Trying to do the Impossible

17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It 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.” 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

–Mark 10.17-27 (NIV)

I have great empathy for this man who approached Jesus because for a long time I was him–and probably still am to some degree. No, I’m not rich, young, or a ruler (as Matthew and Luke add to this man’s description). But like this man, for a long time I focused on the externals, believing that if I behaved just right, my relationship with God would be OK, that God would find me to be acceptable. That’s really a terrible burden to bear because God doesn’t so much look at our outward conformity (i.e., how well we follow the rules) but rather at our hearts (i.e., at our will, mind, and affections), and as Jesus reminded us, it is out of the heart that come all kinds of things that defile and dehumanize us and make us unfit to be in God’s presence. I could (and can) relate very well to Paul’s enigmatic chapter in Romans where he talked about the “wretched man” because I was trying to do the impossible. I was trying to save myself.

But as Jesus reminds us in today’s passage, self-help and self-salvation are simply impossible precisely because we are so profoundly broken and flawed. Our heart is wayward and rebellious, beyond our ability to “fix.” Sadly we all have what Scripture consistently calls a “hard heart.” We see this illustrated perfectly in the man. He was conscientious in conforming to the law (if by “defraud” Jesus is pointing to covetousness, he cites 6 of the 10 commandments to the man) but money was his god and Jesus called him on it. It’s not that money per se is bad. Nowhere did Jesus ever condemn money for what it is. Rather, it is what money can do to us. Among other things, it can enslave us and/or make us proud and self-reliant. It can give us a false sense of security. But if we think about it for a moment we must admit how foolish that is. Just two days ago, for example, 1.3 TRILLION dollars were wiped out in one day of disastrous trading on Wall Street. One day! So much for security in money.

Jesus apparently saw that wealth had enslaved this man who came to him and so Jesus gave him the remedy to his problem. Sell all you have and follow me. We tend to stop at the sell all you have part because it seems so radical. But we miss the punch line if we stop there. Jesus told the man to get rid of that which had enslaved him and could not bring him real security and life so that he could follow the One who could.

That is a choice that still confronts each one of us. It may not be money for you. It may be sex or drugs or power or prestige or the delusion of being a rugged individualist. Whatever it is, Jesus reminds us that we have to ditch that which is false and killing us so that we can follow him. And what do we do when we follow him? We deny ourselves and take up our cross. As Paul puts it in several of his letters, we put to death–with the Spirit’s help, of course–that within us that keeps us hostile and rebellious toward Jesus, and that prevents us from following him. That is a difficult, painful, and agonizingly slow process. Great. Really makes you want to sign up for following Jesus, doesn’t it?

But if you desire real life and real security, it is the only way to go because as Jesus reminded his astounded disciples, no one can save himself. Only God can save and he has come in the person of Jesus to do just that for us. The disciples were astounded because Jewish conventional wisdom of the day had taught them that the righteous would be rewarded with material abundance. In other words, a person’s wealth could be seen as an indication that that person was right with God. “Not so fast,” says Jesus. “No one is right with God based on his or her own merits because each one of you has a wayward heart that you cannot fix on your own.”

Now let me be clear about this. Jesus is not saying that outward conformity does not matter. It does. He loved the man, in part, because he saw that the man was sincerely trying to be good in God’s sight by following the Law. Character matters. Specifically Christian character matters because it is evidence that we are trying to follow Jesus and be like him. But because our hearts are hardened, Christian character does not come naturally or easily. It has to be developed with the help of the Spirit living in us. In other words we have make the effort and do the hard work to develop the habits of Christian character, again with the help of the Spirit. After all, if we do not learn to act like Jesus, how can we ever bring his love to bear on others? If we do not display the Christian virtues of love, patience, humility, and charity (which have bound in them the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit) we can never embody Jesus for others and expose them to God’s great love and power to heal. It’s just that simple.

But here’s the thing. We don’t work on developing Christian character because we think that in doing so we will somehow be made right in God’s sight and our relationship with God will be restored. No, we work to develop Christian character because we are profoundly grateful for what God has done for us in the cross of Jesus. We know the hopelessness and futility and despair of self-help. We are convinced with all of our being that in the death of Jesus, our exile from God has ended, that God has indeed done the impossible for us. This takes the massive burden off our backs and frees us to develop the Christian character that will make us truly human and free, all the while allowing God to use us as agents to bring about his New Creation to the extent each one of us is humanly able.

When you understand this dynamic, you will really find the meaningful life and security that we all desperately seek. This doesn’t mean living a trouble-free life. To the contrary, you will discover that Jesus has many and varied enemies in this world and sadly some are even within his own body, the Church. You will also discover that Jesus’ enemies will become your enemies sooner or later. But as the NT writers take pains to tell us, we should mark our suffering and persecution for Jesus’ sake as a badge of honor because it usually means we are on the right path. Not only that but as Paul reminds us, suffering ultimately will help produce Christian character and that means we are slowly but surely becoming the humans that God created us to be.

Think on these things because in them you will find freedom, meaning and purpose for living, and real life. But you have to stop following yourself or other false gods. You have to follow the One who loves you and gave himself in a terrible and costly act for you. It will be the best decision you ever make if you have not already done so.