This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am (lay-reading), and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 9am.
Grace, mercy and peace be to
you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
Prayer: May the words of my
mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord,
our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Today in our reading, we have
a young man, a ruler, who comes up to Jesus to ask him a question. We read: And as Jesus was
setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him,
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
This is a very interesting
question. In the bible, we know that everything can be divided up into two main
teachings—the Law and the Gospel. We often talk about this in the Lutheran
Church, and the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is a very important
distinction. The Law teaches us what we should and shouldn’t do, and it also
shows us that we don’t do what we should and we do do what we shouldn’t. The
Law teaches us that God punishes wrong and rewards right, but we are all doing
wrong all the time. However, the Gospel teaches people who realise their sin
that they are saved, not because they have earned it, but because of what Jesus
has done for them. The Gospel teaches us what Jesus has done for us, and gives
to us his wonderful promises.
When the thief on the cross
was about to die, and was receiving the normal punishment that the Romans would
give to people who had committed crimes like he had committed, he asked Jesus
to remember him. And Jesus spoke to him a wonderful promise of the Gospel: Today,
you will be with me in Paradise. There is nothing that this man can do
anymore to inherit eternal life. There is nothing that he could ever have done.
Even if he weren’t a criminal, all of his righteous deeds would still have been
filthy rags. Even if he weren’t on a cross, he would still be worthy of death.
Even if he had never hurt a fly, it still would have been true what it says in
Genesis: Every intention of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil
continually.
And yet, it is precisely for
a man like him that Jesus speaks a wonderful word of the Gospel. Today, you
will be with me in Paradise. Jesus receives him completely and totally
freely, without any merit or worthiness in this man whatsoever. The thief did
nothing, but Jesus did everything. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world. He is the way, the truth and the life.
And so, what a strange
question it is that this rich young man asks of Jesus: Good Teacher, what
must I do to inherit eternal life?
In the Book of Acts, we read
about another event, where someone asks a very similar question. Paul and Silas
are in prison, and they are singing hymns, and at midnight there is an
earthquake, and the prison doors are opened, and the chains of the prisoners
become undone. Now in those days, in ancient Roman times, if a prison guard was
on duty and the prisoners escaped, he would have been killed. And so, when he
sees the prison doors opened, he thinks to kill himself, but Paul and Silas
stop him. Then the jailer says to Paul and Silas: Sirs, what must I do to be
saved? This is almost the same question that the young ruler asks Jesus in
our reading today: Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? But
what do Paul and Silas say to the jailer? They say: Believe in the Lord
Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your whole household. And then the
man and his family were baptised. So in this situation, the man is told: You
don’t have to do anything—just believe in Jesus. Jesus has done everything for
you—there is nothing that you need to do. And so the man believes and is
baptised—all the blessings of Jesus are given to him in baptism and he believes
in him. The man and his family are saved completely freely, by grace, without
any works, without needing to do anything, except to receive Jesus and his
gifts.
Now, in our reading today,
the man asks almost the same question, but Jesus responds to him in a
completely different way. The man says: Good Teacher, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one
is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder, Do not
commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud,
Honour your father and your mother. So here’s a question: why is it that
when the jailer asks this question, the apostles offer him salvation for free,
but when this man asks Jesus this question, Jesus starts reciting the Ten
Commandments and telling him a list of rules?
This has to do with the
distinction between the Law and the Gospel. And one of the ways in which Law
and Gospel are distinct is which people either the Law or the Gospel should be
spoken to. You see, not everyone should hear the preaching of the Gospel, and
not everyone should hear the preaching of the Law. If a person is troubled and worried
about their sins and is anxious about their salvation or about going to hell or
being bothered by the devil, then we shouldn’t speak the law to them at all.
These people already feel God’s judgment upon them, they are already bitten by
the knowledge of their sin, they are already crushed by the law. And so they
need to hear the Gospel—that Jesus has died for them, that he has risen from
the dead, that he forgives them, that he promises them eternal life, that he is
their Good Shepherd that will never let them be snatched out of his hand.
But on the other hand, if a
person is not worried or troubled by anything, and they think that everything’s
fine, that they haven’t done anything wrong, that they’re quite happy living as
they are, that they don’t care much for changing their life for the better,
that they don’t give a brass razoo what the bible says, then the Gospel
shouldn’t be spoken to them. Instead, they need to hear the Law. They need to
be told to wake up from their sleep, to be called to repent, to change their
life, to abandon their evil ways. You can’t preach forgiveness of sins to
someone who doesn’t acknowledge their sin. If they don’t recognise their sin,
they can’t hear the Gospel – it’s no use to them. So instead, they need to be
shown their sin, and have it exposed to them.
It’s a bit like going to the
doctor. Two people can have the same symptoms—but if one person recognises
their symptoms, they’ll go to the doctor to receive a treatment. But if someone
lives in denial, and pretends like they haven’t got any symptoms, they won’t go
to the doctor, and so they can’t get the help they need. It’s the same thing
with the Law and the Gospel. People who know their sin will gladly receiver the
message of forgiveness through Jesus. But people who don’t know their sin won’t
care at all. And so, as Christians, it takes a lot of experience when we talk
with people to work out what we should say to people. Is this person someone
who needs comfort, or do they need a wake-up call?
And so, in the Book of Acts,
we see a jailer, who realises that he has just had his life saved. And he was
stopped just short of killing himself, and he realised just what a fool he was.
And so, for him, all Paul and Silas needed to say to him was the Gospel: Believe
in the Lord Jesus.
But in our reading from Mark,
Jesus deals with this rich man differently. This man has the appearance of
being someone important, someone respectable. He comes to Jesus and says: Good
Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, “Why do
you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Jesus wants to say to
him: Listen, do you think that I’m just one of many good teachers? There are
plenty of people who think that Jesus is a good teacher. They line him up with
Buddha and the Dalai Lama and Confucius, or they line him up next to Mystic Meg,
or Mystic Energy this or that, or the Angel Gabriel or the Angel Michael, or
they line him up next to Pope John Paul or Mother Teresa, or even Martin Luther
himself. No—Jesus is not just one of many good teachers. He says: No one is
good except God alone. Jesus is not denying that he is a good teacher, by
the way. He knows that he is a good teacher, but he is also humble and refuses
to give the glory to himself. So he points back to God the Father. But we also
know from other passages that Jesus is true God, just as Thomas said after the
resurrection: My Lord and my God! Jesus and his Father are in perfect
unity. Jesus said to Philip: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And
so also, whoever learns from Jesus as their teacher, learns from God the Father
as their teacher. Jesus points the man to a higher reality: if you want a good
teacher, then learn from God himself, not from people. And since I and the
Father are one, since I am equal with God the Father, since I have equality
with God, then you know that when I teach you, I am not teaching you some
earthly teaching that you can just sample from anywhere, but I am teaching you
directly out of heaven itself, from the other side of the grave, from
eternity—I am shining pure light from heaven which makes everything on this
earth, and every earthly teacher, complete and total darkness by comparison. So
he says: Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
Then Jesus says to him: You
know the commandments: Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do
not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour your father and mother. Jesus
preaches to this man the law. He recognises in this man a person who is not
ready to hear the Gospel, who doesn’t really need Jesus. So he points him to
the Law. And the man, like many a person who is self-righteous and doesn’t need
Jesus, says: Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. There is
no-one so far away from Jesus and his grace and his forgiveness who thinks that
he has done everything that needs to be done. There is no-one so close to hell
than a person who thinks he is perfect and sinless. As St John says in his
first letter: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us.
Jesus has tremendous
compassion on this man, though. We read: And Jesus, looking at him, loved
him, and said to 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.” When
Jesus cuts this man’s heart with the law, he doesn’t do it because he hates
him, but because he loves him. It says: Jesus, looking at him, loved him. But
it’s as if Jesus says: OK. Let’s be serious now. Let me tell you what your
problem is. Let me show you your false god. He says: 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. And we read: Disheartened by the saying, he
went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Jesus doesn’t tell everyone
to sell everything and give to the poor—just to this man. Jesus exposes that
this man has a false god. He only wants Jesus as long as he can keep all his
shiny things. And Jesus says: No—I won’t compete. I want you, and I want you
completely. I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God. I will not share
you with some silly money, with your knick-knacks, with your great possessions.
And so, then we read: Jesus
looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those
who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at
his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter
the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Money is not the problem
here. It’s our human heart that is the problem. People often misquote the bible
and say that money is the root of all evil. That’s not what the bible
says. It says: The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Money
is a gift of God. If you have money, thank God for it. People often make the
mistake of saying that poor people go to heaven and rich people go to hell.
After all, in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man goes to hell
and the Lazarus, the poor man, goes to heaven. But Lazarus goes to meet
Abraham. If all rich people go to hell, what was the rich man Abraham doing in heaven?
So we have to be careful what
we say. It’s OK to have money, it’s a blessing of God to have money, but so long
as you are the master of your money and your money is not master over you. Many
poor people are much more money hungry than many rich people. How many people
in this town buy scratchy tickets, for example? When you are ruled by your
money, then your money becomes your master and your god. If you are ruled by
your money, then you need to start giving some of it away, like Jesus says to this
rich man.
When Jesus says how difficult
it is for rich people to enter the kingdom of God, this is bad news for
Australia. We are “the lucky country”, and we have everything we need. Once I
met a Sudanese lady who was pregnant with her sixth child, and was told by her
doctor to have an abortion because otherwise the child would starve. She said,
“Starve? In Australia? I know what it’s like to live in a country where my
children would starve. And I’d much rather live in a country where my children
would starve, than in a country where nobody prays.” Yes, Australia is a lucky
country, but a godless country. We are a rich country, we have everything, we
are comfortable, and so we don’t need God, and we don’t pray like we should.
We read: And [the
disciples] were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be
saved?” Jesus looked at them, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For
all things are possible with God.” Here we are pointed back to the Gospel.
The man walks away sorrowful—he doesn’t want to part with his possessions. But
when Jesus starts to talk about camels and needles and the dangers of wealth,
then the disciples start to despair. It’s almost like they want to fling their
wallets straight to the ground before their weight drag them into hell. They think:
We need to live on something, don’t we? They say: Then who can be saved? Now
Jesus recognises: now I am talking to repentant hearts, now I am dealing with
people who are face to face with the reality of their sin. Jesus says: With
man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. There
is not one person who is able to save themselves, no matter how rich or how
poor, no matter how much they keep the law. An honest person will realise just
how easily their sinful hearts clings to the earth’s filth. We realise that it
is impossible for us to save ourselves. God must do everything. God so loved
the world that he gave his only Son. With man it is impossible, but not with
God. For all things are possible with God.
Here at the end, Peter says: See,
we have left everything and followed you. Jesus 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, house and brothers and sisters and mothers and
children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age eternal life. But many
who are first will be last, and the last first.”
The teachings of Jesus are
incredible. They are so simple on paper, but then when we think it through, we
might think: but if I went about saying that, my mum would completely freak
out! I’d lose her—she’d never speak to me again. Or maybe, you think your
husband or wife, or children would think you were mad. “Oh dear, old Grandpa’s
become senile in his old age! He’s become a Christian!” Sometimes in the
church, we can easily compromise the sharpness of the truth, because we worry
what other people might think of us. And so, we end up with half-truths, or
falsehoods.
But where Jesus calls us to
sacrifice something, he always promises to repay. Our old friends and family
who now reject us for our faith or our convictions, are repaid with new
friends, new mothers, and fathers, or whatever. But when it comes to the truth
of God’s word and the purity of the Gospel, we must sacrifice everything for
it, because there is nothing in the world so precious. No sacrifice can be made
in vain—because God’s church, the Gospel, Jesus Christ himself, are priceless. If
we give him everything, Jesus will repay everything. If we give too little, we are
then in danger of losing everything, and being lost.
With us it is impossible. For
us to save ourselves is like a camel trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle.
Jesus is the one who saves us completely. He has done it, he has accomplished
it, he has paid the price and won the victory. And everything that we have ever
needed, that we need today, and that we will ever need in the future belongs to
him. As St Paul says in 2 Corinthians: He has delivered us from such a
deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will
deliver us again. Amen.
Dear Jesus, we thank you for saving
us. Search us, and continue to show us the idols of our hearts, so that we may
abandon them, and follow only and wholeheartedly after you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment