As Jesus started on his way, a girl ran up to him and fell on her knees before him. “Good teacher,” She asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life? My name’s Samantha, I’m from Benenden which is rather a nice school in the South of England.”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No-one is good– except God alone, not you, not mother Teresa nor anyone for that matter. You know the commandments: ‘Do you prep thoroughly, don’t lie about your coursework being dropped in a puddle, don’t sleep with your boyfriend, don’t be adolescent with your parents don’t gossip about the other girls behind their back, don’t steal peoples’ jewelry or clothes and be nice to first years”.
“Teacher,” Samantha declared triumphantly, “all these I have kept since I started at Benenden, look here are my reports. English is particularly good.
Jesus looked at her and loved her. “One thing you lack”, he said, “Go, sell your pearls, your precious stoned jewelry, your prada shoes, your dinky black tie handbag, your ipod, your Chanel watch, your Johnfrieda shampoo and conditioner, your UGG boots, your favorite ball gown, your ghd hair straighteners, and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
At this Samantha’s face fell. She went away sad, because she had several ipods in different colours and they even had her name engraved on the back, and she’d never be able to go out again without her ghds.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for girls from Benenden to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children how hard it is for who trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of God. In fact it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “If it’s that hard for a girl from Benenden who then can be saved?
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God”.
Depending on your outlook on life you will have found that story either incredibly depressing or wonderfully uplifting. In fact there might also be a few people in this chapel who really didn’t like that story. They might say it sounded very negative. They might be thinking ‘who are you to come into this chapel and judge? Are you trying to say you can’t be a Christian unless you’re poor.’
If you’re thinking that may I suggest you didn’t quite get the right end of the stick, the point of the story, indeed the point of Jesus’ story. Let me clarify, I have not come to judge - I could just as easily have put myself in Samantha’s place, and the story would have been 100% accurate, you can hear I’m posh anyway can’t you. Secondly if you found that a rather depressing story, that means you only heard the bit about you in it and you missed the really good bit about God.
This is what it means: The Rich young man in Jesus story, or Samantha in mine, or you or I, whoever want eternal life. Who doesn’t? And in the story they reckon they’re going to get it by doing a load of stuff that makes them good.
Samantha imagines life is one enormous moral ladder. she starts at the bottom. She imagines that eternal life is at the top. She reckons that by doing stuff, by being good she can get up that ladder.
The same is true for the rich man. So : The ten commandments: I haven’t killed anyone –up one, I haven’t committed adultery - up one, I haven’t lied – I can’t believe he hadn’t lied but anyway – up one. Or let’s bring it closer to home. Samantha thinks I was nice to my parents over half term – up one. I am kind to the first years, up another. I don’t gossip about other girls – up one. I don’t do drugs – up one and so on. People like the Rich young man or Samantha think that if they do enough good things they’ll get to the top, and they’ll be able to say to God at the end “all these commands I have kept”. He’ll say, “well done, you’ve earned your place” and they’ll get eternal life.
Has anyone ever thought that was the way to get into heaven? As long as I do enough good things? That what the Rich young man thought. That’s what Samantha thought. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life.” I know I have. Many people perhaps even some of you think that’s how Christianity works.
Well actually it’s not. Jesus taught the Rich Young Man very wisely that this was the wrong way to get eternal life. You see the problem comes right at the beginning. The Rich young Man asks “what must I do to inherit eternal life”. “What must I do”. That’s where he’s gone wrong. He thinks eternal life is achieved by me.By me doing things and becoming good enough.
Jesus takes him on at his own game. Instead of telling the young man straight out that he’s go the wrong idea about getting eternal life, he lets him have a go. He’s going to have to learn by himself. So He asks whether he has kept the commandments, and he gives him a list of the easy ones first. don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery. Things are going well for the Rich young men and the Samanthas of this world. Yup, I’ve done all those, I’m on track for the pearly gates, oh yes.
Then Jesus throws in one of the commands he saved up and it all changes. You shall have no other Gods before me, say the commandments. So you won’t worship money, you won’t mind losing money to follow me. Sell up and follow me then. The man went away sad. Samantha went away sad because they had great wealth, and they didn’t love Jesus enough to give it up.
So perhaps life is a moral ladder, but it is so long, it stretches up so high, the gaps between the rungs are so huge that we could never get to the top. Jesus said that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. That’s pretty impossible. He means we could never obtain eternal life by doing good things. Lets be honest with ourselves. Could we ever truly live a life of complete obedience to God. I couldn’t do that for 5 minutes. Now up to this point I’d agree with the people who found my story unnecessarily depressing and negative.
But It’s not a depressing story because it doesn’t stop there. In fact it is a wonderful story underpinned by a marvelous reality, a truth that in fact makes all the difference to my life, as perhaps it has done to some of you.
The disiples ask, “who then can be saved?”. Jesus answers, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.”
It’s easy to get the wrong idea about Jesus’ attitude to the Rich young men or the Samanthas of this world. Do you remember? Mark says he looked at him and loved him. These people are excluded from eternal life for only one reason. They insist on trying to get there by themselves. That’s where riches come in. Being rich makes us feel like we own the world, like we can have anything we want, we can depend on ourselves for all we need. But the truth is, they will never get there on their own. Well what can be done then, the disciples wonder? Wonderfully though, what man cannot do, God can do. Indeed Jesus loves you and me so much, that he is prepared to do the impossible for us. That is the message of the cross. When Jesus Christ came to earth, it was as if God came down the ladder from eternity onto earth. There he lived a perfect life, a life worthy of Heaven and then he went to the cross and died to cancel the punishment for our sin. Now that Jesus has suffered in our place we can claim the reward that only he deserves. Eternity with God.
I have one question to you. How do you hope to inherit eternal life? Do you, like Samantha and the Rich Young man think you’ll get there because you’re a good person, or will you have to rely on Jesus to make the impossible happen.
May I say, perhaps my sermon has bothered you and you would like to challenge me. Do feel free to come and ask me after the service or perhaps take the time during the week to go and speak to Mrs. Ashton. But please, if Jesus’ words have moved you, don’t just try to forget them so that you can sleep easy. Read Matthew Do something about it.
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