12^th November 2009

(Sunday 11 October 2009)

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley

Lessons -- Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Mark 10:17-31

Jesus said, '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.' (Mark
10:25 NRSV adapted)

This passage has inspired some incredible people to give up the comforts of life to serve the poor. It has inspired some preachers to rail against the evils of capitalism. It has encouraged theologians and laypeople to explain away this grotesque image of the Christian life.

In our consumer society, where the purchase of goods, property and financial security are dominant, it seems laughable for us to preach on and listen to this text today. In comparison with the vast numbers of poverty-stricken people in our world, all of us are rich beyond measure.
In the light of this episode it looks like hypocrisy if we were to give anything less to the poor than all that we and Church possess!

It may be that, as with the man who approached Jesus, this is what is required of particular Christians. Wealth is a blessing which carries great responsibilities. The Rabbis recognised the temptations of wealth but saw it as 'a sign of God's favour [that] makes it easier to do the "good works" on which salvation will depend' (D Nineham, St Mark, 271).
The parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16f) doesn't criticise the accumulation of wealth, but his stinginess.

This story, however, is not about being generous with our riches. It is about the impossibility of the wealthy -- and everybody else -- entering the Kingdom of God through their own efforts and with their own resources.

The man's crucial question is, 'What must I do to inherit eternal life?
(v17)' What must I do to receive that fullness of life that is God's desire for us, now and in the future? 'Here we have a man who is used to deciding his destiny, because he has the power and the wealth to force the issue. (F. Moloney in The Year of Mark, 59)' He is also a 'religious success story' (W Willimon, Preaching to the Baptized, 70), having carried out all his obligations to his neighbours (Jesus doesn't ask him about his duty to God). He has done all the 'good works' that could possibly be expected of a conscientious man of faith blessed with wealth!

As we soon learn, however, what he has done is not enough to enter the Kingdom of God. This strong, responsible and blessed man must divest himself of everything he has achieved as a self-made man. He has not understood, as the disciples do not understand, that being Jesus' disciple and experiencing 'eternal life' entails receiving it like children who have no achievement to bring to God (10:13-16). In reply to the disciples'
bewilderment that this God-favoured man falls short, Jesus reminds them of this when he says, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God!
(v24)'

Only then does he say, 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. (v25)' Already he has implied that, although the problem is particularly great for the wealthy, it is a problem for all. The disciples clearly understand this when, straight after the use of this grotesque image, they said to one another, 'Then who can be saved? (v26)'

They are not the only ones astounded and perplexed by Jesus' saying.

* It has been argued that translators confused the similar words 'camel'
and 'rope'. Apparently it is easier to drag rope through a needle than a camel!

* In the 9th Century the text was thought to be so problematic that it was surmised that the 'Needle's Eye' was a gate in Jerusalem through which a camel could just squeeze.

'The fact that such minimising interpretations have been thought up is itself an eloquent comment on the passage. (D Nineham, St Mark, 275)'
People still want it to be about what they must do rather than what they should gladly receive. The saying is meant to be memorably grotesque! If the rich or anybody else want to enter the Kingdom of God and be Jesus'
disciples, they must be stripped of whatever they have accomplished in becoming self-made people.

As Willimon puts it, some will have to 'divest their assets, raffle their Porsches, liquidate their portfolios, give all to the poor and become small and vulnerable like children' (paraphrase 70-71). Others will have to be stripped of their self-conscious good deeds by which they try to justify themselves and dodge Jesus' call to leave their middle class security or upper class philanthropy and follow him. Sadly, like the rich man, many will simply walk away.

We are not asked to strive harder to enter the Kingdom of God. We are not required to 'do more' to pull ourselves (like a rope) into the Kingdom of God or to squeeze in (through a narrow gate). We must take Jesus at his
word: 'For human beings it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible. (v27)' In other words, nobody (rich or not) can 'inherit eternal life' on the basis of merit. 'The gift of discipleship is absolutely miraculous. (E Schweizer, The Good News according to Mark, 215)' It 'is never anyone's achievement but a gift from beyond'
(paraphrase W Clarnette, Take & Read: The Year of Mark, 51). Only an act of divine grace can make it possible.

Once we've been stripped of our 'possessions' -- whether they be wealth, status, good deeds, devotion and so on -- we are free to enjoy 'fullness of life' as followers of Christ without having to justify ourselves by what we have achieved. Everything falls into place once God's grace is accepted as being the ultimate reality in life. We are free to accept Christ's calling even when, as the second part of the reading says, it means leaving the security of family, church and country or suffering persecution (v30).

This would be depressing if it were not for the fact that Jesus is the fullness of God's grace. With an innocence that conveys the truth about Jesus, the earnest rich man tries to flatter Jesus. He 'kneels' before him and describes him as 'good' (v17). Despite this, we learn that Jesus 'looked upon him and loved him' (v21). The fact that God's grace has been embodied in Christ is why the call to discipleship is not onerous but liberating. Our life in the very fallible Church is sustained only by God's self-giving love.

This doesn't mean that we may rest on our laurels, as if 'grace' leaves us unchanged to go on doing what we are already doing. The grace of God is a liberating word that, as F Moloney puts it 'strips us of all that stands between us and radical commitment to Jesus' (p59). Jesus tells the rich man whom he loves that he 'lacks one thing' (v21). He must sell everything, give it to the poor and follow him. That's what the love of God can do to a person!

CS Lewis once said, 'Now all things are possible. It is even possible to get a large camel through the small eye of a needle. That's possible. But it will be extremely hard on the camel.' (see W.Willimon 74)! Grace requires us to be transformed in the service of Christ. It requires that we give up our 'possessions' : 'everything that interferes with the freedom to respond to Jesus' (paraphrase W Clarnette 51).

May it not be that, being unwilling to give up our consumer way of life or by hanging on to our other achievements, we walk away from the joy and challenges of being disciples of Jesus Christ. For it is in him that God's love and fullness of life have been singularly displayed as a sign of hope for all.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.

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