(Mark 10:17-27) Within that sermon I said the following:So really, when it comes to [the rich man] the question is not whether or not he’s good. This man is the kind of good, decent, religious person that the world could use a lot more of, but maybe this man is hoping that being good is his ticket to eternal life, will earn him a ride on the “kingdom train.” If that is the case then his ticket is already punched. But the problem for this man is that Jesus doesn’t invite people to be good, decent, religious people. Jesus invites people to follow him. You can’t earn eternal life by doing anything. But you can receive it by following the one who gives it.
When I said that, I thought (and mentioned to the congregation) that this statement could probably use some unpacking and that I’d do that in my blog this week. The reason I thought this might need a little more attention is that at one point I said to someone, “Church membership has no bearing on your salvation, but we’d love to have you commit to being a part of this congregation.” The person responded, “I know; you have to earn it [salvation].” I responded, “No, none of us can earn it. We have to receive it.” As Paul puts it in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Also, the particular passage that involves the rich man and Jesus can make us wonder, “How can you say you can’t do anything to earn eternal life yet Jesus does, in fact, tell the man to do something? Isn't the selling of all his possessions what this man must do to inherit eternal life?” At first glance it might look this way, but when you look deeper this doesn’t seem to be the case to me. Following Jesus is the important action that needs to be taken here, but Jesus knows that this man’s connection to his wealth is what will keep him from doing that. So the selling of his possessions does not earn him eternal life, it frees him up to accept it. Also, just a note here. This passage isn’t really about the poor per se. Many of Jesus’ statements are directly about the poor, but this isn’t one of them. Here the poor are simply the beneficiaries of what this man needs to do to free himself up to follow Jesus. This passage is about this man (and many like him) who are too attached to something—wealth, pride, relationships, their doubts, etc.—to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Here is a kind of a parable I came up with to help us understand the very important distinction between earning salvation (something we could never do) and receiving it. Remember that parables are metaphors and metaphors always break down at some point, but I think it might help us to get what I mean when I say, “You can’t earn eternal life by doing anything. But you can receive it by following the one who gives it."
You’ve heard about a restaurant where the most wonderful food in the world is served. The problem is that it is not opened to the public, meaning you can’t just walk up to it and get a table. You cannot even call to get a reservation. One day you approach a woman that you’ve heard has something to do with the restaurant. Maybe she’s the manager? Maybe she works there as a server? Maybe she’s even the owner? You’re not sure but you have a pretty good idea that she knows how to get in. You approach her one day and ask, “What do I have to do to get into your restaurant?” “You can’t do anything to get in.”
“I’ll pay you a million dollars,” you say.
“I don’t want your money,” she responds. “Don’t need it.”
“I will wash the dishes for a month if you just give me a reservation!” you cry, desperately.
“I told you that you can’t earn your way in here and can’t buy your way in here,” she responds, getting a bit agitated with you.
You start to walk off. “If you really want in,” she calls out to you, gesturing for you to come with her. “Follow me.”
“Are you serious? You’ll take my reservation? What an honor! Give me Friday evening at 7:00 pm.”
“I’m not talking about a reservation for later. I mean now. If you want to eat our food then follow me now.”
“But I have meetings to be at and I need to go tell my family and friends that I finally got us in.”
“Cancel your meetings. Tell your friends and family about it later. Plus, you didn’t get yourself in. I invited you. Do you want in or not? If you do, now is the time. Follow me.”
You still can’t believe this is free. There must be a catch. A private meal in the best restaurant in the world! This is surely going to be really expensive. There’s going to be something you have to do to pay this woman back. “Come on, let me pay you for it,” you say as you’re following her in the door. She shakes her head. “Please let me do something so I can feel like I earned this.” She tells you to be quiet.
You walk through a door and down a long hallway. You come to a door where there is a security guard working. The woman walks in ahead of you. The guard stops you. Surely he wants money, right. Maybe he wants you to do something to show that you are worthy to enter the restaurant. Maybe there’s a gourmet food test. You can pass that so you feel pretty good about it. The woman turns back around and says to the guard, “Let him in. He’s with me.” The guard smiles and tells you to enjoy your meal.
As you walk just behind her you ask her again, “How much is this really going to cost me?”
“I’ve already paid for you. You couldn’t afford it anyway.”
“Oh, but I’m very wealthy,” you respond proudly.
“Trust me, you couldn’t afford it.”
“Let me do something to pay for the meal. You can’t just give it away for free.”
“I never said it was free. I just said you’ve already been paid for. It was very costly.”
You keep trying to ask questions, but finally she stops and says, “Look, everybody keeps trying to buy their way in or earn their way in. But their credentials, fame, money, or even good works won’t earn entrance into this restaurant. But if they’d just follow me in, my credentials can get anybody into this place. My parents own it and I’m running it for them. Just trust me and keep following me. You won’t be sorry. Once you taste this food, you’ll find that it’s so good that you won’t just want to eat here; you’ll want to work here. The next thing you know, you’ll be telling everybody you know about it. But when you do that, you need to remember that you can’t get them in. Only I can. When you find someone who’s interested, bring them to me. If they’re willing to follow me in, I’ll vouch for them.”
Does that help at all to understand what I said in my sermon—“You can’t earn eternal life by doing anything. But you can receive it by following the one who gives it”?
Of course all of this also begs these questions: What does it mean to be “saved?” What is “eternal life?” What is the “Kingdom of God?” Are these synonymous? The common association that is made between being saved, eternal life, and the Kingdom of God with heaven after we die is not a very good, at least not a complete, understanding of how these terms are used in the Bible. Please don’t get me wrong; that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in heaven after I die. I most certainly do. Like Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” What I mean is that heaven after we die is not the totality of the biblical concept of salvation/eternal life/kingdom of God but merely a part of it. But we’ll have to get into that in next week’s blog.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment.
Peace.
