Text: The Rich and the Kingdom of God Mark 10:17-27
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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 God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
Sermon
Permit me a preliminary remark on this sermon. This account is found in three of the Gospels (Mark 10:17-30; Matthew 19:16-29; Luke 18:18-30). I bring this to your attention because even though this sermon is based on the Mark account, details from the other accounts will be brought in to give a more complete picture of the story. It is my encouragement that you read all three accounts sometime this week to see the different details captured by the other Gospel writers.
Grace, mercy, and peace. All these are yours in abundance through Jesus the Christ, who although he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. So that, you, through his poverty, might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). Amen.
For a while, and maybe some of you remember this, the sporting goods brand Adidas had a special slogan. It was this: “impossible is nothing.” The general idea of the slogan was that through hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and, of course, wearing Adidas equipment, you can achieve whatever you want for yourself in life. In other words, things that seemed impossible were now possible if you just set your mind to it. This thinking, pervasive in our culture, was also the thinking of the rich man whom we meet in our text for today. He believed that by his outward actions; his obeying, his working hard, what we might call piety, he could somehow earn eternal life for himself. But we will see that this idea of “impossible is nothing” didn’t work out too well for him. It is only for God that impossible is nothing. There is no amount of hard work, or “doing things the right way,” that can earn us heaven. Finally, it is only Jesus’ love that can make impossible, nothing.
This guy had it all. He was rich, the Gospel of Luke tells us he was a ruler (Luke 18:18), maybe we can assume he was handsome. I could go on, but, honestly, I think we know the type – he was the type of guy who seemed to have everything in order. He was the type of guy mothers want their daughters to marry, the kind of guy whose dad couldn’t stop talking about him at work, bragging to his friends. But it doesn’t stop there. We see him go even further. He sprints up to Jesus on the road, he lowers himself showing Jesus absolute respect and honor. This guy is a real gentleman, respectful in every way, and I believe he genuinely was a “good person.” He is even respectful with the way he addresses Jesus. He says, “Good teacher.” And then he asks Jesus an important question. The most important question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Almost immediately Jesus gives him a clue to the answer to his question he says, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Jesus wants the man to recognize that while, yes, he is a good teacher, he is much more than that. Jesus wants him to realize that who he is talking to God himself! If the rich man understood that, and if we understand that Jesus is truly God, then his teaching becomes far more than just one voice in the chorus of self-help books, or just the mere opinion of a religious expert. No, it means that we must fully give ourselves to God’s teachings.
The man didn’t catch the clue. He knows something is missing in his life. He understands that he has not quite reached the pinnacle of his spiritual enlightenment. That there is still something he must do to reach the impossible and make it possible. May I quick mention that this can be the reason we attend church from time to time. We are searching for the one thing we are missing in our lives. We want the five-step plan to get to heaven. We just need Jesus to tell us this one thing and then our lives will be complete. Jesus continues with his answer to the ruler, You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
And the man replies (you can almost see him making a mental checklist in his head) to him, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” At this point, perhaps the temptation is to jump up and down and scream at the man. “What are you thinking?” “Don’t you know that everyone has broken God’s law?” But at times we have felt like the man. Have I murdered? No way. Have I cheated on my husband or wife? Nope. Stolen anything from the store? Unthinkable. Or we compare ourselves and say, “well I’m not really as bad as that other person.” The problem with that, is that God doesn’t just demand that we be better than our neighbor, but perfect. He demands us to be sinless, not just to sin less. And then we remember what God’s word says. It says that anyone who has hated his brother is a murderer (Matthew 5:22, 1 John 3:15). Or that anyone who looks with a lustful glance has committed adultery (Matthew 5:27-28)1. We often share the problem that the man had in the story. He indeed had kept the outward demands of the law. In an earthly sense he had good standing -- at least that is what we can tell from the story and Jesus’ reaction. But the problem was not with the outward obedience and keeping of the law, but with the heart and with the problem on the inside which is sin. Jesus would have to go right to the core of this man’s sin to let him see it.
The story goes on, “Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
I think this next line is an interesting one: Jesus looked at him and loved him. This wasn’t a scornful, or sarcastic look. No, it was full of love. The kind of look exchanged by a mom and her new baby. Or as one preacher put it, the type of look a mom gives to her son who grabs her legs and says, “Mommy, I’m going to marry you.” Even though it is an impossibility for the boy to marry his mom, she loves his him, even if his desire is misguided. This is the same look he gives to us, even when he must convict us of our sin, all he does for us is out of love. He sees that even our best inward intentions are often misdirected and need to be refocused on Him. With that in mind, we hear Jesus point out the sin that ultimately broke the man. He tells him, “Go sell everything to the poor and then come follow me.” Perhaps we wish Jesus would start with something a little less convicting. Maybe start with something easier that this man could stomach and then later get to his problem of his wealth. But no, he cuts right to the heart of it. That made the man go away downcast and sad because he realized that he could not do this. You see, Jesus needed to cut this man down, he had to kill the sinful nature inside of him, to make him realize that he could not get to heaven on his own. What this man needed was not another list of rules to follow. He didn’t even need a “good teacher” to follow. No, he needed the “Good Teacher.”
In all his good deeds and outward piety there was one commandment that this man could not keep. The first one -- the most important of them all. The First Commandment is: you shall have no other Gods. If we were able to keep this commandment perfectly, then all the other ones would fall into place. In this case, the man was placing his wealth in front of God. Now, to be sure, it is not the actual wealth or gifts from God that are the problem, but the attitude towards them. His wealth was his security, his wealth was his identity, his wealth was his idol. For us, our idol may also be our wealth. We could give up everything in the world, but if we were forced to give up our vacation, or extra car, nights out to eat, toys, we would not be able to. For some, it is something other than wealth. Maybe it’s our position and standing at work, or our reputation with outsiders that we make our god, and we place these things above the true God. Then, realizing our shortcomings and our failings, we end up very much like the rich young man. We go away with our heads bowed, saddened. Because it is precisely at this moment that we realize that there is nothing we can do to gain God’s favor. It’s at this moment that we realize that we do not deserve God’s favor. We haven’t loved God above all things. We have fallen short and deserve only his wrath. We aren’t…good.
So, the man goes away saddened, and Jesus continues. He has to teach the disciples the lesson behind what they have just seen: 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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 God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
This teaching must’ve really shocked the disciples. In Jesus’ time wealth was so often associated with good standing with God. Poverty was seen as the lowest of lows. One Jewish commentator wrote that it was seen as worse than the plagues of Egypt.
This man had it all, he had it together, from the outside it looked as though he was a lock for heaven. Jesus says it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples were shocked, mesmerized. “Who, then, can enter the kingdom of heaven?” And Jesus, of course, gives the perfect answer. With man, or for people, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. The real beauty with the answer is the fact that it comes from God himself.
Perhaps by this point of the sermon, you want to say enough! Isn’t there any good news for me today? There is. When you ask the question, “what must I do to be saved?” Don’t go away sad and downcast, realizing that you cannot keep God’s law perfectly. Don’t go away sad realizing that all the good things you have done up to this point of your life aren’t enough to get you to that state of spiritual perfection. No, look to the Good Teacher who is your Savior. He came to live for you and to live that perfect life that you could not live. And then he died on the cross to save you from your sins. For Him to die for you and wipe away your sins that you could be with him was his goal for you before you entered the world, and it is his goal to preserve you in that faith until life everlasting. It is not by our works that we are saved. It is by the work of our Savior whom we put our trust in. Don’t feel downcast when you leave this morning, rather, leave feeling relief for what your Savior has done for you. Impossible is nothing for Him. Amen.
I close this morning with this blessing: The peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Amen.