle” is a small gate in Jerusalem. When they closed the big gates into the city at night one could only get in or out through a small gate on the side of the big gate. This was to protect the city from attack at night. This small gate was called the “eye of the needle”. But a camel could, if pushed, fit through when a traveller arrived too late to enter the main gate.

There is another interpretation, which highlights the similarity between two Hebrew words: Kamalon and kamilon. One means “camel” and the other means “thick string”. The translators of our Bibles might have got it wrong and instead of reading “camel” we should read “thick string”.

In both these cases the task of getting something through the eye of a needle is very difficult but not impossible. One just has to put more effort into it.

But notice the disciples response: “Who then can be saved?” They are perplexed because Jesus seems to have excluded everyone from salvation.

Indeed. Who can be saved? No one really, at least not by our own efforts. Wealth and the accumulation of possessions has caught us all in idolatry. The disciples recognised a deep truth. It is not the wealth that is the problem but the placing of wealth as a central priority in our lives. Even the poorest of the poor may have as their most important driving desire, the accumulation of wealth. Hence they ask: “Who can be saved since everyone wants to be wealthy? Is it not natural to seek after wealth?”

But notice some interesting words in this passage. Firstly, when the young man has persisted in asking a good question, Jesus looks at him with love. There is no judgement on the man. Jesus knows his words will hurt because of the truth they carry about the young man’s priorities. But it does not stop Jesus loving him. Jesus’ love is unconditional. Secondly, notice how in response to the disciples question, Jesus says “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."

In the face of a profoundly disturbing question comes the all-embracing love of God. It is essentially impossible for any of us to attain salvation by our own efforts because we all at our deepest level crave the security we think comes from possessions and money.

I used to think that I could live on very little, and indeed I did. But slowly the money I earned increased and I grew comfortable with an increasingly better lifestyle. Now I am shocked at what I imagine I need. I used to need much less. Deep, deep down inside of me is the desire to have more. I am essentially flawed and cannot attain the salvation of God.

But God loves me despite this and seeks my salvation. It is God’s action that brings salvation to me as a free gift.

It is interesting the word the young man uses: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Why not “gain” or “get” or “acquire”? Why does he say “inherit”?

Who inherits; how does one inherit? Yes, a family member will inherit our worldly possessions. We expect to inherit things from members of our family.

But there is nothing we can do to inherit someone else’s birthright. Only in exceptional circumstances can we inherit something from someone who is not a family member. The same goes for those who are God’s children. We are by Christ’s sacrifice made members of God’s family. We all share in the wonderful inheritance of salvation, not because we deserve it, but because we have been born, created, made by a wonderful God who loves us unconditionally. There is nothing we need to do or can do to inherit something that is already ours, a freely given gift of God.

Does this mean that wealth is OK? We can accumulate as much wealth as possible, hoard it and keep for it ourselves. After all God loves us without conditions.

No. The warning of this passage is that, while there is nothing we can do to inherit something that already belongs to us because of Christ, there are many things that will make us turn away from our inheritance. While the gift is given to us, we are not required to accept it. We are given an inheritance but we are not obligated to keep it, if we choose not to keep it.

To choose to keep it is a tough choice.

"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 world does not like Jesus and to follow Jesus means to incur the wrath of those who refuse to accept unconditional love and the justice of a righteous God. To choose to accept the inheritance Jesus offers is to forsake the values that drive this world and live by values that belong to the fool who died on a cross. To some degree, the choice to accept our inheritance will mean suffering.

For a wealthy business man who takes seriously this call it may mean that he refuses to drive a BMW because he would rather spend the money on charitable giving. He religiously gives sacrificially of his income. In so doing he finds himself ostracised by his partners who do not like his values and find his association with poor people abhorrent. He is often overlooked when promotions are on offer and one day, when they find a good excuse, he will be fired.

For a poor single mother of three young children living in a poor neighbourhood it may mean that when she is offered a job she turns it down. The job is in a factory making bullets. She knows the bullets are being sold to another country where they are used to kill children like her own.

There is nothing we can DO to inherit eternal life, it already belongs to us. God has freely given it to all God’s children. But the inheritance we have by being born, by being created, can only be kept by those who choose to stay in the family. To choose to stay in the family we must behave like one of the family – like Jesus himself, living not for the values of this world but the values of eternal life, of the Kingdom of God.

When we fail, our loving and righteous God is forgiving. God offers the chance to start again. We will inevitably be imperfect, we will, like errant children run after all sorts of other distractions, but the more we seek the direction of God’s will the more we will approach the likeness of the one we serve. The more we hold on to the suffering of our brother Jesus, the more we will understand the power of our Lord Christ’s resurrection. Seek, and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened, ask and it shall be given - persist in the search after the way of Christ.

Amen