I.N.I.

a sermon to be preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Old Bridge, NJ on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost (16 October 1994) and based on the Gospel for the day, St. Mark 10:17-30

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Dear Friends in Christ,

There are a lot of reasons for going to college. One of them is so that–after graduation–the student can get a better-paying job than he or she could have gotten without the college degree. And generally that happens. Most people with college degrees earn higher salaries than most people without them. There are, of course, other reasons. A very important one is to spend some time asking the big questions in life; and, we certainly hope, thinking about the answers to those big questions. At a Christian liberal arts college like Concordia College in Bronxville, we try to emphasize this process.

The young man in today’s Gospel and sermon text certainly could have benefited from going through an experience like ours. Let’s try to get a picture of him and what he asks. We’ll look at

I. The Big Question

II. Wrong Answers to the Big Question

III. The Christ Answer to the Big Question

First of all, this man ran up to Jesus and knelt before Him to ask his question. In translating him into the 20th century, I see him in a nice sweat suit, $80-$100 running shoes, swept back hair, and just the barest evidence of sweat on his face. He seems to have been an all around good guy. He certainly had a pile of money invested or available to him. He seems to have been a successful young man: a Yuppie, or a baby boomer type that we might read about in today’s news magazines.

He asks Jesus the Big Question. We can learn a lot simply by examining this question.

He doesn’t ask–as others did–to be healed. He doesn’t ask that a relative or servant be healed. He doesn’t ask Jesus to settle a dispute he’s involved in. He doesn’t ask Jesus a ‘trick question’ about the Jewish law.

This man asks our Lord the most important, most serious, question anyone can ask. He asks Jesus how to receive eternal life. He asks how to inherit it.

In one way or another, everyone asks this question some time during their life. These days a lot of people don’t pose the question using religious language. Our society is too secularized for that. These people will ask it by the way they look for meaning in life, by the things they consider important to them, by the things they try to achieve.

People over the years with great minds have asked this question about eternal life. Some have created huge amounts of written work as their legacy. Some have taught and thought at the world’s universities. Well—known philosophers and scientists have looked through the whole breadth of the universe for an answer to this question. And they have come up empty because the question about eternal life is not one that can be answered on the basis of human thought alone.

The rich and the cultured have asked the Big Question about eternal life, too. Some have surrounded themselves with impressively large castles and mansions. They have filled their world with beautiful objects of art, with jewelry, with music, and thousands of other comforts of life. They have sought in vain among these things for any lasting meaning, or any clear answers to the key to eternal life. The question about eternal life is not one that can be answered on the basis of things made by human hands .

The poor and disadvantaged have also asked the Big Question about eternal life. In their pain, in their suffering, in their hunger and cold and loneliness, society’s outcasts have wondered about eternal life. The seeds of hope in their hearts lead them to wonder about a better life in the future. They have wondered whether there is indeed anything beyond the empty bleakness of their present lives. But they have not found their own way above the rim of their cup of suffering. The question about eternal life is not one that can be answered on the basis of reflections on the sad state of one’s own affairs.

The young man in today’s text perhaps spoke more from the position of one who was rich and cultured, than from the vantage point of having a great mind or of being poor and disadvantaged. At the same time, he had pondered this question; he had thought about it. And there is a certain poverty in his conversation with Jesus.

The first thing to notice about this young man’s wrong answers is that he makes a dangerous assumption about the present state of his righteousness. He knows the proper form of address for Jesus. He answers promptly that he has kept all the commandments from the time of his youth. He figures he has it all sewn up and just needs a pat on the head from Jesus to send him into the pearly gates. The man in the text confidently assumes he has all the answers.

The next step, he figures, is to meet a new challenge that he wants Jesus to set before him. The form of his question points this out. “What must I do…?” he asks. He assumes that there is another level of piety, another level of holiness, another level of perfection which he can reach, if only he does enough. The psychologists would probably diagnose him as a compulsive over-achiever.

There is always inadequacy when one aims at answering this Big Question about eternal life under his own steam. Like the young man, we can’t fit all the pieces together on our own. When he asks Jesus what he must do, Jesus reminds him of the commandments. He says “You know the commandments.” And then lists them. Let me read that list again, and see if you notice anything odd about it:

You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery;

You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness;

You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.

There are a couple of things that pop out to me. First, Jesus only lists 6 commandments, not 10. Second, He doesn’t list them in the order we know them in from Exodus. And third, He drops in a commandment that isn’t in the list we memorized in confirmation class or Sunday School: Do not defraud. [added note from 6 October 2006: and 4th, these are all second table of the Law commandments. Does that hint that that table is malleable, while the first table is not?]

I believe that one thing Jesus is telling us with this list of commandments, is that no matter what you do with the Law, there’s always something else. You can shorten the list. You can rearrange it. You can turn it upside down. But there’s always something else you have to do or say or avoid, in order to keep the law completely. If you want to reach eternal life through the path of the Law, you’ll fall short. There’s always something else.

Jesus holds up a second option to his questioner when the man proudly answers that he’s kept all the law from the time of his youth. He holds up the real doing of God’s will. It was earlier expressed this way by the prophet Micah “…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Jesus wants the man to sell all that he owns and give the money to the poor. Such a radical act of generosity would certainly qualify as an act in tune with God’s will. It would be a good work that evidenced the presence of the Spirit of Christ in the young man’s life. But the man went away grieving because he had many possessions.

The implication is that the man was grieved over the loss of the physical comfort his possessions afforded him. The implication is that the man thought he had already done everything required of him by God. Unfortunately, he had stored up for himself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy; he had not stored up treasures in heaven.

And unfortunately, this man misses what Jesus says next. He misses the path that Jesus lays out for him to jog on. Listen again to what Jesus tells the disciples: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” (v. 27) It’s impossible for us to reach up and grab the fruit of eternal life for ourselves. There isn’t anything we can do to inherit it. Eternal life is not impossible; it’s just that there is no one on earth who can achieve it by himself or herself.

The only place for us to go for eternal life is to Jesus; this much the young man in our text had right. Jesus alone has the rich storehouse from which we can receive eternal life. His thoughts are not our thoughts His blessings are lasting and His treasures are forever. His perfect obedience to God’s law cannot be matched. Jesus alone is the all sufficient source of forgiveness and eternal life.

There is no salvation in riches. Although the Bible makes it clear that Abraham was a wealthy man; it also makes clear that he was saved by his faith. Job was a rich man; but he was saved through faith. Today’s Old Testament lesson describes the sorry state of rich people who oppress the poor, rich people who do not exercise justice. The size of your bank account has nothing to do with your relationship with God.

Salvation, redemption, eternal life … the only source for these things is the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can forgive our sins. He alone can bring us the peace and assurance that we seek.

Looking for lasting contentment in money, in education, in power, in prestige, in your work, in your family, or in anything else is a fruitless search. The young man in our text found that out the hard way. We thank God that His Son offers each of us the real key to contentment and eternal life. We thank God that it is ours simply by believing as a gift of His grace. AMEN

May the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen

S.D.G.