The Law: What It Gets You

Mark 10:17-31

Many, if not all of you, are familiar with the television game show “Jeopardy.” Briefly, the contestants choose an answer, and then must give the right question. If they get the right question, they get dollars in their bank, which goes towards winning the game.

For example, the answer might be “According to C.S. Lewis, it was bordered on the east by the Eastern Ocean and on the north by the River Shribble.” The question is “What is Narnia?”

Another example: The answer is “To marry Elizabeth, Prince Philip had to renounce claims to this southern European country's crown.” The question is “What is Greece?”

Sometimes, if the contestants can’t give the right question, the host will explain the right question they were looking for. And I think this is a valuable way to approach our reading for today.

So, welcome to Nelson Memorial Jeopardy! The category is “Eternal Life.” And the answer is,“This is what needs to be done in order to inherit eternal life.” In the scripture, our first contestant gives the wrong question. I know it is the wrong question because the correct question is, “What is ‘Wait a Week.’” But we are not ready to know why that is the correct question.

In our reading, a man comes to Jesus with what he believes is the right question. Usually, we call this the story of the rich young ruler. But it takes all of the gospels to come up with this description. In Mark’s gospel, it is just a man, an ordinary person, who asks the question. In Mark’s gospel, the person asking the question could be any one of us. In practice, it probably is every one of us.

This manin our reading has likely heard Jesus teach before this day – just like us. He has likely heard about the miracles that Jesus performed – just like us. He has likely heard the stories about Jesus casting out the demons – just like us. He might have even been a witness to one or more of these events. This man understands that all the signs point to Jesus being someone sent from God. And just like us, this man wants something that only God can give.

This is Nelson Memorial Jeopardy. The category is “Eternal Life.” The answer is, “This is what needs to be done in order to inherit eternal life.” And the man asks, “What is ‘being good enough?’” That is probably the answer that most people would give today.

We live in a time when most people – in and out of the church – believe in a feel-good therapeutic gospel. In this gospel, the thing that matters is your feelings. This gospel wants you to feel that you are good enough just as you are. This gospel wants you to feel that you are important and valuable, and that you have good things to offer others. As long as you feel spiritual, and you feel good about yourself, you are encouraged to think of yourself as a good person.

Noticeably missing from that gospel is any talk of sin, or forgiveness, or mercy, or redemption, or salvation, or Jesus Christ. There isn’t even any talk of God; or at least, there isn’t any talk of a god that resembles the God of the Bible, the God revealed in Jesus Christ. This should be a tip-off for us that “What is ‘being good enough?’” is not the right question.

This is Nelson Memorial Jeopardy. The category is “Eternal Life.” The answer is, “This is what needs to be done in order to inherit eternal life.” And the man asks, “What is ‘being good enough?’” We know this is the wrong question to ask, but there is another problem with this question.

We need to be clear about what “inheritance” means in the Bible. Today, we think of an inheritance as something we receive from someone who has died and left us a gift. We may know we are going to receive something, but it isn’t ours until the person has gone on to the Church Triumphant.

But that is not what an inheritance is in the Bible. We remember the story of the Prodigal Son and his Cantankerous Older Brother. The younger brother asked for his share of the inheritance, and the father gave it to him. The younger son could request it because an inheritance had to be given while the donor was still alive. If the son goes off on a journey, the father might die before the son returned, and the son might not receive anything. The son might not receive anything because, once someone was dead, they no longer had any say over their estate.

It didn’t matter if a person had written out their intent for how the estate was to be distributed, leaving something behind like a will. The paper didn’t have any authority without the person being alive to testify to the paper’s validity. Once the person was dead, it was left up to the law to decide the distribution.

This is Nelson Memorial Jeopardy. The category is “Eternal Life.” And the answer is “This is what must be done in order to inherit eternal life.” The man asks, “What is ‘what is good enough?’” As the host, Jesus says to the man, “I’m sorry, but we were looking for a different question.”

But since Jesus is also a teacher, and not just a game show host for our purposes this morning, Jesus provides the answer to the question that has been asked.

If this man wants to receive eternal life now, and he wants the answer to be, “I am good enough,” then Jesus wants him to know that he has to be completely good before it is “good enough.” “Oh,” the man said, “I am really good. I keep all the laws. For example, I haven’t killed anyone. I have never cheated on my wife. I pay for what I get. I always tell the truth, when asked. I run my business by the same standard as the other businesses. And I try to make my parents proud of me, or at least not to embarrass them too much.”

Jesus loved the answers, and he loved the man. As the messiah, we should expect that Jesus loves him.

When we love someone, however, we know there is a time for “good” and a time for “good enough.” And in this moment, Jesus knows that it would be a disservice to leave the man at “good enough” when Jesus can offer him “good.” When we are intent on being disciples of Jesus Christ, we should not settle for “good enough” when we have an opportunity for true good.

Jesus listened to the man’s definition of good, and found it was something he could build upon. “All right, then. If you really want to be good enough to receive eternal life, then there’s just one more thing you have to do. All you have to do is become perfect in love, as our Father in heaven is perfect.”

Actually, what Jesus said was “Go, sell what you own, give the money to the poor, and come, follow me.” But it means the same thing as “Become perfect in love.” If we flesh it out, Jesus said, “Don’t depend on your stuff – depend on God. Don’t base your identity on your things, but on the people you are called to love – including the poor. If you want to be good enough to receive eternal life, then you have to be as good as me.”

We can be forgiven for missing this as a teachable moment used to show how “good enough” was a wrong question. Over the centuries, most commentators have missed this, as they struggled with the answer Jesus gave to the man asking to receive eternal life. Even John Wesley got distracted by this.

We know they missed it because when they read this passage, they asked the following questions: “Does what Jesus tell this man apply to all of us, or just to him? Was Jesus setting him up with an impossible example to keep, or is this what radical discipleship is really supposed to look like?” Some of the commentators got caught in the trap of thinking there might be a secret way to get eternal life that they could earn through their own efforts, without having to depend upon the grace of Jesus Christ!

This is Nelson Memorial Jeopardy. The category is “Eternal Life.” And the answer is “This is what is needed in order to inherit eternal life.” Jesus switches back to being our game show host at this point, and explains why the question the man asked is the wrong question.

Jesus tells the man, and us, that it is too hard for mere mortals to enter into eternal life based on their own goodness. Even “the rich and supposedly more blessed than us” are going to find trying to get into heaven on their own merits to be as hard as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. In other words, that is just never going to happen. In fact, it is impossible for mortals to do this. People have no claim, no standing of worthiness before God, to ask for this gift, which only God can bestow.

So, now the disciples know the wrong question for the right answer. But the disciples are concerned about this wrong question. Peter points out to Jesus that they, too, had kept the laws. They had also taken that next step of leaving everything behind so that they could follow Jesus. But Jesus had just told them that even if they did this, it would not be enough.

This is Nelson Memorial Jeopardy. The category is “Eternal Life.” And the answer is “This is what must be done in order to inherit eternal life.”Jesus assures the disciples that they will inherit eternal life, but he doesn’t tell them the right question to ask.

Since this particular episode of Jeopardy happened nearly 2000 years ago, I think it is now safe for me to reveal to you the right question to ask, when the answer is “This is what must be done in order to inherit eternal life.” And the right question,which I actually gave you earlier in the sermon, is,“What is ‘Wait a week?’”

All the disciples have to do in order to inherit eternal life is wait a week – but not just any week. They have to wait the next week after this reading. This next week is the week that makes their inheritance possible.

The day after this question is asked by the man is Palm Sunday, the day for the triumphal entry of Jesus. The next days are filled with the cleansing of the temple, teaching about giving the last two coins, and the last supper. There is the betrayal, the arrest, the trial, and the crucifixion of Jesus.

With the crucifixion, Jesus can no longer give them any kind of an inheritance because he is dead and buried. We remember that once someone has died, they no longer have any say over whatever gifts they may have had to be distributed. The law takes over at this point, and Jesus had nothing left to give. He had given everything, even his life, for the disciples. That’s what the law gets you in the end. It gets you nothing at all.

Waiting a week seems like a mocking of their discipleship at this point. Even if Jesus had intended to give them eternal life, they couldn’t see how that was possible any longer. But on the third day, as the Hebrews count – Fridayas the first day, Saturday as the second day, and Sunday as the third day – on the third day Jesus rose from the dead as the victor over sin and death. A week after the man had asked about what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life, a week during which the disciples waited for the gift, Jesus can now give to the disciples the inheritance of eternal life because he is eternal life.

This is Nelson Memorial Jeopardy.The category is “Eternal Life.” The answer is “This is what we must we do in order to inherit eternal life.” The right question, though, is no longer, “What is ‘Wait a week?’” Holy Week has come and gone, and Jesus Christ is still the Risen Lord. Jesus has done his part, and is still able to give us eternal life today.

It is now our part to become heirs, to become those who inherit and receive this gift. It begins when we acknowledge that we can never be good enough on our own to have a claim on God. It becomes official when we die to ourselves so that we can be raised with Christ. It continues when we depend on God, conform our lives to Christ, and have confidence in the Holy Spirit as we live as disciples of Jesus Christ.

This is what we promise to Jesus, in response to what Jesus has promised to us – to make us heirs of salvation. Let us join our voices together as we affirm our promise to Jesus again.

UMH 396“O Jesus, I Have Promised”