The Eye of the Needle

The main reason any of us are here on a Sunday morning 

is because of Jesus.

 

Isn’t that so?

Those of us who have been hanging around church for sometime, 

do we not recognize that when we look at Jesus 

–      as he is reflected in scripture and, hopefully, in each other – 

that we are being shown something profound about the nature of God?

 

The more direct our experience of Jesus, 

the more a huge scope of horizon opens up for us 

about the awesomeness and wonder of God,                                            and about the vast comprehensiveness of our very salvation.

 

Jesus is the one who opens the windows of our hearts and minds 

to this hugeness of encounter with God.

This happens in our experiences of grace and mercy 

surprising us in our lives at our times of greatest need

            and when we least expect to see the Divine Presence.

This happens as we encounter the stories of Jesus in the Gospels 

where we see many different ways in which 

Jesus didn’t just open a window or door.  

He blew them off their hinges, so to speak.

So often in the Gospel stories it says the people were amazed.

Mild translation.

Literally in Greek it says their minds were blown away.

They were struck out of their senses.

 

Jesus was always saying things and doing things 

to turn everything around,

to jolt us out of the usual perspective,

because our usual perspective is commonly heavily influenced 

by the culture around us and by our unconscious assumptions. 

So it often takes a shock to bring us out of illusion and around to reality.

 

The Gospel story for today is a beautiful example of this, 

and as such is a tremendous open window 

into the nature of grace and mercy and God’s love and salvation.

 

And you might have thought that this reading was about stewardship!

 

We could be crass about the gospel for today

            and say that whereas Jesus asked for everything from the rich man

the Church only asks for a tithe, 10%,

            so you’re being offered a good deal when you fill out your pledge card.

 

Then we can all sit back and go, “Whew, we’re off the hook.

            We don’t have to take seriously what Jesus said to this person;

                        it doesn’t have parallel implications for us.

            I’m not getting hit with a challenge 

about giving away my whole paycheck and all my possessions."

 

However, I say to you,

            if this Gospel provokes within you 

some reflection about your relationship with material possessions, 

fine, that’s a very good thing to look at for our spiritual well being.

 

But the passage has more to do 

with the disciples who witness this exchange 

between the rich man and Jesus, 

and about salvation, 

than it does about tithing or pledging or charitable giving.

 

The challenge Jesus gives to this man who desired to follow him

            goes to the heart of this person's issues of life and faith,

and it gives Jesus the opportunity 

to use this with his disciples as an important teaching 

which is in direct contradiction to their accustomed beliefs.

 

The accustomed way of thinking about the relationship 

between material prosperity and enjoying God's favor 

is blown away,

and the disciples are brought into a different space of awareness 

that is vast, 

overwhelmingly comprehensive, 

and revelatory of God.

 

Now, there's a bit of background that would be helpful to know 

regarding that time and culture

that has stretched on through the centuries.

From OT times having many possessions, being materially prosperous

            was considered to be a sign of God's favor.

 

Certainly we say that we, for example, 

            are blest to live in this country with a higher standard of living

                                    than most of the rest of the world, 

and when we have jobs providing a steady income, 

we consider that a blessing,

and when we are able to afford taking a vacation, 

or buying a car, or remodeling the kitchen, 

we consider that a blessing as well,

            knowing that it is not always the case that we can get along so well.

 

This kind of thought is ancient and universal.

 

Sometimes it gets expanded into a whole theological doctrine,

            such as the "Protestant work ethic"

            in which hard work that pays off in material prosperity

                        is seen as an indication that you are under God's grace.

 

God has prospered the work of your hands,

            and, therefore, this is a clear sign of God’s favor –

                        a sign that you are saved, a sign of salvation.

The dark side of this comes to be seen 

in blaming the poor for their own condition.

 

Just look at the book of Job for a prime example of this sort of thinking

            that leads Job’s 3 friends to question what Job did wrong 

                        to bring on himself such disaster and suffering.

If you are blest by God, your life circumstances will reflect that, they say.

 

But Jesus blows that away.

 

The rich man runs up to Jesus 

just as he and the disciples are on the way out of town.

And he asks,

            "What is it I may do in order to inherit eternal life?"

 

He has been a good, religious person,

and this is evident because he has prospered and gained many possessions.

 

But he wants more.

Maybe the physical evidence of wealth 

isn't necessarily giving him assurance about salvation.

            Maybe he thinks that if he could do something more 

than observance of all the commandments 

his blessings would be even greater.

            Maybe he intuits that material prosperity does not satisfy

his spiritual hunger.

 

And Jesus, looking at him through and through, has deep love for him,

and so he speaks words to him to cut through 

all motives and assumptions of blessing 

to what it is that will open him to the realization of salvation.

 

Go, get rid of all that evidence of God's supposed favor and blessing.

Give it all to the poor, to those whose lives seem to indicate 

that they have fallen short of the divinely blessed religious path.

 

And then come be in discipleship with Jesus,

 

Come be reduced to the same status as the disciples

                        who likewise had turned their backs on their whole way of life 

                        and families and possessions,

in order to be near Jesus, follow him around, 

and take in his compassion and teaching,

because his very presence was so compelling

            and he touched the hunger in their hearts.

 

But – how hard it is for someone with many possessions 

to enter the Kingdom of God.

 

The disciples were amazed, blown away by this

because Jesus just wrote off 

the whole popular, commonly-held belief system.

 

And he confounds them further:

"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle,

            than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God."

 

You can't buy your way into the Kingdom of God.

You can't live your life 

in such complete compliance with all the commandments even

to assure entrance.

And you can’t look at “success” in your life/“having it made”

            as equated with being saved.

 

If the rich, those who supposedly had God's favor, 

can't get into the Kingdom of God,

            then what chance does anyone have?

And so in all astonishment they ask, "Who then can be saved?"

 

And Jesus tells them the Great Reversal:

"It's humanly impossible,

but not with God.

            For all things are possible with God."

 

So those first in evidence of apparent divine blessing,

those first in effort at keeping all the commandments,

even those who look successful in the world

                                                                                    will ironically be last.

And those last, those who have no illusions about saving themselves,

            those who know their utter dependence on God,

                        such as those whose lives are broken and impoverished,

they will be the first ones in through the door – 

through the eye of the needle -  

into the Kingdom of God, into the state of salvation.

            

Salvation is utterly available to us 

the minute we give up our own efforts, 

our own self improvement programs,

because, and think about it,

            we can’t improve upon what has already been provided.

 

Salvation is vast, expansive,

            a freedom of the Spirit no matter what the physical condition.

Salvation is overwhelmingly comprehensive, 

            the way we are meant to be,   what we were created for.

 

So perhaps we may see that this gospel lesson for today,

            while it may provide some prodding of consciousness about stewardship,

is actually about the basic life issue of salvation

            and a call to discipleship

                        so that we might realize this salvation.

 

Go, get rid of all that evidence of God’s supposed favor and blessing,

and then come, be in discipleship with Jesus,

            the one who blows open the windows of our hearts and minds

                        to the hugeness of God and mercy and grace and salvation,

come be in discipleship with Jesus,

            and the whole Kingdom of Heaven is yours.