Text: Mark 10:23-31
Are you rich? You probably don’t think you are. Your house and your bank account are
certainly nothing like what Bill Gates has.
Compared to the very rich, of course
you will look like a pauper. But compared
to the very poor, you look like Solomon in all his splendor. Depending on what your source is, average
household income in the United States is somewhere between $47,000 and $50,000. If we take the larger figure, that works out
to about $137 a day. Compare that to
some of the poorest countries in the world … Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia,
Ethiopia, and Haiti, among others. According
to a United Nations report, more than half of the populations of those
countries make $1 a day or less.
Yes, we are rich. And that presents a problem. Jesus says it will be hard for us to enter the
kingdom of God.
This statement by our Lord comes on the
heels of an encounter with a rich young man.
Jesus looked into the man’s heart and saw that his riches were more
important to him than his relationship to God.
When the young man self-righteously told Jesus that he had kept all the
commandments, Jesus told him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). This was too much for this fellow. He could not accept what Jesus was telling
him. He was not willing to see how his
money and his possessions were the number one thing in his life. And so, St. Mark tells us, he went away very
sad. Even more sad is the fact that he
did not become a follower of Jesus.
Like that young man, our money and
our possessions are often more important than our relationship to God. We hoard them for ourselves. We neglect to share them with others. We forget about the mission of the Church. We give little. The Bible tells us that our offerings should
be our firstfruits. For many of us, our
offerings are our “lastfruits.” It’s
what we give if we have enough left over after paying the bills. If we happen to have a buck or two in our
wallet, then we drop in the plate a the last minute. Our offering to the Lord is often not the
first thing we think about when we get our paycheck. Even for those of us who do give beyond our
means, we have mixed motives. We want to
give cheerfully and willingly. But our
sinful nature thinks as we write our check, “Boy, there’s a lot of fun stuff I
could do with this money instead of putting it in the plate.” We have another god. That god is our money. We have broken the First Commandment. We are idolaters.
In chapter
21 of the Revelation to St. John, God says that idolaters will not be in heaven. He lumps them in with quite a cast of
characters: “the cowardly, the faithless,
the detestable … murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters,
and all liars, their portion will be in lake that burns with fire and sulfur”
(Rev. 21:8). Those who are idolaters are
bound for hell … an eternal, agonizing separation from God.
Rich people entering into the
kingdom of heaven … Jesus says it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle. Now that is an impossible task.
“Then who can be saved?” the disciples asked. That must be our question, too.
If being saved were up to us, we would be
in trouble. “With man it is impossible,”
Jesus said. You know the rest of
this. Aren’t you glad that Jesus doesn’t
leave us hanging? “With man it is impossible,
but not with God. For all things are
possible with God.” All things are
possible with God. If God wanted to, he
could make a camel go through the eye of a needle. If God wanted to, he could save hell-bound
idolaters. And he DOES want to do
this. He did it in the death and
resurrection of his Son.
Jesus shows His care and concern
over this matter: he addresses his
disciples as “children” … and by baptism you and I are God’s children,
too. Children need to be cared for and
taught so that certain things will not harm them. Don’t touch the hot stove. Don’t cross the busy street. Don’t talk to strangers. Parents must warn children of the dangers in
the world. And our Lord Jesus warns us,
God’s children, of the dangers of putting our money and possessions first in
our life. Through baptism and by faith
we already are in the kingdom of God.
God has graciously made us to be part of his kingdom. But we still need to be warned about the
dangers of idolatry, because our sinful nature will look at our earthly riches,
and our attention will be drawn away from Christ and His kingdom.
Apart from Christ, it is impossible
to enter the Kingdom of God. He does not
rule and reign in our hearts apart from faith in the Savior. Apart from Christ, it is absolutely
impossible to be a part of God’s family.
We enter the kingdom of God through
Jesus. A camel cannot pass through the
eye of a needle. Likewise, you and I cannot
enter the kingdom of God through our own efforts of trying to obey the
commandments, like the rich young man thought he had done. As St. Paul says in Romans, “by the works of
the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Rom. 3:20). With man this is impossible.
But not with God. All things are possible with God. That includes saving and forgiving sinners
like you and me.
We may not be able to pass through the
eye of a needle, but we can enter into God’s kingdom through the door that he
has provided. That “door” is Jesus. In John 10, Jesus compares God’s kingdom to a
sheepfold, and he says, “I am the door of the sheep…if anyone enters by me, he
will be saved and go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:7, 9). We enter the “door” of God’s kingdom through
Baptism, and we are washed clean of our sinful idolatry. We enter the “door” of God’s kingdom when we
hear and believe the Good News that Jesus took our place.
Out in the wilderness, Jesus was tempted
by Satan with the “riches” of the world.
Satan took Jesus to a high mountain “and showed him all the kingdoms of
the world and their glory” and told Jesus, “All these things I will give you,
if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus
was tempted with the riches of this world, yet in our place he withstood and
overcame Satan’s temptations. We heard
earlier in the Epistle lesson, “we have [a high priest] who has been tempted in
every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.”
And so, our sinless High Priest sacrificed himself for our sins. In our place, he suffered and died an
agonizing death on the cross, he felt the pains of hell, and he did this for us,
taking the punishment for our idolatry.
Through faith in Christ Jesus, we have
entered into God’s kingdom. We are
honored guests in his castle. There is a
place reserved for us at his table. We
are fed with the very body and blood of God himself.
Peter said to Jesus, “We have left
everything to follow you!” Now that we
have been forgiven for making idols out of our money and possessions, we, too,
can leave everything behind. The tight
grip with which we once held our riches is loosened, and our attitude towards
them is changed. We can be content with
what we already have, not coveting more and more. We can use and enjoy the things that God has
given us, keeping a proper perspective on them, with thanksgiving in our
hearts. And we can freely give of the
riches that God has given us for the ongoing preaching of the Gospel and for
the well-being of those who need our love and service.
Jesus said, no one who has left home
or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the
gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes,
brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions)
and in the age to come, eternal life. In
other words, though you have forsaken all things for the sake of Christ and the
Gospel, Jesus says that even in this life you will receive back a hundred times
as much as what you lost. This does not
necessarily equate to material riches.
But think of the riches that you do gain when you enter God’s kingdom through
the door of Jesus Christ. You are
baptized into a new family, and you enter into relationships that are far
closer and dearer than any blood-relationships in this world.[1] All the spiritual blessings that you
receive—forgiveness of sins, peace of mind, joy in your heart, comfort,
hope—these all outweigh any physical goods here on earth that only rust and rot
and are reduced to ashes in the end.
But then again, Jesus is very
realistic for us, too. He warns us that
when we live this kind of life—a life that exists in him and that does not find
its meaning in its earthly possessions—we will suffer persecution. We will suffer persecution because the way of
Jesus is the exact opposite of the way of the world. The way of the world is to find meaning in
your worldly wealth. We are bombarded on
all sides with advertisements to make you think that your life will be better
if you buy this product that will make you look better, smell better, feel
better, or have the knowledge you need to get-rich-quick.
But Jesus promises so much more than
that. In spite of the trials and
troubles that we may indeed encounter, Jesus promises us a full, abundant life
here and now…but not only here and now.[2] Jesus promises eternal life in the “age to
come.”
And so I ask you again, “Are you
rich?” Yes, we are rich. We have been blessed with so much more money
and possessions than other people around the globe. But if we are clinging to these riches to the
detriment of our relationship with God, then we are indeed poor. But with the forgiveness that Christ earned
for us at the cross, and with the Holy Spirit guiding and directing us, we can
take our earthly riches and use them to God’s glory.
And then we can see ourselves as
truly rich because of the eternal life that Christ has won for us… “not with
silver or gold, but with his holy, precious blood, and with his innocent
suffering and death, that I may be his own, live under him in his kingdom, and
serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, even as he
is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.”[3]
We are rich! “This is most certainly true.”
Amen.
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