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S. Pentecost 22.24 Mark 10:23-31

Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.’

And, for once, the disciples take Jesus’ words at face value. They get it!—that, by Jesus’ reckoning, we’re all rich shi…pmuncks, now! They exclaim, exceedingly astonished, ‘Who then can be saved!?’ And Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.’

At pastor’s conference recently there’s this retired dude, “Pastor Mike”, doing “bible study” (our circuit has mostly retired pastors, though I don’t recall Jesus mentioning an earthly retirement plan 😉 he’s quoting this verse and concluding from it that: if you just pray hard enough, you can get whatever your little heart desires (bigger congregations filled with unbelievers seemed to be at the top of Pastor Mike’s list), also that: while salvation is impossible for everyone, God grants it to anyone who just prays hard enough…

I’d kept my mouth shut the previous 25 minutes, but I couldn’t resist a slight… correction, “Uh, Jesus doesn’t say salvation is impossible for everyone, actually, just for the rich.” I smiled. There was an uncomfortable shifting of the other pastors in their seats. They know I’m not as jiggy as they are for filling up the pews with unbelievers, but the even more disturbing thought that I might not be a Republican furled many brows…

Mike glared at me and said, “Let’s look at our next passage that if we have faith like a mustard seed, we can move mountains!” Which was very… moving for us all.

See why I complain about going to those things? Henry understands now. Speak to him if you still don’t get it…

Peter gets it. “Uh, gets what, exactly? Pastor’s conferences?” Yes. Pastor’s conferences. Jesus. Everything. Peter gets it all. He’s especially on his game this morning. He says to Jesus, ‘See, we have left everything and followed you…’

And Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you: there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands—with persecutions(!), and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

What does this mean?

Well, I’ll tell you one thing it doesn’t mean: it doesn’t mean the rich can get into heaven with all their shtuff if they just pray hard enough! No; I’m afraid it doesn’t mean that. Hopefully that gets you shifting uncomfortably in your pew. That’s the direction I’m trying to move you, now…

It’s a troubling text, this Gospel for today, isn’t it? What about family values, for Christ’s sake? Peter is bragging that he’s left his wife, his kids, his paying job with health insurance to follow some itinerant Galilean Messiah who thinks he’s God or something?!

And Jesus says, ‘Amen’, to that!? “What?! Are none of these guys Republicans? Next you’re going to tell me Jesus and the Apostles aren’t even Americans! Are you seriously telling me that I need to hit the road like Jack Kerouac, like some beatnik?” Well… I’m not not saying that. 😉 Kerouac was a died in the wool Republican you know, always voted Republican and hated the hippies who were fans of his book. A catholic Christian too, he claimed. But a French-Canadian immigrant, also. Couldn’t speak a word of English till grade school. Hey, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. Every sliver lining has a cloud… 😉

But, to be crystal clear, I am saying you need to hit the road like Peter and the 12 and the other assorted Jesus hangers-on, fan boys and girls. You need to hit the road like a Xn. And what does that look like exactly?

Well; it helps to see exactly what Jesus means by rich. We touched on it briefly last week with the rich young ruler. Jesus told him “sell all that you have and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.” And the rich young ruler went away sad because he had great possessions.

I am of the opinion (and it’s just an opinion that can’t be proved one way or the other till we get to heaven where I bet you’ll see I’m right 😉 that the rich young ruler might actually be John Mark, author of the Gospel, himself. Even if he isn’t, I think he is a follower of Jesus. How?—

By getting home to the large estate he’s just inherited and realizing he doesn’t have anything but obligations to family, friends, neighbors, and the poor. He’s a POOR steward of God’s bounty. The estate didn’t belong to his father. He inherited it from his father and on down the line—turtles all the way down 😉 till you get to Eden where God gifts Adam and Eve everything to manage as stewards of his bounty!

To be rich then (in the biblical sense 😉 is to have possessions. Faith in Jesus basically ROBS us of… everything! IT puts us back with Adam and Eve (before the unfortunate eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) into the happy position of having NOTHING!, but living as beggars after all, with hands always open to receive GIFTS from the King! Hands that never close and say MINE!

Faith in Jesus means living as St. Paul says he does: as having NOTHING, yet paradoxically possessing all things—spouse, kids, house, home, job, health insurance, 401K—ours but not ours, belonging only to Jesus after whom we hit the road to heaven where the treasure Jesus gives will be all ours because we see it is always, only, HIS. 😉

When you’re poor in spirit, having no works, no deeds, no possessions, nothing that you’ve earned, nothing that you own, then you’re beatified by Jesus. You live day to day off whatever he gifts you. The best part about hitting the road like a Xn is that you leave your sins behind. Your pride. Your narcissism. Your anxiety. Your worries. Now, the only thing about the Zombie Apocalypse (when it comes 😉 that will be difficult for you is pretending you’re not excited!

Being rich is just a demonic delusion. Jesus gets us over that! Naked we came into the world, and naked, with nothing, we leave for heaven. ‘Money’s just something you throw off the back of a train. Got a headful of lightning. A hatful of rain…’ as Tom Waits says*: ‘Forgive me, pretty baby, but I always take the long way home’.

Jesus takes us the long way home. By becoming poor through faith in him, true riches are showered upon us in Holy Baptism. Dying with him to sin and self, we rise for Christ’s sake, holy, free. The cross is the gate to eternal life in heaven.

The first are last and the last first. And Peace, surpassing all understanding, guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdyscH9TsnA