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THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The Look of Love

Mark 10:17-31

Twenty-nine years ago last August, after 22 years of school, after five years of being married and four months of being pregnant, after three months of cleaning bathrooms at the seminary over the summer, and after a single trip to southern Wisconsin, I received a letter of call to serve as pastor at Apple Grove and Yellowstone Lutheran Churches outside of Argyle.  It was my first letter of call.

On the one hand, I was elated.  I was now ready to begin doing what, in many ways, I had been preparing my whole life to do.  It started with my baptism at Windsor Heights Lutheran Church in Des Moines and with Sunday School at Bethlehem Lutheran in Slater and with confirmation at St. Andrew’s in Ames .  It continued with studies in philosophy at Luther College and, of course, my seminary work at the Claremont School of Theology in southern California and, finally, Luther Seminary in St. Paul .  I had been preparing for this my whole life.  And it was now nearing fulfillment. 

On the one hand, I was elated.  On the other hand, I was scared stiff.  I’d had only one interview.  I didn’t really know these people.  I didn’t know the congregations.  I didn’t know the place.  In fact, in some ways, it seemed exactly like the place I’d been trying to get away from my whole life.  Here I was being asked to commit myself to them without really knowing what I was getting myself into.

When I shared my sudden case cold feet with one of my professors, he said, “Getting a call is like getting married.  If you really knew what you were getting into, you’d never go through with it.”

And that’s the way it is with every important decision in life – getting married, having children, embarking on a career, starting a business.  They are decisions we make that are blind.  They are decisions that take a certain amount of faith.  They are decisions that ask something of us, perhaps more than we are ready to give.  But they are decisions we make because we hear the call of love.

That is the call of Jesus today.  For as he continued his journey to the cross, a man ran up to him and addressed him with great reverence.  “Good Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good – except God.”

Jesus seems to deflect the man’s spiritual flattery.  But Jesus also makes a good point – only God is good.  Inheriting eternal life isn’t a matter of being good.  If Jesus himself is not good, then none of us has a chance of making it into the kingdom simply by being good.

But Jesus goes on.  “Well, have you kept the commandments?  Don’t murder.  Don’t commit adultery.  Don’t steal.  Don’t lie.  Don’t cheat.  Do right by your parents.”

The man said, “Ever since I was a boy, I have kept all of the commandments.”

Jesus looked at him with love and said, “There is only one thing left, only one thing you lack – go, sell everything you have, and give the money to the poor.  Then you will have nothing on earth, but you will have riches in heaven.  After that, come and follow me.”

The man’s face clouded over.  This is not what he expected.  Maybe he thought Jesus would give him some secret knowledge.  Maybe he thought Jesus would tell him to go off into the desert to pray.  Maybe he thought Jesus would tell him to go to seminary and become a pastor.  But he didn’t. 

Jesus said, “Go.  Sell.  Give.  Come.  Follow.”  But the man had a lot of things and he wasn’t about to let go.  So, he turned away from Jesus.

And Jesus declares, “How hard it is for those who are rich to enter the kingdom of God !” 

I think it’s remarkable that Jesus never condemns the man.  He doesn’t judge him for his wealth.  He doesn’t condemn him for his dependence on earthly possessions.  He doesn’t even criticize him for turning away.  Jesus’ pronouncement is more a cry of sadness than of rebuke – How hard it is!

It is also surprising that the disciples are troubled by this.  Why?  The rich are obviously those who have been blessed by God.  The favor that God has shown them is real and concrete.  And this man who has faithfully kept the commandments is certainly worthy of such blessing.

So, Jesus repeats this radical teaching, “Children, who hard it is for those who are rich to enter the kingdom of God !  You’ll have an easier time getting a camel through the eye of a needle than getting a rich man into heaven.”

The disciples are ready to despair.  If there is anyone who would have an easy time getting into the kingdom of heaven, it is this man.  “If this man – this good and blessed man – can’t get in, what hope is there for the rest of us?”

“None!”  Jesus says honestly.  “There is no hope at all with you, but there is every hope in the world with God!”

It is not good deeds that get us into the kingdom.  It is not good gifts that get us into the kingdom.  It is not the kind of life we live or the kind of life we receive.  It is God and God alone.  Salvation is only possible with God who gives good gifts and guides our actions and calls us to lives of service.  And the call of God comes out of love.

Even though Jesus seems to dismiss the man’s spiritual flattery, Jesus seems moved by his desire for more.  Even though the man seemingly has everything you could want out of life, it is still not enough.  He not only seems to have his life together.  He has his spiritual life together.  But it is not enough.  Except for the disciple whom Jesus loved in the gospel of John, this is the only place where we learn that Jesus loves someone.  He looks on the crowds with compassion, but this man he looks on with love.

It may be that Jesus looks at the man out of love because of his realization that, with everything that he has, it is not enough. It may be that Jesus looks at the man with love because of his lifelong obedience.  It may be that Jesus looks at the man with love because of what he is going to ask him to do next.  Whatever the reason, Jesus looks at him with love.

And so also with us.  Jesus looks on our attempts, as feeble as they sometimes are, to live a life that is pleasing to God with love.  He looks on our desire for something more out of our relationship with God with love.  He even looks on our reluctance, our hesitation, our resistance to his call, even when we get cold feet with love.  And he calls us anyway – out of love.

Because Jesus is going to the cross – out of love.  He is headed to his suffering and rejection and death out of love.  He is headed to resurrection on the third day out of love – for you.