Amos 5.5-6, 10-15; Mark 10.17-31

Amos 5.5-6, 10-15; Mark 10.17-31

Any number of biblical expressions have found their way into everyday speech, though not everyone knows where those expressions come from. To describe a danger you’ve barely avoided, you might say, “I escaped by the skin of my teeth.” That line comes from the book of Job and will be part of the reading for Wednesday’s Bible Study. “The skin of my teeth.” To speak of people who have reached a certain level of age and maturity, you might say they are “older than Methuselah.” I first learned that line from my great-grandmother who, from my perspective as a child, struck me as being that herself. “Older than Methuselah” comes from Genesis. And to describe the impossible, today’s gospel gives us, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” Now every culture has phrases and idioms to describe the impossible. For us, it’s ‘A snowball’s chance’ or ‘When pig’s fly.’ About someone with wealth entering the kingdom of God, Jesus says it would be easier for the porcine centerpiece of last weekend’s fall festival to get a pilot’s license. “When pigs fly.”

What are we to make of that? Because in my dreams about winning the Powerball, I never think of how that windfall might be an obstacle to faith. The disciples are certainly puzzled by Jesus. They, like we, are inclined to think of wealth as a tangible sign of God’s blessing and pleasure shining on us. And there are biblical texts to support that notion. In the book of Proverbs, God says, “I endow my friends with my wealth in order to fill their treasures.” At the end of the book of Job, after 40 chapters of Job’s suffering and destitution, we read (spoiler alert for the Bible Study), “The Lord restored Job’s fortunes and gave him twice the possessions he had before.” But today Jesus issues a warning. “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God…It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” Wealth, it seems, can get in the way of life with God. Though not only wealth, as we will soon see.

There’s more that’s puzzling. The rich man comes to Jesus in faith. That’s a pleasant change from all the times people come to Jesus to test, tempt, or trick him. This man is a seeker. He’s looking for a deep, rich spirituality that overflows with life. ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He’s a living example of what Amos describes in today’s first reading, “Seek good and not evil that you may live.” And this rich man’s assets go beyond what he has in the bank: he’s kept God’s word; he’s lived a life of genuine obedience. Now we might have doubts about his claim that he’s kept all the commandments since his youth. But Jesus doesn’t; he accepts what the man says. Yet after hearing Jesus say, “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor,” this sincere seeker walks away puzzled, grieving, and unable to follow “for he had many possessions.”

Today’s gospel illustrates something Jesus says all throughout his life. “Those who want to save their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” Yet the rich man in the gospel, with his abundant wealth and faithful living, can’t imagine losing the life he knows. He has come to Jesus looking for one more thing to work on, one more thing to acquire. “What must I do?” But Jesus is clear. Fullness of life in God is not something to acquire to go with all the other good things a person accumulates. “Go, sell what you own, give to the poor, then come follow me.” Life in God is not something to achieve but to receive. Yet because this rich man can’t let go of his good reputation, good deeds, and assets he has a flying pig’s chance to receive the rich spirituality that overflows with life, the life that Jesus offers.

Now, as I mentioned, this is about more than wealth. Jesus calls us all to follow—to find the meaning, purpose, and value of our life not first and foremost in our works, not even our good works, but in God’s work for us. It’s not just money. It’s all the things we hold tight to, things we accomplish and achieve, things we believe we must have or must be that make us who we believe we are. We all have assets beyond our bank balance. There are all sorts of things we treasure beyond our treasure. It might be intellectual success, emotional success, or spiritual success; it might be skills at organization, the ability to persuade others for good. And like the rich man’s wealth, none of these things are bad in themselves. They can be a source of blessing so we can be a blessing to others—gifts in our life to glorify God. But to make them the center of our life and identity, to strive for them at the expense of the life God gives, is to displace God at the center and to make those things an idol. “Greed is an idol,” the New Testament says in another place. To make even good things the center of our life means forgetting that God is at the center permeating every moment of our days with a “life that truly is life.”

Today’s gospel, then, is about the rich man, his abundant assets, possessions, and how his wealth gets in the way of life in God. Yet it is about more than that. It is a word for us. What Jesus says to the rich man is our Lord’s particular way of calling a particular person to lose life in order to find and receive life. For others, the call may be different. For you, the call may be different. For Peter, the call was certainly different. At the end of today’s gospel, Peter boasts that he and the other disciples managed to achieve what the rich man couldn’t. “We have given up everything to follow.” You can hear the problem in that boast, though can’t you, the unspoken assumption on Peter’s part that since the rich man couldn’t give up his possessions and that Peter and the disciples had, there must be something good in it for them. Yet they, too, have mistaken life in God as yet one more thing to achieve and acquire. But if Jesus notes that wealth is an obstacle to fullness of life in God, so are self-satisfaction and pride. Whatever Peter has achieved is nothing compared to what he will receive: land, new family, persecutions. (The presence of hardships in Jesus’ list reminds Peter, and us, that faith is not a guarantee against hardships.) Jesus pierces Peter’s pride. “Many who are first will be last and the last will be first.” Life is God is not an acquisition but a gift from the abundance of God’s grace, mercy, and love.

Jesus’ word, then, is not just for the rich man only but also for us. Jesus is a skilled diagnostician who sees the one thing that keeps each of us from fullness of life in God and says, ‘It’s time to rethink your life.’ Each day offers that opportunity: to rethink your life in the light of God’s life and desires. That’s what ‘repentance’ means. It is a change of mind, our way of thinking renewed and redirected by God’s way of thinking. We may not have the acquisitions, assets, and abilities of the person encountered by Jesus. But we do have things that we treasure beyond our treasure, things we are sure make us who we are and that we wouldn’t be who we are without them.

So with today’s gospel at hand, we can consider what in our life might be getting in the way of God’s work in our lives. Are there things you couldn’t imagine giving up or letting go, things that make it impossible to open your hands and receive the life Jesus offers? It may be what Jesus said to the rich man about possessions, or what Jesus to Peter about pride. Self-satisfaction and pridefulness do get in the way of receiving the life God gives. Or it may be something else for you—Jesus’ particular way of calling you to follow. Today Jesus calls us not to looks to our self but to God and find “life that truly is life.”

Now if that seems hard, remember also what the Gospel of Mark said about Jesus as he talked with the rich man. “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Nowhere else does the Gospel of Mark say that Jesus looked at someone and loved that person. Everything turns on that phrase. “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Jesus, at this point in the gospel, is on his way to the cross. There, he will do what the rich man in the gospel cannot do. On the cross, Jesus will give away everything for our sake. “You know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ,” St Paul says, “that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.” When Jesus looks at the rich man and loves him, it is as though he is saying, ‘I’m opening my hand for you so that you can open your hand to receive true life from me. You will receive the hundredfold life in God that begins now and lasts forever.’ In Jesus Christ—the life he is, the life he gives, the life we receive—we can let go of the need to justify our existence through our wealth, or pride, or any other thing that gets in the way of life in God. This is the life Paul found after reviewing all the good accomplishments and acquisitions that he once thought made him who he was. “The life I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” That is our life, too.

Today, as you come forward to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, you open your hands to receive Christ’s life given for your sake. Here, in bread and wine, is the sacrament and real presence of the Son of God who loves you and gives himself for you. Your hand opened to this gift means you can’t cling tight to life as you hold it, but you are free to receive life as Christ gives it—not to look to yourself but to the goodness of God. This sacrament is not a reward for your good reputation, abilities, assets, or works; it is not an acquisition but a gift from the abundance of God’s grace, mercy, and love—forgiveness of sins and strength to follow. Today our Lord looks at you, loves you, and says, ‘Rid yourself of everything that gets in the way of the life I offer and follow me.’

Now if that sounds like you’d have a better chance giving aviation lessons to a pig—in other words, if it sounds impossible—remember what Jesus says. It is impossible. For us. But not for the One who loves us and gives himself for us with “life that truly is life.”