Camels and Needles

Mark 10:23–31 ESV

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Introduction

I had a close friend in college who had a crush on one of the girls on campus. He finally worked up the nerve to ask her out. To his surprise, she said, “yes”. They went out, began dating steadily, and subsequently fell in love over the next year. They were the “perfect” couple, so it would seem. They were always together. They communicated very well. And they not only loved each other, they really liked each other. One day I saw him sitting under a tree on campus, crying. I went over to him and asked him what was wrong. He told me that the love of his life had broken up with him, that she did not want to go to the seminary with him and become a pastor’s wife. Her dad was a pastor, and she saw what her mom had gone through— the late nights, the missed meals, always “being on call”, and she realized that if she were to marry him, she would be in the same situation as her mom. As hard as it was, she couldn’t move forward. As for my friend, he asked, “how do you get past a broken heart?” The loss truly affected him to the point where we were, for a time, all getting a little worried. It really hurts to be broken-hearted.

You know that. You’ve had your heart broken, too. Whether it be through the loss of a friend, or a breakup of a relationship or marriage, or the loss of a child, or the loss of someone close to you through death. How do you get through something like this? How do you get past a broken heart? You know, that once your heart is broken, you’ll never quite be the same. Psalm 34, heard in our Introit today, gives us hope.

Psalm 34:18 ESV

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Today, we are going to talk about “broken-heartedness” in our series of sermons on Christian Vocation. But it may not be what you think it is. And yet, it is necessary to have our hearts “broken” by God, for they are always wrong-headed, seeking our own will and desire.

Camels and Needles

Our text today deals with earthly wealth and riches. To put it bluntly, it speaks about money, and the obstacle that money can become for us. Jesus says

How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Yes, there are those who will tell you that the “eye of the needle” is a narrow gate in the wall around Jerusalem, and that this is what Jesus speaks about. Don’t buy it. He is speaking literally here. Nothing can go through the literal eye of a needle, save thread, especially an animal as large as a camel, humps and all. Jesus is making a point that we need to hear. He is speaking of an impossibility.

We all have wealth. The lowest class of people in America have more than many in some of the impoverished countries. Most of us do not have to worry about a roof over our heads, or having enough food to eat, or water that doesn’t need to be treated, access to medical care and the like. To many in the world, that is wealth. And whether we have a lot in the bank, or just enough to “make it” , the riches of this life can cause us to become self-dependent, to focus on our needs rather than the needs of others, and to live a life that acknowledges the Lord with our lips, but depends upon our bank account to live. Such are the signs of a hardened heart before the Lord.

It is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for us to come into the Kingdom.

The disciples get this, just as we do now:

And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”

They realized Jesus wasn’t just speaking about the rich; He was speaking about them. They included themselves in that “who”. They realized that they were controlled by their riches, as little as they were by earthly standards. Realizing what Jesus is saying here causes the same question, the same fear, to roll off of our lips. All is lost. Abandon all hope ye who enter here. So … how Jesus? If my riches prevent me from entering the kingdom of God, if there is nothing that I can do or say, then all is lost. A camel has a better chance than I do.

God Breaks Your Heart

But Jesus isn’t done teaching them. He goes on to say,

With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

God doesn’t make the “impossible” possible; God does the impossible in your stead and by His command. He brings you into His Kingdom another way, the only way one can enter it: He breaks your heart.

He smashes your reliance on wealth. He puts to death your self-centeredness. He turns up the jets on that hard, cold, heart of yours and brings forth His own gold. He recreates your heart so that it beats in tune with His will, that with every breath that you take you breathe His life. “He who loves his life will lose it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it unto eternal life.” He breaks your heart of stone, and then gives you His own heart of love.

He does this because His own heart was broken. It was broken when Adam and Eve made an attempt to usurp His Kingdom and His position by disobeying in the garden. This crown of creation broke up with Him, hid from Him, avoided Him, and ultimately walked away from Him. The people He called His own, Israel, committed adultery on Him by becoming one with other gods. The world, whom He still permits to go on and whom He still loves, shakes their clenched fists at Him and hate Him. For God, His love will be unrequited by some, for they will never come back to Him. And it breaks His heart.

Do you know what breaks it more? You. And me. Our sin. Our refusal to talk with Him in prayer in our day to day lives. Our coldness toward Him like the coldness we feel from one who broke up with us. Our avoidance of Him. All through sin.

To fix this, God the Father does the impossible - He allows His own heart to be broken as He offers up His only begotten Son. Suspended on the Cross, God loved Jesus, but He hated our sin more. So Jesus dies on the cross. Jesus is cast away from the Father. The Father turns His back on His very own Son and allows Him to suffer hell, your eternal, horrible, God-forsaken hell, and His heart breaks.

God has done the impossible. He has paid for our sin of breaking His heart. Jesus comes back to life— this whipped, scourged, crucified, speared through the heart Lord. My Lord and my God. All so that we can have that new and right heart, where the joy of His salvation is restored.

Because the Lord’s heart was broken, you have life in Him. He has brought you into His Kingdom. Not in a tumultuous display of power, but with plain water and simple words.

Now He grants a new perspective on life, on riches, on worship, and calls you to a new and vibrant way of living, unencumbered by the distraction of wealth and riches, and self.

For those that say “the Church is always talking about money”, here it isn’t the Church speaking. It is Jesus Himself.

Living is Giving

In Old Testament life, God required you to give one tenth of every gift you had. If you had money, He required one tenth of it to be given to Him. If you had a crop, one tenth of that was placed on His altar. If you had herds, one tenth was given back to God. That was what was required. Any giving that followed this was your offering. Offerings were over and above the ten percent. To not give, or to short change the Lord, would result in His wrath.

But when His heart was broken by Jesus dying for you, this all changed.

God freed us from these old laws. Now, God doesn’t want ten percent; He wants it all. Your all. He wants you to give to Him cheerfully in your offerings. They should be planned, deliberate amounts. He tells us through Paul,

2 Corinthians 9:7 ESV

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Percentage giving is God pleasing. True offerings involve prayerful planning in our lives. They should flow from our firstfruits, and not from what is left over.

But Wait....

Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.

As Christians we are called to a life of sacrifice. The theme that we began two weeks ago continues: God calls you to die to yourself and live for Him and your neighbors. That’s impossible, so God kills us, breaking our hearts of stone.

Peter is lodging a complaint to Jesus here. “We are already doing this, Lord!” Sounds strangely familiar— it’s the same thing that the rich young ruler said to Jesus, “all these I have kept.” We’ve given away all that we have. We follow you alone. Doesn’t that count for something here? What’s in this for me?” Impetuous Peter. Always putting his foot in his mouth.

Yes, beloved, we are called to a life of sacrifice. To give and never stop giving. God doesn’t call us to give equal amounts, but He does call us to equal sacrifice. Once again, God wants our offerings to be first fruits, planned, sacrificial in amount, regular and continuous. He calls us to use the individual spiritual gifts that He has uniquely given to each of us in the same way. His law speaks to us today and shows us that we all can do better than we have been doing. Not for the sake of reward or avoiding punishment, but for the sake of Him who gave His all for us.

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

Jesus then shows us that God’s economy functions nothing like our own.

When I was in Boy Scouts, we used to do a campfire skit called the “multiplier.” Two scouts would hold up a blanket. There would be a scout behind it with props. The scout in front of the blanket tells those huddled around the fire that they have made this incredible machine. So, he throws a toothbrush over the top of the blanket. The guys behind the curtain throw a push-broom back over. They throw a pine-cone over, and the guys behind throw over a small, fallen tree branch. It goes on until the last thing thrown over- a glass of water. Over the top of the curtain comes a bucket full of water that is dumped on the scout in front. Always good for a bunch of laughs.

While this was done in fun, what Jesus tells us is in the Kingdom of God, this is exactly and literally how it works. You give the Lord ten percent of your income, and you won’t believe what happens with the other 90 percent— how much further it goes. You hit rock-bottom, and yet all of your needs are still covered. You might not win that 1.6 Billion Dollar lottery— hope you don’t, but you have something given to you by the Lord far greater than earthly riches or money. You have Him.

In the Hymn of the Day, we sang that verse, “The world seeks after wealth and all that mammon offers yet never is content though gold should fill its coffers. I have a higher good, Content with it I’ll be: My Jesus is my wealth. What is the world to me.

The life of discipleship is a combination of promise and persecution, blessing and suffering. God takes nothing from a Christian without making multiplied restoration in a new and glorious form. With Jesus, you have more than anyone without Him— including the very wealthy— have. Peter puts it this way,

1 Peter 1:7 ESV

so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Hardened ore, our hearts are cold, melt them down, bring forth Your gold.

The Lord has broken your heart of stone. Broken your heart of self-centeredness and sin. Broken your heart of death that you may have life, and have it to the full.

God has called you to a life of giving. For what is giving but another way that we worship the Lord for all that He has done for us.

When it comes to finances in this life, we very well may be last. But when it comes to the riches we already have in Jesus, God makes us first.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.