The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
This morning’s Gospel reading continues where last week’s Gospel reading left off. And last week I didn’t preach on the text, but it was the Gospel lesson about the rich young man — who was a sincere and well-intentioned young man, who wanted to be the best that he could be and be all that he could be, in order to please both God and man. He approached Jesus and asked Jesus the pointed question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus told him, in essence, directly: obey all of the commandments. Unfortunately, the young man was under the delusion that he had, in fact, and was able to actually keep all of the commandments, and implied that he would continue to do so in the future. But what he was really looking for was some kind of additional list — a list that could seal the deal between him and God. “Good teacher,” the young man asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’s answer boiled down to: there’s nothing a sinner can do to inherit eternal life. The word “inherit” itself should tip us off. The word “inherit” is a transitive verb that means to take property by law of descent from the intestate owner. That is, it’s fundamentally a gift. It’s received. It’s why the Lutherans often translate, or consistently translate, the words of institution as “the New Testament in My blood.” The Testament is a will. It’s simply given to somebody, for them to receive and thus enjoy the benefits. The one who inherits receives what is, in fact, given purely out of the mercy of the one who owned the property previously. In Mark 10:21, Jesus, looking at him, that is, the rich young ruler, loved him, and said, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and then come and follow Me.” The young man wasn’t dumb. He understood exactly what Jesus had just said, and what Jesus had just done: indicted him. Jesus challenged the rich young ruler to place the good teacher, and the mission of the good teacher, first and foremost in his life. The interaction between the two also raised the question as to whether the rich young man understood the full implication of addressing Jesus as “the good teacher.” The rich young man’s response: he was disheartened by the saying, and he went away sorrowful, for he had great many possessions. The young man was made to realize just how difficult true discipleship really is. His disheartened demeanor indicated his refusal to go do exactly what Jesus had instructed him to do. Whatever the case, the man went away with no intention of, in fact, selling all that he had and giving the money to the poor, falling short of the first and greatest commandment: to fear, love, trust God, the Lord God, above all other things.
In verse 23, Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.” And the disciples were amazed at His words. It is very difficult — impossible, in fact — for rich and poor alike, for all people in between, to enter the kingdom of God by virtue of work of the law. Jesus’s doctrine of salvation at this point shocked His own disciples. They were amazed, or astonished, even shocked, at His words. It was assumed, you see, in the culture of the day, that wealth was a sign of God’s approval and blessing, and therefore an indicator of one’s relationship to the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim. If a person was wealthy, then he must be righteous in the sight of God, or God would not have repaid him by all the wealth. See, the Scripture teaches money is a good gift from God, but it’s the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. It is putting it above all else, including and especially the first commandment. The story shows that the rich man, rather than being rich as a sign of favor, is a source and an impediment to the Christian mission of the church and to Jesus Christ Himself. It actually gets in the way of following Christ, because it’s placed as an idol. It’s created as the most important thing in life. And Jesus goes on to teach His disciples a deeper truth. Jesus said to the disciples 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 man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” And Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible.” When Jesus said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God,” everyone who heard Him utter the phrase thought to themselves: if the wealthy have a hard time, the rest of us don’t have a chance. Humanly speaking, no one can thread a camel through the eye of a needle — be it the little opening in the wall that you have a picture on the front of your worship folder. That little opening is called the eye of the needle. It was designed to keep camels out, and from entering into Jerusalem through the wall, see. Or whether Jesus is talking about a standard needle. Nonetheless, either way, it’s impossible to get a camel to go through one or the other. The rich aren’t the only ones, though, with the problem. Even the disciples acknowledge the universal problem. If salvation rests with them, they ask, “Who can be saved?” Then the answer is the same: it’s impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of heaven under their own efforts and to merit, because the standard for entrance is impossible for sinners to reach. Leviticus 19:2 summarizes what God’s standard is to enter the heavenly kingdom: “The LORD God says to Moses, ‘Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy'” — a lot of translations use the word “perfect” — “‘you shall be holy,’ that is, perfect, ‘for I the LORD your God am holy,'” that is, perfect. Holiness, purity, righteousness, 100%, is the standard for the entrance into eternal life and your heavenly mansion. Who can be saved? Jesus says: for men it’s impossible. But for God, everything is possible.
The claim that nothing is impossible with God, and everything is possible for God, appears twice in the New Testament. The first time was when the angel Gabriel came to the Virgin Mary to announce that she shall conceive and give birth to the Son of God. And she wants to know how such a thing can happen, and the angel replies, “Nothing is impossible with God.” God would, and in fact did, do it. By the time the angel left Mary and went and returned to heaven, Mary had conceived that Son, the Christ child, in her womb. That which God did was not impossible for Him. But notice: in both Jesus’s reply, you will now see, and in the angel Gabriel’s reply, in the first case — Mary, she did nothing except hear. All she did was listen to what the angel Gabriel said, and what he spoke became true. She conceived and gave birth to the Christ child. It’s not just riches that get in the way of heaven. While it is true that every good gift and perfect gift is from above, any of God’s gifts can, and is often, used by the devil, the world, and our old sinful nature to tempt us to sin, to establish our own little gods in our own little lives, and to obey them rather than the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Any gifts can get in the way. Jesus said, for example, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever does not take his cross up and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” Even parents and children and spouses can become obstacles and idols to the Christian faith, and to following Christ as He intends us to follow. How many people forgo church services because family members pressure them to skip it once or twice a month? How many leave a church where the Word of God is rightly taught, to join a church that makes errors in its doctrine, simply because they want to have an activity, youth group, for children to play in, while forsaking the pure words of Jesus Christ? How many families have left one church because one family member didn’t like the pastor and wanted to go find somebody more likable? That’s never happened here, by the way.
In first-century Israel, wealth was admired. People of wealth were looked up to as having an additional righteousness and wisdom about them. The only thing that negated this admiration of the wealthy in the first century was if the wealth was gained by dishonesty. It was simply assumed that wealthy people who had money in the bank, in property and land — why, that they were favored by God and had the first right into the heavenly realm. Wealth was not only an indicator of God’s favor. Wealth, as we all know, enabled the wealthy one to do more for the church, to give more for the church, to do more for fellow man, to put more money in the plate to be distributed to the poor and to the hungry. And this was thought to even please God all the more. The rich young man of last week’s reading, and the disciples of this week’s reading, serve as an example of the epistle’s admonition to all believers, rich and poor and all in between: strive to enter that heavenly rest. In last week’s reading, we were urged to exhort one another in the faith every day, that none of you would be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13). No one can save himself or herself. We all have family members and friends who think that they’re good and decent enough people, that they’ll manage their way into the heavenly realm, as best as is possible for them. But there’s a philosophical principle: that man cannot create something greater, better, more perfect than himself. And we’ve better learned that pretty quickly with the advent of AI, correct? There will always be a flaw in anything human beings create, because human beings themselves are deeply flawed. They’re flawed by sin and the devil and the old sinful nature of the world. And unlike the category of differences, there’s no grades of impossibility. Impossibility is 100%. It makes no difference whether something is a little impossible or really impossible. If it’s impossible, it’s impossible. With man, it is simply impossible to obtain the perfect standard of sinlessness that Leviticus 19:2 exhorts us to be: “You shall be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.” With any man, all men, anyone, anywhere, male or female, no exceptions — no matter what race, no matter how smart, no matter how dumb, no matter how old, no matter how young, no matter how rich, no matter how poor — cannot and does not earn his or her way into heaven. And that’s true even if God helps a tiny bit, right? There’s doctrines out there among Christendom that say: you do your part and God will make up the deficit. Just work a little harder, so God has to work a little less. That’s all that’s expected. Man needs the God of the possible to do the impossible. Then who can be saved, the disciples asked? And Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it’s impossible, but with God all things are possible.” With God — again, the Virgin Mary had nothing to do with the conception, except that the angel spoke the Word of God into her ear, and she conceived. The Gospel is the good news that God does the impossible for you. He’s paid the price for your sin, because it was impossible for you to pay your own way. He paid your sin, my sin, the sin of the whole world. No mortal, mere mortal man can do such a thing. And Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, God Himself, died for you. The impossible became possible with the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. Indeed, He, and He alone, opens hardened hearts to believe. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and it’s not of your own doing. It is a gift from God” (Ephesians 2:8). Or Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of Christ.” We confess this truth in the Small Catechism in confirmation: “I believe I cannot by my own strength or reason believe in my Lord Jesus Christ, or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in one true faith.” See, He does that all. He makes the impossible possible by virtue of the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Your conversion is all God’s doing. Making sinners into saints is impossible for sinners to do, but only possible with God. A newborn baby is baptized with water and words, and a new Christian is born. The impossible is made possible. God takes bread and wine, and speaks His word over it, and adds to it His very body and blood, and the impossible becomes the possible. Wherever two or three are gathered in His name, the impossible becomes possible. God does everything, including the impossible, but we are given all the credit.
“Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Peter got a little me-ity. “We’ve done all this work, and what do we get out of it? We’re already saved. What kind of deal is that? We have left everything and followed You.” The Gospel of Matthew gives us a bigger context: “Behold, we have left everything and followed You. What then will there be for us?” And Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Even though God has done everything — He has made the impossible possible, redeemed us, paid for all of our sins — and even though He does the impossible and turns our unbelieving hearts of stone into believing hearts, the life of the Christian, Jesus acknowledges, is going to be very difficult. But the reward in heaven will be great. Jesus also warns us, or warns His disciples and us, to avoid this simplistic thinking that prosperity and easy life is somehow a sign of God’s blessing above others. Quite to the contrary: being a follower of Jesus entails taking up one’s cross and following Christ, even into persecution. Jesus explains to the disciples that the benefits of the kingdom of heaven are huge in that age to come. He says in the meantime, He teaches us that many of God’s blessings come hidden inside of those persecutions. Jesus’s response recognizes that likelihood of losing a family member over faith is a way of life for the Christian. He even takes credit for it. Listen: “I have come to bring division, son against father” (Luke 12:51 and 53). But remember: no matter how difficult it gets in life, how impossible it seems to be, how much pain and suffering we are made to endure, the impossible mission is always accomplished. Philippians 1:6: “I am sure of this,” St. Paul wrote, “that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.” We have been given the victory. It was impossible for us to win, but He made the impossible ordinary, and hides it in everyday, ordinary things. From suffering to great joy, His work at work in us, to bring us to our last day, and each and every day, forgiving our sins. The impossible is done. You’re it. Amen.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.