Grace, Mercy, and Peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen
The gospel reading from this morning directly follows the gospel reading from
last week. Last week we heard about the rich man who wanted to know what he must do
to get into heaven. After Jesus read him some of the commandments, he said that he had
kept all these from his youth. Jesus then tells him he lacks one thing and to go and sell all
he has and give the money to the poor. The man leaves sad because he was very wealthy.
Jesus turns from the rich young man to address His disciples. “How difficult it will be for
those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.”
The disciples are astonished at Jesus’ words. Of course, they are astonished.
Common knowledge of the day says that if you are rich, it must mean that God has
blessed you greatly. To be wealthy was sure evidence that God had blessed that person
with a privileged position.1
If God has blessed that person with great wealth in this day,
then certainly He will bless him by allowing him to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
This thinking directly leads into what Jesus says next. After repeating the
difficulty of entering the kingdom of God, He says, “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.”
I think Jesus is making an interesting wordplay in the opening metaphor. Some
later Greek manuscripts have switched the word for camel, κάμηλον, with the word for
rope, καμιλον. These words sound very similar and I think Jesus is emphasizing that there
is something more going on here than just a big string. Jesus isn’t using the word that the
disciple might have expected--a rope. Instead He is using a word that highlights the
impossibility of His saying--a camel. These later manuscripts are trying to reconcile this
strange comparison Jesus makes with reality. I think Jesus said “camel” even though
“rope” might have made more logical sense, but that's precisely the point. This proverb
from Jesus doesn’t make any sense. “It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle.” This is obviously impossible.
The camel was probably the largest animal the disciples had ever seen. They can
stand up to 6 ½ feet tall and weigh up to 1300 pounds. Everyone knows that this great
beast of an animal cannot fit through the eye of a needle. One scholar has paraphrased
Jesus’ by saying, “It is easier to thread a needle with a great big camel than to get into the
kingdom of God when you are bursting with riches.”
Riches. What does it mean to be a “rich person”? Let's start with the first thing
most people think of when it comes to riches: money. Money allows people many things,
good and bad. Money can cause a lot of trouble, but money can also do a lot of good.
Certainly, giving money to the church, another charity group, or even being responsible
with one’s money is a good thing, but this doesn’t make us rich before God. Have we
always made the right choices with our money? Do we always give out of our desire to
help? What about when we give out of a desire for selfish gain. The way we use our
money does not make us rich before God and able to enter the kingdom of God.
Another way we are rich is in our family. I love my wife dearly, and I treasure her
presence in my life. We all want a loving family and this is a good and holy desire. We
want people to love and we want to be loved. God calls us to love our families, but at the
same time we cannot love our families enough to make us rich before God. We still say
and do things that hurt our families. We do not help our families when we need to. The
amount of love we show to our families does not make us rich before God and able to
enter the kingdom of God.
What about the riches of success or prestige? We can be wealthy in the things we
have achieved in life. Again, achievements are great. We put to work all the gifts God has
given us. We do not bury the money in the ground as the wicked servant did, instead we
use what we are given to do and make more for the master of the house. Achievements
and success are given to each of us in our vocations and are upright and good, but they do
not make us rich before God. Success easily becomes the center and focus of our lives, in
the same way money or family could become the center of our lives. Money, family, or
success does not make us rich in the eyes of God and able to enter the kingdom of God.
Well, if our earthly riches do not make us rich before God, how do we become
rich before God and enter the kingdom of God? This is the same question the disciples
have. They ask Jesus, “Then who can be saved?” with the implied preface, “if even the
rich, who are obviously being blessed by God, cannot be saved, then who can be saved?”
Jesus provides a short, but incredible statement, “With man it is impossible, but
not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Jesus tells this to His disciples and
they don’t quite understand. Peter says “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
Peter, the ever-bold spokesman for the disciples, doesn’t understand the gravity of what
Jesus is saying. Peter still thinks that there is something he can do to make himself rich in
the eyes of God and be able to enter the kingdom of God. Now, we can’t be too hard on
Peter at this moment. Peter hasn’t experienced the death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter
and the disciples haven’t had their minds opened by Jesus to the Scriptures.
How does Jesus respond when we ask “Who can be saved?” and “How can I be
saved?” Jesus responds the same to us: “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For
all things are possible with God.” We cannot do anything to be rich in the eyes of God on
our own. We need the Jesus event to make us rich in the eyes of God. From the
perspective of our human behavior, we cannot do anything to achieve entry into the
kingdom of God and obtain their salvation by personal effort. From the perspective of the
kingdom of God, who is the Creator and who can do everything, the salvation of any
human is within His grasp.
"For all things are possible with God,” and there is no greater assurance one can
ask for. This is not about trying to corner God into giving us what we want in our lives, it
is about God accomplishing salvation for us.
If we stick with the money theme, listen to what Luther says in his explanation of
the second article of the Apostles’ Creed. He writes, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true
God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is
my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me
from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but
with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be
His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness,
innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all
eternity.”
Wow. Notice all the money and marketplace references in Luther’s explanation.
First, he said, “Who has redeemed me.” God liberates His people through the sacrifice of
Jesus for us. Luther continues, “Purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and
from the power of the devil.” These are the three great evils in the world that each of us
face daily. Sin, death, and the devil are what keep us separated from God, but God has
provided a solution for us. Christ has purchased and won us with His suffering and death.
Jesus didn’t use money, but paid with His blood and innocent suffering and death.
All this allows us to be Christ’s own. This means that our life belongs to Christ.
We are baptized into His suffering and death. We pick up our cross and follow Him. We
serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. We serve Christ by
the deeds we do in service of our neighbors. We are able to joyfully use our wealth to
help those around us. We are able to joyfully serve our family out of love. Our success
and prestige are gifts from God. We do not make them the center of our lives, but we live
in the gifts God has given and serve our neighbors.
We joyfully take every opportunity to be rich in every good gift that God has
given us. We are all rich in our grace given by God and we joyfully live in service of our
neighbor.