20^th Sunday after Pentecost – October 18, 2009

Mark 10: ¹⁷ As 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: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do 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 a rich man 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.”

Did you happen to glance at the printed sermon theme this morning? If not, please take a moment and do so. It’s on page 6 in the bulletin. There the question is asked, “Impossible Mission or Mission Impossible?” Now, this little play on words is meant to get you to think, but if you find yourself confused, listen carefully.

You see, with the adjective “impossible” coming before the word “mission,” it signifies that the mission, whatever it may be, is incapable of being accomplished. It is…well…impossible. However, when the adjective “impossible” comes after the word “mission,” it actually informs you of what the mission is. The mission is to do the impossible.

So, which one is it – Impossible Mission or Mission Impossible? Of course, before you can choose one of those two you need to know what question is being asked, so here is the question: “How can we be saved?” Is it an Impossible Mission or Mission Impossible? The answer is “yes”. God’s Word today tells us that for man it is an impossible mission, but for God it is mission impossible. We examine the words of our Lord.

By all accounts, the man who came to Jesus in our text was a good man. From Mark here, and from Matthew and Luke in their accounts, we hear he was a rich, young, ruling man, respected by others. He had manners and morals. He even had enough desire in his heart for spiritual things that he ran up to Jesus and bowed at his feet. Yet with all these fine qualities, this good, moral man had a seriously fatal flaw. He mistakenly thought that it was possible for him to do the impossible. He thought he could earn or merit eternal life. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The rich man was thinking that he could have a right standing before God as a result of his own works. But that is impossible. So, in order that this man would think on a higher level, Jesus asks, “Why do you call me good?” “No one is good—except God alone.” With this Jesus was not saying that he wasn’t God, rather he sought to have the young man reflect on why he was calling him “good” and what implications that might have. Jesus wanted him to consider that word “good” and apply it to the only one who is good, and to measure himself by the absolute goodness and supreme standards of God. So, how had he done when it came to the commandments?

At first the man responds “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” And it should really come as no surprise that this man would say this, because behind the good works approach to salvation is a shallow and phony view of sin. You see, the good works approach to salvation carries around with it a crooked stick with which to measure goodness, as one compares himself to others rather than God. The good works approach to salvation uses a broken magnifying glass that then fails to highlight the fact that God’s law requires more than outward action but an inner attitude as well. And the good works approach to salvation employs a faulty scale, as it doesn’t recognize that every sin is a rebellion against the holy God and cannot be canceled out with a good work. Yet doesn’t it tell us something, that even with such a shallow and phony view of sin, this man, who thought he had kept God’s commandments since a boy, still had to come and ask how to have eternal life because he felt empty. Exactly! IT IS AN IMPOSSIBLE MISSION FOR US TO SAVE OURSELVES. “No one will be declared righteous in [God’s] sight by observing the law” (Romans 3:20).

How tragic! This young man was so concerned about the law and devoted himself to it, but still he was under its curse. He didn’t see himself as a condemned sinner before the Holy God. So Jesus looks at him in order to speak to him. But notice what else the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to record; “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” What a gentle Savior we have! How tender his heart! How devoted he is to mankind’s salvation! He loved him! Jesus didn’t want this rich ruler to miss out on the forgiveness and salvation he had come to win, so he had to shatter this man’s misconception. He loved him! Jesus wants no one to perish to the eternal flames of hell, so he had to tell this man he was on an impossible mission. His works could never earn him anything. So Jesus said, “One thing you lack…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.”

The demands were not excessive. They were intended to unveil ugly greed and selfishness, destroying the man’s illusions of goodness before God. As far as this man was concerned, he was blameless and had kept the commandments; but in reality he hadn’t even kept the first commandment. The root of the problem was he wouldn’t give God the proper place in his heart. The one necessary thing he lacked was an unrivaled allegiance to God. His attempt to keep the law in order to win eternal life had ended the way that that impossible mission will always end…in failure.

Jesus then uses this occasion to teach his disciples a needed lesson, and you know what, he still uses this occasion to teach us an important lesson as well. “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”…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 a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁶ The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

Simply put, we are attempting an impossible mission if we think we can save ourselves. And if, for some reason, you aren’t sure that is truly the case, let Jesus shatter any illusion you might have of a right standing before God on your own. Let Jesus make you sad. Let Jesus cut you right down to size.

Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Tell me, is that possible? Is it possible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle - that small little hole that you have a hard time getting just a piece of thread through? Of course it’s not possible! What’s even more, for these Jewish disciples, riches were considered a mark of God’s favor and thus considered an advantage, not a barrier, in relation to God’s kingdom. So it was as if Jesus was saying to them, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is even for the person who appears to have God’s favor and seems to be the most likely of candidates to enter the kingdom of God.” No wonder the disciples were literally “excessively greatly astonished.” No wonder they cried out with the despairing question, “Who then can be saved?” They thought that they had it in good with God. They were upright citizens, moral individuals, considerate to their fellowman, and last but not least had given up everything to follow Jesus. But if the one who was morally good, who tried his hardest to keep the commandments, who appeared on the outside to be receiving God’s favor couldn’t be saved by his upright life, how then could they be saved. The root of their problem was the same as that of the rich man: they looked to themselves and failed to keep the first commandment.

And doesn’t our confession need to be as desperate as that of the disciples; for our condition is the same. The root of our problem is no different: again and again and again we fail to keep the first commandment and put our devotion to God above absolutely everything. So, “Who then can be saved?” No one! It is impossible for us to save ourselves. Understand how much you are foul, repulsive, filthy, nauseating first commandment breakers. You are a self-righteous fool who likes to think you are better than others and therefore think you have kept the commandments. We are arrogant schmucks, who think we can love both God and our stuff without it interfering with our complete devotion to God. You fix your eyes on the temporal and perishing of the world at the expense of complete devotion to God and the eternal. We are miserable hypocrites who come here on Sunday, put God first in our lives, but then check him at the door when we leave because it’s just too hard to follow God’s Word out there and make decisions on the basis of what he wants. Who of you can disagree with God’s Word on any of that? Who of you, after looking at your lives, and examining them next to the absolutely straight standard of God’s Law (not the crooked standard of others) can still claim a place in God’s kingdom on the basis of your works? Who of you, after looking at your life through the perfect magnifying glass of God’s Law, (not the broken one we like to use) can claim obedience to any of them? Who of you, after balancing your sins on the precisely weighted scale of God’s Law, (not the faulty scale of our reason) can claim that your sins don’t pull you down to the very depths of hell? Who of us can ever meet the perfect standards of God’s absolute goodness?

Is our case hopeless, then? Not in the least! You see, what is impossible for man, is not impossible for God! “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.” God looked at us and he loved us. His heart was filled with pity as he saw our desperate condition, and he was moved into action. He could not bear the thought of the crown of his creation ending up in the fires of the hell prepared for the devil and his evil angels. So he sent his Son, Jesus, to accomplish mission impossible.

And so the angel came to Mary, pledged to be married to Joseph, and told her, “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). But how could this be, she was a virgin. The angel said, “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). So the very Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary so that he could take on human flesh and do what is impossible for us to do – the work of our salvation. He lived as our Substitute: taking on our weaknesses and temptations, obeying the law perfectly, and giving us the credit for his holiness. He died as our Substitute: placing all our sins and guilt upon himself, giving his life as the ransom price for our sins, and purifying us from all sin by paying our debt. And he came back to life so that we could be declared not guilty. What we cannot do, what is impossible for us, has all been done by someone outside of us. Now, through Jesus, God declares us to be holy and righteous, and by the very faith worked in us by God himself, we take hold of the eternal life made possible for us by Jesus. For the believer, looking to Christ and his work alone, we are lifted from the very depths of hell.

God has saved you in spite of yourself. He sent his Son to do the good you couldn’t do, to take the punishment for your sin upon himself. He accepts the blood of Jesus as a ransom for your sin. In so doing he makes the impossible possible, opening the gates of heaven for you to enter. Now, when we stand at the foot of the cross we hear, “you hypocrite, your sin is forgiven.” We hear, “you arrogant schmuck, your guilt is wiped clean.” We hear, “You self-righteous fool, your transgression is pardoned.” We hear, “my child, through Jesus’ blood you now perfectly meet the standards of my holy law.” As we confess, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” rich and poor alike come in penitence before the Lord, and to each the promise is given: “God has had mercy on you and has forgiven you your sins for Jesus’ sake.”

So, is it impossible mission or mission impossible? The answer is “yes.” And may we always know the correct answer to that question. For us, it is an impossible mission to save ourselves. But for God it is mission impossible. It is the difference between law and gospel. It is the heart of the Bible. God help us that our trust be in him alone who is able to do the impossible. Amen.