Jesu Juva

“Exceedingly Amazing Salvation”

Text: Mark 10:23-31; Hebrews 4:1-16; Psalm 34:3 (Introit)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!

That’s what Jesus tells His disciples as He is watching the rich man we heard about last week walk away from Him. That rich man who, when He had to choose between his great wealth or Jesus, chose his wealth.

And the disciples were amazed at his words.

Amazed because, maybe like us, they assume everything is easier when you have wealth. When you don’t have to live paycheck-to-paycheck. When you can sleep in a bed, not a box. When you wear a suit to work, not a hard hat. And easy is good, right? We want easy. We like easy. With our life, and with our faith.

But Jesus doubles down. And says to them again, Children - like they’re children in school, which they are! - Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! And now Jesus doesn’t just limit this to wealth. How difficult it is - period - to enter the kingdom of God.

Which is definitely not a message for today. Definitely not a message that resonates - especially in an age like ours - that is all about making life easier. AI to make my work easier. Self-driving cars to make my commute easier. Pills and drugs to lose weight because it’s easier than diet and exercise. Can you imagine (for you younger ones) that you used to have to get up to change the channel on the TV? Then came to remote control, so you didn’t have to get up. And then when it became too much to have to point that at the TV, there came voice control! And now with smart devices, you can pretty much control your life with your phone.

Now, none of that is wrong, and you could argue that a lot of that is good, and it probably is. It is simply to point out that difficult is not what we want. Difficult is not how we think. Difficult is not how we roll. That’s why there are more people playing games on their phones than there are Elon Musks doing difficult things.

So, why Jesus? Why make it difficult? Why, if you want everyone to be saved, why not make it easy?

And here’s where I think many churches - and Christians - have followed the thinking of the world. Maybe with good intentions, maybe meaning well. That if we want to save more people, make Christianity, make religion easier. If you can’t get the camel through the eye of the needle, make the eye of the needle bigger! Easier to get through.

So if coming to church every week is too inconvenient, that’s okay. Just come when you can. Or even just watch from home - with your voice controlled remote! Catechesis? Make that shorter and simpler. And the Law? Well, things are different now. So don’t talk about sin, talk about preferences. Don’t talk about repentance, talk about tolerance. Don’t talk about forgiveness, talk about acceptance. Let everyone come to the altar. And how about this, see if this doesn’t sound familiar, or how you are tempted to think . . . that it’s easier to ask forgiveness than to resist the temptation. It’s easier to keep silent than to speak.

And easy is incremental, you know. Big thieves usually start out as little thieves. Big sins usually start out as little sins. Hurricanes start out as tropical depressions. Little exceptions turn into big problems.

The truth is, though, Jesus doesn’t make things hard - we do. The rich man’s wealth was a good gift from God - he’s the one who made it into an idol. Your gifts and abilities are good gifts from God; your marriage, your job, your family, your friends, your faith - all good gifts from God. We’re the ones who mess them up, looking for easier, looking for better . . . and suddenly things are very hard. And maybe we blame others, maybe we blame God for making things so hard. I wonder what that rich man was muttering under his breath as he was walking away from Jesus . . . ?

And then the disciples were exceedingly astonished. And said the quiet part out loud: Then who can be saved?

And Jesus looked at them and said, “With man - for you - it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Now, don’t just hear that as a general statement, that there’s nothing God can’t do - true as that is. But can you think of another time when someone was astonished and a statement like this was made? Can you think of something that is even harder or more impossible to do than get a camel through the eye of a needle? How about a virgin having a child? Can’t be done, right? Except the angel Gabriel said it not only could be, it would be. For nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).

And Jesus did that, was born of a virgin, so there could be an answer to the question of the exceedingly astonished disciples: Then who can be saved? Because after His virgin birth, He did the next “impossible” thing; the next thing even harder than getting a camel through the eye of a needle: a dead person rising from the dead to life again. For how can we be saved from death? How can we be saved from the rot and decay of the grave? Only by the one who came to do what is impossible for us, because while He was a man, a true man like us, born like us, He was more than that - also true God. The God for whom nothing is impossible. So God became man to take man through death and the grave to life again. So that what is not just hard, but impossible for us, now be possible.

So it’s easy! . . . And it’s not. Easy because Jesus accomplished and promises and gives this impossible to us when we are baptized into Him. For when we are baptized, it is into His death and resurrection (Romans 6). When you are baptized, you become the man Jesus takes through death and the grave. And for that you do nothing; He does it all. That’s why baptizing babies is such a wonderful picture of the grace given in baptism. Baptism which, as St. Peter would later write, now saves you (1 Peter 3:21). It’s as easy as that!

And as hard as that. (1.) Because it’s so easy, how easy it is to forget; and how easy it is to take advantage of that. To think - and I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this - that since I am baptized and forgiven and have this promise of eternal life, that means I can live and do whatever I want! I can load up my camel with all kinds of sins and vices and idols and false gods, and Jesus is going to get me through! But that’s not what Jesus told the rich man. That’s the kind of thinking Baptism washes away. And if you find yourself thinking like that, it’s time to unload that camel and repent of what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been thinking. To die to that and rise to a new life again.

(2.) But then there’s an equally dangerous thinking, and that is perhaps what Peter expressed when he (speaking for the twelve) said: See, we have left everything and followed you. That’s loading up your camel with your own good works and pride, which can also be idols and false gods, and thinking that Jesus doesn’t have to work so hard to get me through! Like those people. You know the ones. The sinners. The really bad ones. That’s not me. Except it is. Your sins just look different. They’re more socially acceptable sins. But just as deadly. Time to unload your camel of those in repentance as well.

(3.) And if those two dangers don’t get you, how about this one: you know what happens when you leave house and brothers and sisters and mother and father and children and lands for Jesus’ sake and for the gospel? Jesus says He will provide all you need, and more, BUT . . . there will also be persecution. Because satan hates this. He hates Jesus and you and your new life and your faith and everything about you. So he’ll try to undermine it and make you want to ease up and go back so it’s not quite so hard. Because God doesn’t want it to be hard, does He? God wants you to be happy, doesn’t He? God will understand, won’t He?

This was the temptation the Christians in Rome who received the letter to the Hebrews were facing. Life was tough for them. They were being persecuted - and not a little. But if they went back to being Jews, life would be a whole lot easier! And it was tempting. Just like it is for us in our world today. To be Christian but not too Christian! To be serious about your faith, but not too serious. To be Christian one way in here, within these walls, and another way out there, in the world.

So the letter to the Hebrews encourages them - and us! - to stand firm; to hold fast our confession. To not give in, as hard as that may be. The portion of that letter we heard today talked about the people of Israel in the wilderness after they came out of Egypt. And it was so hard they wanted to go back to Egypt, where (as they remembered it) it was so much easier for them. It wasn’t really! But that was the temptation.

So these verses encourage them to look forward, not back, to the rest God has prepared for them and promised to them. He knows how hard it is in this world and life. Jesus went through it all with us. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are - tempted like this, to take the easy way. But He didn’t. And He went through not the eye of a needle, but a sealed and guarded grave, to give us life. That easy or hard, rich or poor, young or old, first century or twenty-first century, we have hope. That what is impossible for us, is not impossible for Him. That no matter who you are, the answer to the question, Then who can be saved? . . . the answer is: ME.

And then, impossibly, Jesus gives us the food we need to strengthen us to live this life and stand firm in our confession - the food of His true Body and Blood. That both Baptized into Him and with Him Suppered into us, forgiven our sins and raised from the dead, we live on the other side of the needle. A new life. Not of sin nor of pride but of faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So that the first be last and the last first.

Which is kind of an enigmatic saying, isn't it? Maybe hard to understand. Unless you know that it’s true first of one before it is true of many. For first it is of Jesus - who was the very first who became the very last, so that we who are last could be raised up to first. And now we can do the same. We can unload our camels, give to the poor, we can take care of others, we can face the hard, because we have treasure in heaven. Because no matter how last you make yourself (or others make you!), Jesus raises you up. To first. Maybe not first in this world, but first in His kingdom. And that’s better. For this world and life are passing away. But His kingdom is eternal.

So, you see, it’s not the eye of the needle we need to make bigger if we are to get through. It’s Jesus. Because unlike the camel, the bigger He is in your life, the easier it is to get through sin and death to life and salvation. That’s what Mary did when she was told the impossible and that her life was now going to be difficult: My soul magnifies the Lord (Luke 1:36)! And as we live in a hard and difficult world, we do the same. NOT make Jesus smaller to make life easier, but (as we sang in the Introit) Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!

Magnify Jesus. Magnify the one who does the impossible. For us, for all, and forever.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.