Mark 10: 17-31
March 1, 2020
Whenever I hear Jesus’ line about the camel and the eye of a needle, I can’t help but remember a story a German pastor once told me about Kaiser Wilhelm and his trip to Jerusalem.
In 1898, the Kaiser was on a tour of the Ottoman Empire and wanted to visit Jerusalem.
He followed the Jaffa Road and wanted to enter the city through the Jaffa Gate … one of the seven gates that provided access to walled Old City.
The Jaffa Gate … which is also known as the Gate of David’s Prayer Shrine or David’s Gate … was built in 1538 and is located in the middle of the western wall. It was the main entrance to that part of the city.
The problem was that the gate was too narrow and would not allow the Kaiser and his 200-member entourage and carriages to enter. The German pastor also said that the Kaiser wanted to wear his spiked helmet when he entered the old city, but the top of the gate was too low.
While that part might seem a little questionable, the Kaiser was a very tall man who rode a very tall horse and wore a helmet with a very large spike … so that part of the story makes perfect sense.
You couldn’t expect someone as important as the Kaiser to bow a bit to get through the gate … that would be insulting … humiliating … he’s the Kaiser, after all.
So, the Kaiser convinced the Turkish officials in Jerusalem to remove the doors on the gate … which had been in place almost 500 years.
This would make it easier for him and his entourage to enter the city.
Still, rather than have him enter the city through one of the gates like a conquering hero, city officials breached a hole in the wall near the Jaffa Gate and had the Kaiser enter there.
The breach is still in use today. It allows cars to enter near David’s tower.
By the way, while the Kaiser was in Jerusalem, he helped lay the cornerstone for Augusta Victoria Hospital … named for the Kaiser’s wife and which we support through our benevolence … and inaugurated the German Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.
The story about the size of the Kaiser’s entourage and his spiky helmet really suits my purposes this morning.
In this morning’s passage from Mark, Jesus and the disciples have begun the journey when they are approached by a man.
The man runs up and kneels before Jesus and asks the teacher what he must do to inherit eternal life.
Jesus asks the man if he has kept the commandments … specifically the ones that deal with our relationship with one another.
The man tells Jesus that the has kept the law.
He has been fair in his dealing with people … he hasn’t stolen or cheated … he has honoured his parents and has respected the relationships between other people.
Jesus looks at the man and tells him that keeping the commandments isn’t enough … there is one more thing that he needs to do … sell all his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor and join the disciples.
If he does this, then he will inherit a treasure in heaven.
Perhaps, the man lacks a generous, caring spirit … or perhaps he places too high a priority on having possessions … on the sense of security possessions offer.
Jesus’ instructions shouldn’t be seen as words spoken in anger or as a rebuke of the man’s lifestyle.
Charles Campbell is a professor at Duke Divinity School.
About today’s instructions to the wealthy man, Campbell wrote:
“Jesus speaks his sharp words to the rich man out of love, because he wants him to be free, though Jesus is clearly aware that the depth of the man’s captivity makes such freedom difficult if not impossible.”
To do what Jesus says … it appears … must have felt impossible for the man.
Last week, we heard a voice tell the disciples … and anyone who wanted to follow Jesus … to listen to him.
The wealthy man heard, but didn’t listen.
The man leaves Jesus … grieving that he apparently can’t … or won’t … unburden himself of possessions. He Is sure that he won’t inherit the wealth of eternal life. We aren’t told what happens to him … the wealthy man is gone like I wisp of smoke.
He might have stopped following the law … he might have been in the crowd at Golgatha … he might even have eventually began walking as a follower.
For now, we know his mind was on earthly rather than on divine things.
What the wealthy man calls inheritance, we call grace.
We know that grace isn’t framed by earthly things. It cannot be earned through our actions, it is a gift freely given.
Grace is a foreign concept to the wealthy man. He wants to know how to earn the inheritance and forgets one of the basic facts about inheritances.
Like grace, you … theoretically … don’t have to do anything to receive an inheritance. It is the result of someone else’s actions. You don’t earn an inheritance, you receive it.
After the man leaves, Jesus laments that wealth gets in the way of people’s path to the kingdom. Their burdens … their possessions … are like the largest animal in Palestine trying to pass through the smallest known opening. … a camel going through the eye of a needle.
There has been a lot of ink spilled discussing how difficult … how impossible a task… the wealthy man is faced with … selling everything and then giving it all away.
Scholars have interpreted this passage as being a lesson in how grace flows from God and not as the result of what we do in this life.
And that’s fine, but that view seems to ignore the call to discipleship … the call to place others before yourself and put yourself at the end of the line … the meaning of Jesus’ last will be first, first will be last statement.
To do otherwise is now known as cheap grace … the idea that you accept grace and do nothing with it … neither sharing it nor making the well-being of others a priority in your life.
Costly grace calls us to do the opposite … to make others a priority … to be willing to stand with the oppressed and the people on the margins … and help them receive their inheritance.
So, what do we do with today’s lesson?
This passage shows that as he heads toward Jerusalem, Jesus is still concerned about human relationships … about changing the concept of family.
After all, to inherit something means that a connection … a relationship … exists. It means that … in one form or another … you are part of a family. In the truest sense, family members take care of one another … and make others’ welfare a priority.
Simply having that connection results in the inheritance.
The events that will come down the road in Jerusalem led to our inheritance … to the grace we have received.
What we carry … what influences our lives and affects these relationships … isn’t necessarily something we can touch … but it is something we can hold.
Remember, Jesus just said sell what you own.
Wealth … what we own … may not refer to money or even to material things … we can carry a wealth of other things that make living a life of love … of discipleship … difficult … a wealth of ego … the overwhelming need to control … to keep a tight grip on power and status … or have a wealth of suspicion or self-importance.
In short, we can carry … we can own … a wealth of negative emotions and traits, just as easily as we can carry positive ones.
During the Lenten Season … as we mark Jesus’ journey to the cross and tomb … it seems a proper time to reflect upon things that keep us on the wrong side of the gate.
We are called to cleanse our hearts … to prepare it … and our being … for what is to come. It is a period of unburdening ourselves … unpacking and discarding the baggage we carry … to bring perspective on what has worth and what, in the end, is worthless and to strive for selflessness in a time that places a priority on self.
And to reject the things that keep us from fully embracing and feeling God’s love … to reject the things that keep us from allowing the wealth … allowing our inheritance … to flow … to be shared with the world … preventing grace from flowing … from experiencing its full measure.
May we spend the coming days … the coming journey … in reflection.
AMEN