22 Days

Mark 10:17-31

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “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.”

Jesus said, it’s easier for a real, live, long necked, large humped, vomit spitting, 1300 lb. dromedary to go through the eye of a standard No. 5 sewing needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.  Some folks like the idea  that the “Eye of the Needle” is actually the name of a gate in Jerusalem that you can get your camel through if you just unload all the stuff it is carrying.  Maybe.  But I suspect Jesus was being more hard-core than that.  I think Jesus was talking about both, a real three quarter ton “ship of the desert” camel AND a literal, tiny sewing needle.  So the question remains… how will we get THAT camel… through THAT needle AND how are we going to do the thing Jesus says is HARDER THAN THAT, which is to get rich people (who, if we’re honest, is ALL of us)… how are we going to get all of US into heaven?

We can assume the rich, young man in this story had tried all the usual ways.  He had tried to PAY to have his camel pushed through.  He’d tried to be good and virtuous enough to EARN his camel passage through.  I’m sure he had born the guilt and shame he thought might get his camel through.  He might have even tried to lie and say, “We have the greatest camels and we got them all through.”  No matter what he tried, in the end he found… you can’t do it.  YOU can’t get your camel through the eye of a needle and YOU can’t get yourself into heaven.

 

You see, he was (like us rich folks usually are) used to solving problems on his own.  He had jumped over countless challenges and been successful without any help.  Whether it was his money, talent, privilege, experience or a combination of all of the above, he was used to… convinced even… that HE could tackle anything the world might throw at him BY HIMSELF.  You can see that in the way he asked the question of Jesus, “What must I DO to inherit eternal life?”  What must I DO?  

Jesus knew, that because he had been successful in so much relying ONLY on himself, it would be almost impossible for him to believe there was anything he could NOT do by himself.  Jesus told him, “To get your camel through the eye of that needle you’ll need to GIVE UP.  Give up the idea that YOU can make it happen.”  This guy had never given up!  All his success had been built on the fact that HE could make anything happen.  So he turned his back on Jesus and walked away to keep looking for a way that HE could buy, earn, fix, wheel, deal, scheme, or lie HIMSELF into an inheritance of eternal life. 

In this parable, Jesus is asking us to believe what that rich, young man just couldn’t:  That for mortals, it’s impossible to buy, earn, fix, wheel, deal, scheme or lie yourself into eternal life… but it is not impossible for God.  For God ALL things are possible… it’s possible for God to pull a 1300lb. camel through the eye of a No. 5 sewing needle.  It is EVEN possible for God to pull the likes of you and me through the needle’s eye of death and into eternal life.  

But wait, there’s more!  For God it’s not only POSSIBLE to do all that… but as it turns out for us… God’s already done it!  God’s reached through the eye of that needle that we call the Cross of Christ, grabbed hold of you and me, and whether we like it or not, God’s even reached through and pulled that rich young man through as well.  God, in fact, has pulled ALL of creation through, from death into life.  And if God can do THAT… then… well, what other completely hopeless, terribly frightening, totally impossible thing for YOU to fix, turns out to be something that God can handle without even breaking a sweat? 

So, what is one, horrible, anxiety flooding, sleep depriving, totally out of your control thing that you find yourself facing today?  Hmmmm?  I wonder?  Golly, what could it be?  Maybe something, I don’t know, let’s just pick a random number… how about something maybe, oh, I don’t know… 22 days away?  Anything?  Any worry?  Anything out of your control?  Well, if you come up with something let me know.  In the mean time though, for us mortals… the first take home from this sermon is that ALTHOUGH… YOU OR ME trying to get ANY of those hope stomping, joy trampling, justice wrecking camels that we might think up later through the eye of the needle is soul crushingly impossible… NONE OF IT!  NONE…OF…IT... is impossible for God! 

That was SO hard to believe for that rich young man that he went off sad and alone and the second take home from this sermon is THAT might very well have been his BIGGEST mistake.  Because, here’s what I want you to remember over the next 22 days at least (remembering this for more days would be better, but we can start with just 22).  What I want you to remember is that when we face the impossible, one of the reasons God has given us one another is so that we can get together and remind one another that when we face the impossible GOD HAS…. GOD IS…. AND GOD WILL… do whatever needs to be done… including pulling what appears to be hopeless, horrific, and dead, through the Cross of Christ and into eternal life.  Let’s all do our very best NOT to go off alone in these next few weeks but to gather here in these next 22 days so we can remind one another that God really does have the whole world, in Their Loving, Divine, Hands, okay?  Okay.  Amen.