It’s Not Our Climb

From the Transfiguration on the Mountaintop, all the way to the cross, Mark emphasizes that Jesus is on the move.  “As they were coming down the mountain,….They went on from there and passed through Galilee…Then they came to Capernaum….He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan…”  And then today’s passage begins with “As he was setting out on a journey…”  and the passage following begins with “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem.”  Jesus and the disciples are now setting out on that journey, to go up to Jerusalem.

But just as they get on the road, a man runs up and falls on his knees right in front of them.  Jesus knows where he is headed.  Twice he has told the disciples that he will be betrayed and killed and three days later rise again.  But they don’t understand, and they are afraid to ask him.  But, he knows.  Picture it, they are walking along, dust billowing behind them, and suddenly there is a dust cloud in front of them as this man runs and plops right at their feet.  Isn’t it always when we are all set, we know where we are going and how we’ll get there, that we get an opportunity to get sidetracked?

Jesus is on the road toward fulfilling God’s purpose for his life, and he gets interrupted.  “Good Teacher!” the man asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus could get sidetracked.  What does a person need to do?  Already, the man sees who he is, Good Teacher.  Righteous, just, kind, compassionate, healer, teacher…what more does Jesus need to be?  Jesus, you are great!  It would be so easy to get sidetracked and tempted to stay on that mountain rather than climb down to the cross.

But Jesus replies, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good but God alone.  You know the commandments.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, sure.  I’ve kept all those since I was a kid.  I’ve been piling them up, and climbing up and up, and up…but what’s missing?  I want to inherit, I want to deserve, I want to get what is owed me, I want to inherit eternal life, the with-God life, life in the Kingdom of God.  I have, since I was a kid, done everything right, what else do I have to do to be the rightful recipient of communion with God?”

“Come down.  Come down from the mountain and follow me.”

You see, Jesus knows that his good deeds, his obedience, his acts of kindness and generosity don’t make him good.  That mountain of right behavior doesn’t make you good, says Jesus, in fact, it doesn’t make me good.  God is good.  Only God is good.

“You lack one thing,” he says, “Go, and sell your possessions, and give to the poor.  Your treasure is in God, not in earthly things.  How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

Mark tells us that the disciples are perplexed.  Here’s a guy who really wants to be right with God.  He has kept the commandments.  And he has been blessed.  He has lots of stuff.  It seems like everything he gets involved with goes well.  He’s well liked.  He is trusted.  He gives his tithe and keeps the Sabbath.  Now, he has chased us down, fallen at your feet, and asked what else he can do.  And you say, it’s gonna be hard for you.

Remember, it was considered a sign of God’s favor to be blessed with earthly treasures.  Now Jesus is saying that it is going to be hard for those who have been blessed to enter the kingdom of God?  The disciples are confused because they thought that those were the folks on the exact right path to enter the kingdom of God.

“Children,” Jesus says, “how hard it is for those who trust in earthly treasures to enter the kingdom of God.  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”

And I have tried to be consoled by every attempt to domesticate these words.  But, there is no consolation.  Attempts have been made to say that the word camel is wrong.  You see if you invert two of the Greek letters in camel, you get rope.  And while it is hard to get a rope through a needle’s eye, it is a little more plausible.  Except that no ancient texts have those letters inverted.  They all say camel.

An explanation has been offered that there was a gate in the city of Jerusalem known at the “needle’s eye” because it was so small and narrow.  And it was hard to fit a camel through, especially if you’d been traveling and had it loaded down with your stuff.  That’s what Jesus meant, that gate.  It’s is as hard as getting your camel through that gate…except that there is no mention of the gate until the 9^th Century AD.

Jesus meant it.  That’s the only explanation that works.  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a person who trusts in earthly treasures to enter the kingdom of God.

And we can say that we don’t trust in earthly treasures, but we all do.  Security is an illusion that enchants us.  We can say we aren’t rich, but we all are.  The poverty line for 2015 for a single person in America is $11,770 in income per year.  That person in America, who lives in poverty, making $11,770 in 2015 is in the top 15% of the richest people in the world.  85% of the people in the world are poorer than them.  We are all rich.

And the disciples know it, “Then who can be saved?”  Theologian David Polk observes, “God invites us into a relationship of trust toward the One who promises us a future, but we place our trust instead in the capacity of our material possessions to secure that future for us. God invites us into an ever broadening interrelatedness with other persons and with the whole world, but we sacrifice mutual connection on the altar of independence and self- sufficiency.”  “Who can be saved?” ask the disciples, even they expect to need to do it, to accomplish God’s requirements, themselves.

Jesus looked at them and said, “It’s not your climb.  For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Pure grace.  It’s not your climb.  You cannot save yourself.  No matter how good you are.  No matter how much stuff you are blessed with.  No matter how much you give away.  For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.  But how hard it is for those who trust in earthly treasures to enter the kingdom of God instead of God!

And so, each year, we prepare for Easter by practicing Lenten disciplines.  We are marked by a cross of ashes, right between the eyes, to remind us of our mortality, from dust you came, and to dust you shall return.  This dust is the dust of creation.  You are made, with love, by God, and set on a journey.

It is a dusty journey, this journey to the cross, with temptations to believe we have done enough and blessings to trust in place of God.  Like the man who fell to his knees in a cloud of dust, we want to know God.  We want to be right with God.  We have a whole resume of the things we have done, the mountains we have built – of good things.

And Jesus says, for mortals, it is impossible, and this dust says we are mortals.  So for 40 days we give things up that we have come to trust.  We struggle to try and loosen our grip on earthly treasures.  We commit to new disciplines that help us place our trust in God.

As you receive the ashes today, be open.  Be open to any thoughts of giving up a habit or an earthly treasure.  Be open to any thoughts of taking on a discipline that helps you trust God more fully.

Remember, it is not your climb.  You have been invited to journey from the mountain to the cross, but Christ has gone before you.  Will you follow?