Who in the World Can Be Saved?
Mark 10:17-27[2]
Sometimes it seems
like people either take salvation too seriously or too lightly. There are those
who think that what it’s all about is securing your eternal destiny, and you
just have to say the right words or go through the motions of the right
rituals. As long as you get your “weekly dose” of God, you’re good to go. Then
there are those who seem to think of salvation as an “impossible dream” or an
“unreachable star.” No matter what they do, they seem to think that salvation
is a goal that they can never attain. As with most things in life, I would say the
truth lies somewhere between those two extremes.
If you’ve been following
the last few weeks’ sermons, you may be wondering who could ever live up to the
challenge of following Jesus in the life of the kingdom of God. Jesus has
called us to “take up our cross” and “lose” our lives for his sake (Mk 8:34-35).
If we want to follow him, we are to become “last of all and servant of all” (Mk
9:35). Jesus warns us in the strongest terms against causing others to stumble
in faith or stumbling into sin ourselves. He has made it clear that following
him means taking seriously our relationships. And this week, Jesus confronts
the challenge that wealth poses to faith. We may well be wondering, “Who in the
world can be saved?”
Our lesson from the
Gospel of Mark is a familiar one: a wealthy man comes to Jesus and asks him
“what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ answer probably seems strange
to us: “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’” (Mk 10:19). Those of us with ears more
attuned to St. Paul and who have “cut our teeth” on the Reformed version of the
Christian faith would find it difficult to think that you “inherit eternal
life” by keeping the “commandments.”
I think what we have
to understand is that Jesus’ answer is framed in a particular way of viewing
obedience to God. Everything Jesus says about obeying God has to be interpreted
through the “two great commandments”: “you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Deut 6:5; Lev
19:18). Of course, I’m not sure that makes things easier for us. I’ve always
said that it’s much harder to love God and love others—truly—than to keep a
list of rules that relate to our external behaviors. But the idea that we are
called to love God and love others may help us make sense of Jesus’ answer. I believe
his point is that when we do so, it will show up in the way we live our lives.
But that’s only part
of the problem with our lesson for today. The other part is that this man
responded to Jesus by saying “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth”
(Mk 10:20)! We might be tempted to think this guy was only fooling himself, but
Mark’s Gospel tells us that “Jesus, looking at him, loved him” (Mk 10:21). I
think this man was sincere in what he had asked and in his response to Jesus,
and Jesus saw that. But we all have our “blind spots,” and unfortunately this
man’s blind spot was the fact that he “owned much property” (Mk 10:22, NASB).
I don’t think it was
an “accident” that Jesus told him to sell all he had and give the proceeds to
the poor. You may have noticed that Jesus included the commandment “you shall
not defraud” along with the others from the Ten Commandments. In the Bible, hoarding
wealth at the expense of the poor constituted “defrauding” them. And the fact
that this man owned “much property” directly violated Scripture. In that day,
no land was to be permanently sold; every fifty years, in the “Jubilee” year,
it was to return to the family that owned it originally. But in Jesus’ day, all
the land was owned by wealthy people like this man. That meant that there were
many families who had been “defrauded” of their property. This was the “blind
spot” in this man’s profession of obedience to God.
We might think this
was just a matter of this man’s relationship to his wealth. But Jesus goes on
to say, “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” (Mk 10:25)! This seems to
apply more broadly than just one man’s attachment to his property. Throughout
the Gospels, Jesus makes it clear that wealth is a serious obstacle to “loving
God with all your heart.” There’s something about our possessions that can
“possess” us. If we aren’t careful, wealth has a way of taking over our heart
and our life.[2] But selling all that we have and giving it away isn’t a very practical option
for us. That’s why disciplines like hospitality, generosity, stewardship, and
simplicity have always been part of the Christian life. The best way to ensure
that your possessions don’t possess you is to give away enough of them that you
notice it.
With all that we’ve
heard from Jesus, our lesson for today might lead you to ask with Jesus’
disciples, “Then who in the world can be saved?” (Mk 10:26, NLT). I
think it’s a natural response to Jesus’ deeply challenging statements about
what it means to truly follow him. And we might really despair, wondering if
anyone can ever live up to all that Jesus demands of us. But Jesus’ words to
his disciples apply to us as well: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for
God; for God all things are possible” (Mk 10:27). If we’re trying to “inherit”
eternal life by our own efforts, we will always fall short. But as we seek—however
imperfectly—to love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as
ourselves, we have the assurance that “for God all things are possible.” God
can do surprising things in our lives and through our efforts.
[1] ©
2021 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 10/10/2021
for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Joel Green, Theology of the Gospel of Luke, 148: “Wealth becomes a
master if it is not mastered.”
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