The Gospel reading for today, like the one around the laws on divorce from last week, is one of which I think that we are more than little afraid. We’re afraid it, I think, because we’re afraid that it’s about judgement; and it is. This text is unashamedly about judgement; the judgement of God about the things that get in the road of us following the ways of God. Last week, it was about following the letter of the Law without understanding its Spirit, its undergirding its principles, the nature of the God who gave the Law as gift to human who needed it. But when the text was first read, I bet more than one of us cringed a little at the possibility that from such a text would come a sermon about the “evils of divorce”. And there’s no doubt that that text was concerned about the right response to the breakdown of very ordinary human relationships in marriage; but as we explored it, it wasn’t just about the right human response to the breakdown of human relationships, it was far more concerned with the right human response to the gifts of God in creation. Yes, there was judgement, and yes we know that God judges, but if that was all we heard in last week’s text, then we missed something of the very nature of the God who has gifted us with the scriptures. So, we come to this week’s Gospel reading… about the so-called “rich young ruler”… and we’re ready to cringe again.
We’re ready to cringe because we know we’re rich. And we know that it’s not about whether we’re on fixed or limited incomes or not, we know that it’s about relative wealth in a world where there are vast differences between the haves and the have-nots. We know that we our lifestyles, our lives and our life expectancies would be very different if we were living in Zimbabwe or remote Papua or even a remote indigenous community in Australia. We know that, by comparison, with people who live hand to mouth, or worse, we are rich. We know that, even with all our complaints about the Australian health system, we are rich in comparison to those people who still battle illnesses whose eradication we take for granted. We know that we are rich because our community has a reasonably coherent welfare system for those who do struggle and who do battle to survive even in this nation. We know that we are rich and we cringe as we hear the story of the rich young ruler, because we are afraid. We afraid that the text is about judgement, and it is. The text is about the judgement of God on the things that get in the road of us following the ways of God. And we wonder, “Is this the judgement that God brings down on us?” “Is this the judgement that God brings down on us?” Does God look at us and say, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" And we’d be kidding ourselves if we didn’t take that gut reaction to hearing the text seriously. Because the text if about judgement—the judgement of God on the things that get in the road of us following the ways of God.
And you know yourself that the judgement is true. How much time do we spend deciding what to do with our money? How much time do we spend taking the advantages we have for granted? How little time do we spend dwelling on the plight of those who, compared to us, even those of us on very modest incomes, compared to us are greatly impoverished in their access to resources, in their disposable income, in their life prospects? Of course, the judgment is true.
But if that’s the only thing we heard in this text, then we’d be making the same mistake as we might have made last week. Yes, there was judgement, and yes we know that God judges, but if that was all we heard in this week’s text, then we missed something very important about the very nature of the God who has gifted us with the story. We would miss the hope. We would miss the hope.
"How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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." And again, I’d like to say that we could mitigate this text, that we could water down the judgement by talking about “eyes of needles” as small holes in city walls through which a camel (a possession) was unlikely to move, but which would allow the passage of a human being, but I fear that too might both let us of the hook of God’s judgement too easily and worse—it might mean that we entirely miss the marvellous message of hope that is offered in this passage, which is so hope-filled, only because the judgement is so fitting and so right.
"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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… For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
And in this profound statement of hope, we are reminded that if we like the “rich young ruler” were to too quickly succumb to our shock and go away grieving in the face of our wealth, if we were to do what the “rich young ruler” did, we would not be hearing the hope that we are offered in God… despite our riches, not because of them… despite our apparent powerlessness to change the distribution of wealth across our globe, not because of it… despite our giving up of our wealth for the sake of others, not because of it… despite who we are, not matter how poor, no matter how lowly, no matter how rich, no matter how advantaged… despite all this, God has opened God’s realm to us in Christ and we are invited to enter it through the power of the Holy Spirit. None of it has anything to do with us, or with camels, or with eyes of needles—whatever they may be. And lest we boast, even when we think we have reason to lay claim to such a place, as Peter attempted to do so by drawing attention to what the disciples had given up, we are reminded: “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” It is not then or now and never will be about us. It is all about God—God’s judgement and God’s hope. Thank God! Because of God’s gift to us in Jesus, it is not our worry where we are placed, rather it is our calling to honour the God who has given so much, by giving thanks, and by praying that our wills may be confirmed to God’s will and that the fullness of God’s reign of justice and peace will come to fruition in God’s time. And that more than anything will free us to be the people of God we are called to be.
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