It's Hard For the Rich to Enter The Kingdom of God
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
Mk. 10:17-27
July 18, 2010

         Old-time comedian Jack Benny, who was known as a real tightwad, loved to tell the story of being accosted by a mugger, who demanded, “Your money or your life!”  After a long pause Benny replied, “Don’t rush me; I’m thinking!  I’m thinking!”  Money is so important to some of us, that it takes priority over anything else- even our lives!  This morning’s Scripture lesson in Mark 10, features the story of a man who faced a similar problem.
         17 As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 18Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ 20He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ 21Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money* to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 22When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ 24And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is* to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ 26They were greatly astounded and said to one another,* ‘Then who can be saved?’ 27Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’
          A young man, clearly sincere, seeks Jesus’ advice on how to obtain eternal life.  He assumes he must do something to qualify for eternal life, so Jesus plays along.  “Keep the commandments,” he says.  The man says he’s already done that.  Jesus, because he loves this young man, then tells him to sell everything he has and give it to the poor.  The wealthy man goes away sad, as Jesus explains to his followers how difficult it is for rich people to enter God’s kingdom.
          And that’s the main point of the story, found in verse 23, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”  Jesus even makes a joke about a camel passing through the eye of a needle to demonstrate just how difficult it is!  Now we should point out that the disciples would have been shocked by Jesus’ statement!  Common Jewish thought in the first century was that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing and approval.  They thought that God must love rich people more than others since he was blessing them so much.  So the rich, above all people, would be most likely to enter God’s kingdom. 
We also need to be clear about something else.  The story isn’t just talking about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah, or others we usually thinking of as being rich.  The story is talking about us.  Early Wednesday morning I returned from a mission trip in Mexico.  There we reflected together on this story as we sat in the square of a tiny village of poor subsistence farmers.  We saw folks who couldn’t afford medical care for fairly common eye ailments, so their vision continued to be impaired.  We heard a mentally ill young person screaming through the night because health care for folks like that just isn’t available.  We saw women prematurely aged and broken down by the back-breaking work they have to do each day just to survive.  We saw children who will never reach their academic or artistic potential because their parents can’t afford to send them to school beyond the 5th grade.  The way we live in the U.S. is the exception in this world.  We are living in the top 1% of the world’s population.  We are the rich.
          Clearly, there is real unfairness in the world, but still, why is it hard for the rich (us!) to enter God’s kingdom?  I think it’s because we’ve learned to depend on our wealth rather than on God to meet our deepest needs.  We rely on money for a sense of security against unexpected setbacks.  And some even rely on wealth to give them a sense of significance and status.  Making money becomes their primary motivation in life. 
          In a “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip, Rat is talking to Goat.  “I don’t understand it.  I’m making all this money publishing a tabloid, but, I’m still not happy.”  Goat replies, “Ah… and what lesson does that teach you?”  Rat responds, “That I must not be making enough money!”  To which Goat replies, “Wrong lesson.” Some people really believe that if they just had enough money, they’d be happy. 
Security.  Significance.  Status.  Happiness.  Our lives show that we really are placing our faith in having wealth to meet our basic spiritual needs, rather than depending on God to meet them.  When we’re rich, we don’t feel like we really need God to meet our basic needs.  Deep down, we think we’ll be OK on our own.  That’s why it’s so hard for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.
          But it’s not impossible.  Jesus also said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”  Although it is God who must ultimately change our hearts and loosen the grip that wealth has on us, there are a few things we can do.
          First, we need to admit that we have a problem. That we have become dependent on money and stuff to meet our deepest needs, and that the thought of being without all our stuff absolutely terrifies us.  We need to admit that our love of money is sucking the spiritual life right out of us.  Or, maybe a first step is just to start paying attention to the ways in which money functions in our lives.
          Second, we can become regular, proportionate, generous givers.  Deciding to regularly give a portion of our income to God’s work helps to loosen the hold that money has on us.  It forces us to trust God just a little bit to supply what we’ll be giving away.  It forces us to depend a little more on God to make us happy and keep us secure.  Regular giving can help free us from money’s hold on us.
          You’ve probably heard the story of how some people catch monkeys.  They take a coconut drill a hole in it just big enough for a monkey to fit its hand inside, put a sweet treat in it, and attach it to a tree.  The monkey comes and puts his hand in the coconut and wraps it around the treat.  With the treat in his fist, his hand is now too big to remove from the coconut.  It never occurs to him to let the treat go!  So he is captured.  That’s a picture of some of us and our stuff.  It has captured us spiritually, but we can’t let it go.
Jesus said that it’s hard for rich folks like us to enter God’s kingdom.  Wealth has a hold on our heart that tends to choke out the loves and priorities of God’s kingdom.  How will you respond to this threat to your spiritual life?

          I close with this quote from Richard Foster’s book, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life.  “When we let go of money we are letting go of part of ourselves and part of our security.  But this is precisely why it is important to do it.  It is one way to obey Jesus’ command to deny ourselves… When we give money we are releasing a little more of our egocentric selves and a little more of our false security…. Giving frees us to care.  It produces an air of expectancy as we anticipate what God will lead us to give.  It makes life with God an adventure in the world, and that is worth living for and giving for.”

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