Who Can be Saved?

 Mark 10:17-31  October 13, 2024

 

When my Aunt was about 24 years old

years old she went to the

doctor for a routine physical

and was diagnosed with breast cancer.

At 24 she had a mastectomy and was told

that she should not attempt to have children.

 

Like that, her life entirely changed.

 

Many of us have had that experience of one moment

thinking they were perfectly healthy,

maybe going to the doctor or having an episode,

and then the next moment finding

that they were very sick.

If you haven’t experienced it, then maybe

you’ve experienced it with a spouse or a loved one.

 

Maybe to a lesser extent,

The same thing happens

in the gospel story today.

 

It begins with a man running up to Jesus.

Usually when we see someone

running up to Jesus in the gospels,

they want to be healed.

and Jesus heals most people very quickly.

 

But in this case, the healing will take a little longer,

because this man does not even realize that he is sick.

 

In fact, it is just the opposite.

This man feels perfectly healthy.

This man is secure.

 

The guy was rich, it says it later.

He had many possessions.

He’s got the house, the nice car, he’s got the retirement

account, he does not have to worry about food or rent

or whether he can afford things that he needs or wants.

 

Actually, in his life, in this world, he secure

He has so secured his place in this life

that he has checked it off his to do list.

He doesn’t need to do any more here.

He has moved onto eternal life

and he wants to know what he

needs to do to secure that part as well.

 

When he is asked about keeping the commandments,

he answers Jesus with a cocky confidence.

Yes, all that is taken care of.

He believes that he is in great shape.

 

And it is obvious to him that he is good with God

because he believes God has rewarded him

with wealth and possessions.

It actually might seem like he’s coming to Jesus

to show off. Or just to have Jesus tell him that he’s

on the right track to seal up eternal life too.

 

The man interpreted his riches to be an asset,

but Jesus thought that they were a detriment.

 

Jesus tells the man that if he were really well,

that he should be willing to give away everything that he owns.

Give everything away.  Not just some. That will cure you.

 

When the man hears this, he doesn’t argue or debate.

He knows that he’s not willing to do that,

so he knows that he’s not doing

as well as he thought he was before.

Jesus sent him away grieving.

 

Jesus tends to do that to us. He’s doing it a lot lately.

It’s been said that the gospel words of Jesus

“comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

 

When we become too complacent

with our own accomplishments,

too sure of our own well-being,

then Jesus words often come in to remind us that

all is not as it appears. Jesus has a way of humbling us.

 

Like this man,

our possessions and accomplishments

can make us feel like we have achieved so much.

Those things do take away so much of the stress

that a lot of other, less wealthy people have.

 

But actually, our own accomplishments and our own

possessions and security can lie to us.

They tell us that we are fine and everyone else

that’s not in our position has the problem.

But we can be sick and we don’t even know it.

 

The world, especially this capitalist world in the US,

forces us to a mentality of acquisition

To achieve almost anything requires that we get enough

money and things so we can at least fend for ourselves.

We’re set off from an early age to acquire things.

Housing, transportation, savings,

so we can take care of ourselves.

And if we can do those things, we are considered successful.

It is the gauge of judgement, even if we don’t want it to be.

We look at people who can’t provide those things for themselves 

with different eyes than we do people who are able to.

 

In a lot of ways, we worship on the altar of

independence and self-sufficiency,

And this goal has forced us to  be isolated, and self-centered.

We’re separated into these independent kingdoms

of personal wealth.

 

Some of us have been fortunate enough

to get what we need to live comfortably, and some of us

have much more than our basic needs met.

I’m guessing that most of us in here fit that bill. Myself included.

In comparison to much of the world, we are rich.

And the world tells us that we’re the standard to live up to.

We’re the American dream that everyone should strive towards.

 

And when we use the world’s standards,

we diagnose ourselves as healthy,

and we diagnose those others as sick.

The world has drilled this into our heads

so much that it is hard to see any other reality.

 

But the world’s standards aren’t God’s standards.

Jesus doesn’t look at the financially self-sufficient person

“Great job, you’re obviously a great person”

just because they’re financially self-sufficient,

any more than Jesus looks at someone who’s poor

and says, “Well, you’re a bad person.

That’s the world’s standards, not Jesus.

 

The man saw the rest of those people

around Jesus who were sick and possessed by demons

and the rich man assumed that since

he was not like those people he was better.

But Jesus is not fooled by this man’s

wealth or his confidence.

When Jesus looks at him, he doesn’t see his outside trappings.

Jesus sees right through his wealth.

 

Jesus could see that this man was addicted to the security

that his riches had given him.

This man was possessed by demons just like the others.

He was possessed by his possessions.

And so Jesus forces him into a spiritual crisis.

 

Jesus tells him that the only cure is to give his stuff away.

And the man goes away grieving. Because he’s got a lot of stuff 

and he likes having that stuff. He can’t bring himself to do it then.

And then Jesus says that line that is so concerning:

 

"How hard it will be for those who have wealth 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."

 

Which is really concerning since we know that camels

can’t get through the eye of a needle.

 

And the real question anyone has when they read this,

and like every challenging thing that Jesus has been saying

lately: does this apply to me?

 

Am I the rich that Jesus is talking about.

I don’t consider myself rich, but realistically,

I probably have many more possessions and much more

security than this guy could ever dreamed of having.

Does Jesus want me to give all I have away to the poor?

So does Jesus expect us to give away everything?

 

And after doing a lot of study and thinking and reading

on the topic, the answer is: maybe

I think Jesus really does think it would be a good idea.

I mean think about how great that would be if the well-off

self-sufficient people in the world gave all

their stuff to other people who had nothing.

Or even half their stuff.

Or even if just the Christians who had

enough gave their stuff to the poor.

There would be no more hunger, no more homelessness.

The world would be better.

I know that Jesus would think this was a great idea for the world.

We could rely on each other instead of being on our own.

 

But I also  think Jesus also knows that it’s highly unlikely that we’ll do it. 

Right now, you’re probably saying some of the same

things that were going on in my mind when I was writing this:

Who would decide who gets my stuff? 

ow do I know they’re not keeping everything for themselves? 

Who exactly is getting it?

And - I’m not gonna be the first one to do it.

 

I mean humanity’s had this relationship with Jesus f

or over 2000 years, we’ve heard this story over and over,

and there’s not ever been a rash of people like me

writing a check for everything we’ve got.

I think Jesus would love it on the one hand,

but Jesus knows we won’t on the other.

 

But here’s what I do think Jesus expects from us.

Like that man, Jesus wants us to go away grieving.

Jesus realizes that we won’t trade in our security and comfort

for some group of poor people that we might or might not know.

But Jesus wants us to be sad and uncomfortable with that fact.

So maybe we will do something about it one day.

 

And like that man, Jesus wants us to understand

the true state of our spiritual health.

Jesus wants us to realize that having

and not sharing is a problem.

Jesus wants us to have a level of unease

with the way of the world and the state of humanity.

Jesus wants us to understand our illness.

So maybe we will try to cure it.

 

And maybe the biggest question we have is like

what the disciples asked. Who can be saved?

Are we all doomed then? Is God going to forsake all of us?

 

And after doing a lot of study and thinking and reading

on the topic, the answer is: no. God will not forsake us.

God will save us all.

 

After Martin Luther died, in 1546,

they found a scrap of paper in his pocket that said,

“We are all beggars, this is true”

This is true.

Jesus wants us to understand:

Our stuff won’t save us, our bank accounts won’t save us,

our house, or our pensions or 401ks won’t save us.

Don’t rely on those things.

You can give them all away,

maybe you should give them all away,

if they’re clouding your vision.

They won’t save the world.

Only God will save the world.