The Impossible Possibility
Scripture Reading: Mark 10:17-31
We’re already in mid October, which means that Halloween is right around the corner. When I was growing up, Halloween was my favorite holiday. I loved everything about it: the colors and crispness of peak autumn, searching the attic to bring out the decorations, deciding upon and designing a costume (I never went the store-bought route), trick-or-treating with friends as a child, and attending parties as a young adult. Even among my many cats, the black one is my favorite (don’t tell the others!).
My enthusiasm for the holiday has somewhat diminished with age and with a spouse who doesn’t get what all the fuss is about, although I did persuade her to don a costume for the two years we dated before marrying. Still, there is one Halloween tradition I never miss, and that is watching the animated classic It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
The Great Pumpkin referred to in the title lives in the imagination of Charlie Brown’s best friend Linus. While all his friends are out trick-or-treating, Linus spends Halloween night in a pumpkin patch with Sally, Charlie Brown’s kid sister, waiting in vain for the Great Pumpkin to appear.
Linus is a study in contrasts. As depicted by his creator, Charles Schultz, he possesses an insightfulness and a maturity well beyond his years, and yet he is almost never seen without his baby blue security blanket tucked under his arm and pressed against his face. No matter how much ridicule he endures from his saber-tongued sister Lucy, Linus will not give up the blanket.
With his blanket by his side, Linus feels secure. He feels in control. To let go of the blanket would be unimaginable. It would be tantamount to losing his sense of self. If he doesn’t have his security blanket, who is he really?
That is the issue that confronts the rich man in today’s passage. When Jesus invites him to let go of the money and possessions that he clings to for security, he faces a crisis of identity.
Last week was the first of four weeks that will take us through almost every verse of the tenth chapter of Mark’s Gospel. As Jesus makes his way south from his home in Galilee to Jerusalem where the cross awaits, he will encounter opposition from various religious authorities, calls for mercy from those seeking to be healed, and, as we see today, the occasional person drawn to him by his reputation for wisdom and his moral teachings.
As we pick up the story from last week, Jesus and the disciples are walking along when a man runs up to him and kneels before him, not in desperation but in humility. He asks Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Unlike Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees last week, in which they asked him a question about divorce in order to trap him, here this man is sincere. He is looking for spiritual direction. We might even expect Jesus to compliment him on having his moral compass seemingly pointed in the right direction.
But that’s not what Jesus does. First, he answers the man’s question with a question of his own. “Why do you call me good? There is no one good but God alone.” This is the first inkling that Jesus’ response to the man’s question will not be one that the man was expecting. Maybe it’s Jesus’ way of reframing the man’s understanding of who Jesus is. Jesus is not just another “good teacher,” i.e., he is not a wandering sage who dispenses wisdom to those seeking enlightenment. He does not possess wisdom from God, he is the wisdom of God. But the wisdom of God is nothing like the wisdom of mortals. As he has just recently affirmed to the disciples, he is the Messiah, but he is the Messiah who journeys to Jerusalem not to be crowned but to be crucified.
Next Jesus tells the man what he already knows. He reiterates the law. “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.”
You might have noticed that this isn’t the entirety of the Ten Commandments. For those keeping score, Jesus has listed commandments five through nine. What do they have in common? Unlike the first four commandments, which concern our love for God, the rest of the commandments address our love for our neighbor.
Remember what the man had asked Jesus: What must I do to inherit eternal life? At first glance the question seems unassuming, even noble, but there is an undercurrent of something less noble. In this regard, Jesus’ answer is illuminating. The man’s focus was on himself. He wanted to know what he must do to ensure that he would have eternal life. But Jesus redirects his focus away from himself and toward his neighbor.
To which the man responds, in effect, Been there, done that. “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Let’s be generous, as Jesus is, and not consider the ways in which in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus heightens the demands of the law. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder and that anyone who looks at another lustfully has already committed adultery in their heart.
Let’s put that aside, as Jesus does, and take the man’s word at face value that he has kept all of the commandments in every way imaginable. Accepting that, Jesus then looks upon him with love. “You lack one thing,” he tells him. “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
Mark writes that when the man heard this he was shocked. Shocked! He never imagined that his wealth might stand in the way of living a righteous life. In fact, he probably thought that his wealth was a gift from God for keeping the commandments so faithfully.
It’s tempting to think that way—that God rewards the righteous with material wealth and physical health. If we don’t think that’s the way God works, then we think that’s the way God should work. I mean, it’s only fair. The righteous ought to prosper.
In fact, that’s exactly what the disciples think. When they see the rich man walk away grieving, they too are shocked. When Jesus tells them how hard it will be for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God, they are perplexed. What he’s telling them doesn’t make any sense. What does he mean? How can it be hard for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God when God has clearly shown favor to them by making them wealthy?
Jesus then just keeps upping the ante. Addressing them as their teacher, he says, “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.”
Mark writes that they were greatly astounded to hear this. They were astounded! What on earth is he talking about? What Jesus is telling them conflicts with everything they believe about salvation. God is supposed to reward the righteous. The wealthy are such because God has blessed their good deeds. The disciples are so theologically disoriented that all they can do is ask, “Then who can be saved?” What you’re telling us is that it’s impossible.
Bingo! I don’t think Jesus actually said “Bingo,” but he looks at his disciples and says, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
But this isn’t enough for Peter. Don’t you love Peter? I do. And I’m not being sarcastic. Peter is the one who says what everyone else is thinking but is afraid to give voice to. With a mixture of confusion and exasperation, he says, “Look, we have left everything and followed you!” We gave it all up. Our homes. Our livelihoods. Our futures. That rich man may not have been able to give up his possessions, but the twelve of us gave up everything to follow you.
Peter is asking for fairness. But that’s not how God works. The gospel isn’t about fairness; it’s about grace for sinners. And grace, by definition, is something given to us that we don’t deserve. When it comes to receiving the grace of God, we don’t bring anything to the table. We don’t have a heavenly credit score that God checks to determine whether we qualify for entrance into the kingdom. Jesus isn’t our loan officer.
“Well, Jesus, here are my papers. I believe you’ll find everything in order. As you can see I was baptized as a child. I attended Sunday school. I’ve been a member of the church all my life (except for a few years in my twenties). I donate to the church and volunteer at the church. I’ve kept most of the commandments, more or less. I pay my taxes and I try to be a good neighbor. Am I approved?”
We don’t enter the kingdom of God through our own righteous effort; we receive it in complete dependence like a child.
We so want to be in control of salvation. We want to have a say. Like the rich man, we want to know what we must do to inherit eternal life. This is Peter’s point. The disciples left everything to follow Jesus. What more must they do?
But Peter’s complaint, just like the rich man’s question, represents a categorical error. Salvation has nothing at all to do with us doing anything. Salvation is all about receiving what Jesus gives to us. We don’t enter the kingdom of God through our own righteous effort; we receive it in complete dependence like a child. If we must do anything, it is only to let go of the notion that we need to do something.
Jesus does not give the rich man a to-do list; he gives him an invitation. Let go of the wealth that you cling to like a security blanket and come follow me. And Jesus also invites us to let go of whatever we cling to that hinders us from receiving the joy of the gospel: an old grudge against a rival, a grievance against a loved one, an inability to forgive yourself for some past sin, fear and anxiety about the future, resentment at God for suffering that you’ve endured, and yes, an unhealthy concern with money and material possessions.
This may seem to be an impossible task. And that’s true, for us it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.
Ordinarily, I would end there, but since we’re not having Bible study today, I want to end with something that I would have mentioned in Bible study. We’re told that the rich man walks away in despair because he cannot give up his possessions. But later in Mark, after Jesus has been betrayed by Judas, and after the other disciples have fled, we hear of a mysterious young man who was following Jesus. He appears only in the Gospel of Mark.
51 A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.
Maybe, just maybe, this young man was the very same man who, on his own, could not let go of his possessions. But with God all things are possible.