Mark 10:17-31
Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
October 13, 2024
Jesus is repeating himself.
“It’s really hard for rich people to enter God’s realm.”
Blank stares all around.
“It’s really hard for rich people to enter God’s realm.”
Maybe some more blank stares.
“It would actually be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”
Horrified faces.
I guess he finally hammered it home with the visual of a camel going through the eye of a needle. It is, in fact, a memorable object lesson.
Despite Jesus’s clear repetitions and careful explications, we Jesus-followers have still managed to mangle this passage over the centuries.
The problem, I think, comes down to a couple of key phrases. Phrases that - let’s be real - we need to get our heads around. Because they don’t just come up in this story - they come up over and over again in Jesus’s teachings.
First: eternal life. In Greek “aionios zoe.” When I say “eternal life” what do you think most people think of first? ________ We usually think of this as being about what happens after we die. Namely, that we go on in some way after our bodies die. And it’s not that this would be wrong - it’s just that it’s not a complete definition. Zoe means life. That’s clear. But the Greek aionios doesn’t have a parallel in English. Yes, it can be about a quantity of time, going on forever. But it’s just as much about the quality of time. It’s not only about life after death, it’s also about the quality of our lives here and now.
Second: the kingdom of God. I usually call this the Realm of God. Again, I think a lot of people think about the afterlife, specifically heaven; the good place in the sky where we’re finally united with God. But there’s little evidence to suggest this is about the afterlife at all. Instead, Jesus teaches about God’s Realm as if it’s something we could reach here and now. A way of being fully aware of God’s presence with us - and our presence in God. He gives the sense that it’s here among us, if we could all get on the same page and grasp it together.
Misunderstanding these two small phrases has huge implications. Because this text becomes something it’s not. Biblical scholar N.T. Wright explains that Jesus’s contemporaries would have had an understanding of two ages - the here and now and the age to come. This conversation is about the age to come - aionios zoe - meaning the “new world that God is going to usher in, the new era of justice, peace and freedom God has promised.” [1] The rich man is asking how he can ensure he gets to be a part of this new world. Wright says:
Among the various results of this misreading has been the earnest attempt to make all the material in Jesus’s public career refer somehow to a supposed invitation to “go to heaven” rather than to the present challenge of the kingdom coming on earth as in heaven. [1]
All that heavy emphasis that some parts of Christianity place on getting into heaven? It turns out Jesus didn’t talk about that much at all. He was much more concerned with what’s happening here on earth.
There’s a beautiful tiny phase in this passage that’s often overlooked. When the rich man asks Jesus what he must do to ensure he’s a part of God’s new era of justice, peace, and liberation, it’s clear he’s been on a good path. He’s been keeping all the major commandments. But Jesus wants to clarify that living fully into God’s vision of abundant life is about more than just checking off boxes. Living in God’s Realm is about a total transformation - a willingness to make ourselves vulnerable and live in ways that are supremely counter-cultural. I think Jesus knows this is impossible before he even says it. But his delivery doesn’t feel snarky or even like a challenge. Instead, the text says that before he tells the man to sell all he owns and give it to the poor, Jesus looks at him and loves him.
It’s such a beautiful moment of compassion. Jesus looks at the guy and loves him.
In that loving gaze - I see so clearly how Jesus stands between the here and now and the age to come. He has one foot firmly planted in the human experience. Jesus knows before the words leave his mouth that this rich man isn’t planning to sell everything he owns and give it all to the poor. He knows that we humans struggle to live faithfully, to trust in God’s abundance, to stay focused on the ways we are bound together. He has one foot in there here and now.
And at the same time, he’s got his other foot firmly planted in God’s Realm. He can see God’s vision of justice, peace, and liberation. He can envision a world where the first are last and the last are first. He can even see how we get there. Jesus is between both worlds and the immensity of that is right there on his face for everyone to see.
From that vantage point between worlds, Jesus could see the tensions we feel. How much we want to do the right thing and how hard it is. How deeply we feel compassion for others and how we often aren’t sure how to help. How hard it is to trust in abundance when possibilities feel limited. How we want to hide from our own vulnerabilities and, in doing so, miss out on the fullness of life that comes with knowing God is with the last, least, and lost.
When we try to sit down and make a plan like the man in this story, we often find ourselves tangled up in knots. But Jesus reminds us that living in God’s Realm isn’t something we can just make happen all on our own. It’s something we co-create with the Spirit. God casts a vision and we make choices each and every day to step into it. The path isn’t linear - in fact, so much of what we’re asked to do as we fumble our way toward God’s Realm seems impossible and scary.
When we start to feel off-kilter and unsure, I think we can plant ourselves in the compassionate gaze of Christ. He looks at us in all our confusion and wanting-to-do-rightness and loves us. If we can allow ourselves to stay in his sights, we have a much better chance of seeing glimpses of God’s Realm in the here and now.
Speaking of glimpsing God’s Realm in the here and now: I want to end with a story I heard last weekend at the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference annual gathering. The Rev. Dr. Courtney Stange-Treager from the UCC Cornerstone Fund was one of the guest speakers who shared about generosity. Courtney shared with us that one of her favorite phrases when discussing generosity is “God Math.” Things that don’t seem like they would add up suddenly do. Fears about scarcity are banished and God’s abundance becomes clear. It all adds up, even though we didn’t think it would.
Courtney told a powerful story about God Math in action. Back in 2017, nine people got stuck in a riptide at Panama City Beach in Florida.[2] It all started when two young boys got pushed too far out into the water. Their parents went in after them but also got sucked out. Other family members joined in the attempt to rescue them. Eventually, people started forming a rescue chain and a total of 70 or so people made one giant human chain reaching out into the ocean to save these strangers.
The people that jumped into action didn’t have time to make a plan. There were no committee meetings or careful calculations. No mission statement or benchmarks. They were simply moved by compassion for these strangers in need and jumped into the fray. Together, they did what none of them could have done alone. It took all of them, working together to each do their small part to save this family. That’s why Courtney called this an example of God Math: people moved to jump up, jump in, hold hands, and all work together for good. We may not always have a plan. In fact, if we did sit down and make a plan, we might talk ourselves out of it. But we trust in a vision of something larger than ourselves, and we are moved by a sense of deep compassion for those in need, and we do together what we couldn’t do ourselves.
It’s a little like what Jesus says in this story, “With God, all things are possible.”
Held tight in Christ’s compassionate gaze, may we all live with one foot in the world as it is and another as it could be, trusting in God’s vision of a more just world for all.
NOTES
[1] Wright, N.T. How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels. 44-45.
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/11/us/human-chain-florida-beach-trnd/index.html
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