23^rd October 2012

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 14 October 2012

Lessons - Job 1:1-3; 31:24-28; Hebrews 4:12,13; Mark 10:13-31

Jesus said, '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.' (Mark
10:25)

This passage has inspired some incredible people to give up the comforts of life to serve the poor. It has inspired preachers to rail against the evils of capitalism. Its blunt message has led many to try to explain away this grotesque image of the Christian life.

In comparison with the millions of poverty-stricken people in our world, all of us are rich beyond measure. As we listen to this dramatic episode it seems hypocritical if, individually and as a church, we were to do anything less than give everything to the poor.

It may be that, like the man who approached Jesus, this is what is required of particular Christians. Wealth is a blessing that carries great responsibility. The Rabbis recognised the temptations of wealth but saw it as 'a sign of God's favour [which] makes it easier to do the "good works"
on which salvation will depend.' (D Nineham, St Mark, p271). Job's great wealth was a blessing - a sign of his uprightness. Jesus never criticises wealth - only people who regard it as a sign of social status or cheat others or neglect the poor or are mean-spirited.

The story is not really about wealth. It is about the riches of grace and the great responsibilities gladly undertaken by those who have been refashioned by grace. By highlighting the impossibility of the wealthy entering the Kingdom of God through their own efforts, Jesus demonstrates that nobody can enter the Kingdom of God by appealing to their religious, moral and social achievements - the things we hang onto, to justify our existence.

This encounter with a wealthy man speaks to all of us. God is not taken in by outward appearances. His word pierces our pride, discerns the thoughts and intentions of our hearts (Hebrews 4:12,13). The wealthy, the middle
class and the poor should all be unsettled by this encounter!

The man comes to Jesus with life's crucial question: 'What must I do to inherit eternal life? (v17)' What must I do to receive that fullness of life that is God's desire for us, now and in future?

'Here we have a man who is used to deciding his destiny, because he has the power and the wealth to force the issue.' (F Moloney in The Year of Mark, p59) He is also a 'religious success story' (W Willimon, Preaching to the Baptized, p70). He has carried out all his obligations to his neighbours and done all the 'good works' that could possibly be expected of a conscientious man of faith blessed with wealth.

As we soon learn, however, what he has done is not enough to enter the Kingdom of God! This upstanding, civic-minded chap, who is blessed by God with great wealth, must divest himself of everything that he has worked so hard to get. He is bewildered to learn that inheriting 'eternal life' in the company of Jesus means receiving the gift of grace like children who have no achievement to bring before God. (10:13-16) So he trudges off, crestfallen and sorrowful.

The disciples too are downcast. How come people who are blessed with wealth will find it 'extremely hard' (v23) to experience fullness of life?

Jesus tries to prepare them for the bombshell to come. 'Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! (v24)' They too, like the child who has no achievement about which to boast, must 'receive' the blessings of 'eternal life' (v15). Clearly, they do not get the point! When he goes on to say 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God' (v25) they say to one another 'Then who can be saved? (v26)'

They are not the only ones astounded and perplexed by Jesus' saying.

It has been argued that translators confused the similar Hebrew words 'camel' and 'rope'. Apparently it is easier to drag rope through a needle than a camel!

In the C9th the text was thought to be so problematic that it was thought that the Needle's Eye was a gate in Jerusalem through which a camel could just squeeze.

'The fact that such minimising interpretations have been thought up is itself an eloquent comment on the passage.' (D Nineham, p275.) The saying is meant to be memorably grotesque!

We want the story to be about we must 'do' - not what we may gladly 'receive'. If the rich or anybody else want to enjoy fullness of life in the company of Jesus they must be stripped of whatever it is that they cling to in order to justify their existence and make something of themselves.

Some will have to 'divest their assets, raffle their Porsches, liquidate their portfolios, give all to the poor and become small and vulnerable like children' (para W Willimon, pp70,71). Others will have to be stripped of the 'good deeds' by which they try to justify themselves. Sadly, many
will walk away.

Where the rich man and others get it wrong, Job gets it right. 'It would be a great evil of I were to congratulate myself for what I had accomplished in gaining great wealth.' (Job 31:24ff.) We are not asked to strive harder to enter the Kingdom of God. We are not required to 'do more' to pull ourselves (like a rope) into the Kingdom of God nor to squeeze in (through a narrow gate).

We must take Jesus at his word: 'For human beings it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible. (v27)' Nobody (rich or not) can 'inherit eternal life' on the basis of merit. 'The gift of discipleship is absolutely miraculous.' (Eduard Schweizer, The Good News according to Mark, p215.) It 'is never anyone's achievement but a gift from beyond' (para Warren Clarnette, Take & Read: The Year of Mark, p51).
Only an act of divine grace can make it possible!

Once we have been stripped of our 'possessions' - be they wealth, status, good deeds and so on - we are free to enjoy 'fullness of life' as followers of Christ without having to justify ourselves. Everything falls into place once God's grace is accepted as being the ultimate reality in life. We are free to accept Christ's calling, even when, as the second part of the reading says, it means leaving the security of family, church and country or suffering persecution (v30).

This would be daunting if not for the fact that Jesus is the embodiment of God's grace. The rich man acknowledges this at the outset. He 'kneels'
before Jesus and describes him as being 'good' (v17). Despite Jesus'
protest - 'God alone is good' - the rich man has correctly seen something God-like in him.

What follows is indeed a manifestation of the unparalleled 'goodness' of God! Jesus 'looked upon him and loved him' (v21). Jesus does not wait until after the rich man has reacted to his demand that he should sell everything and give to the poor before deciding whether or not to love him. Despite the rich man trying to justify himself by appealing to his own goodness, Jesus loves him. And Jesus does not stop loving him when he trudges away 'lacking one thing': fullness of life that is gladly 'received' as an undeserved gift of grace!

Had he understood this profound truth about his life, then Jesus' command to 'sell everything . . . ' would have been heard in a completely different way. He would have received his wealth as a gift of grace and been pleased to share it with those in need. He would not have thought that he 'lacked anything'. Like Charles Wesley, he would have been 'delighted to employ whate'er God's bounteous grace has given' (Australian Hymn Book, 480) knowing that God's 'sovereign grace to all extends, wide as infinity' (AHB, 50).

Had he seen God's 'goodness' in this light, he would have realised that grace does not leave a person unchanged. God's grace liberates us by 'stripping us of all that stands between us and radical commitment to Jesus' (F Moloney, p59). When Jesus loves a person (v21) they are changed.
Knowing that they 'lack one thing' (v21) they may trudge off sad and crestfallen, or they may find 'fullness' of life in the company of Jesus and give themselves sacrificially in the service of others in glad response to the undeserved love of God.

The only way a camel can go through the eye of a needle is by a miracle of grace. The achievements we hump about with us need to be pierced. That may be very painful! But it is preferable to being left to carry around our treasured achievements and possessions, unable to give ourselves fully to others in glad response to God's costly grace embodied in Christ.

May the grace of God, revealed in the love of Christ, unsettle, liberate and transform us so that, in receiving from God we do not lack one thing
but are pleased to give ourselves for the life of the world.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.