“Jesus
said, ‘How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of
God. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than
for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.’ His disciples were
greatly astonished, saying among themselves, ‘Who then can be saved?’
Jesus replied, ‘ With humans it is impossible, but not with God; for with God
all things are possible!’” Mark 10:24-27 NKJV
Recall
that this passage follows the encounter Jesus had with the “rich young ruler”
who inquired of Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?” After the young man
had affirmed his commitment to the commandments, which Jesus still holds as
necessary, Jesus told him he must sell all his possessions, give to the poor,
then take up the cross and follow Him. The young man walked away, of
course, “for he had great possessions”.
Also
notice that the disciples were probably not wealthy measured against the “young
ruler”, and yet they were astounded that a refusal to give up possessions,
great or small, stood between themselves and Paradise! “Who then
can be saved?” It would seem that even with what little they may have
had, they recognized and maybe even shared the young ruler’s sorrow and dismay!
It
is telling for us to be asked how our future looks, and the first thing we will
do is check our bank statements and investment portfolios, our Social Security
estimate statements, and our pension funds. Only then can we decide
whether our future is secure. It would appear, then, that this is exactly
the mindset of the disciples when they considered that salvation for anyone
was just this side of impossible because though they may not have had the
“great possessions” of the young ruler, they had perhaps enough to consider
themselves “comfortable”.
Jesus
teaches that the measure of personal security may well be the “impossible”
standard because we are asking the wrong question. It is not, “What must
I do to be saved?”, which is entirely self-serving and antithetical to Kingdom
standards. Rather, it may be more accurate to say, “What must I do to
serve the Kingdom?” The commandments are important in the life of faith,
and Jesus affirms this. Our obedience is the ultimate expression of our
trust in The Lord’s Providence, even when we do not fully understand the
commandments. We trust that The Lord will show us the way. That is
faith, which has nothing to do with our intellectual capacity to believe
something. Yet there is much more asked of us than to merely refrain from
harmful acts.
Our
embrace of what we think of as our possessions as our own is our
curse, our albatross, the “mill stone” hung around our necks. But when we
understand what we have been entrusted with as tools of the Kingdom, the
“impossible” standard is suddenly not so insurmountable. Suddenly what
was once “impossible” becomes entirely possible all because we trust not our
possessions but our God.
It
is about asking the right questions. It was not strictly the potential
loss of possessions that compelled the young ruler to walk away. It was
the reality that possessions and salvation and life in the Kingdom are not
strictly about “me”. When we learn to ask the right questions, only then
may we expect to find the right answers. Then we will find the reason to
drop everything, take up the cross, and follow Jesus. Only then will a life
of faith finally have meaning and purpose.
Blessings,
Michael
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