Sermon Tone Analysis

How do you measure up?

Ever had one of those moments where you feel like you’re doing fine, like you measure up - but then discover you’re totally wrong and you’ve missed something critical?

my first driving test - I failed my first driving test.

I though I was a pretty good driver, could do my three point turn, reverse around a corner, and park parallel.

I though I was doing fine, I measured up.

I thought I’d be going home with a pass.

But unfortunately for me, my dad had put one of those brown-envelope letters aside a few weeks back and then totally forgotten about it.

And so the car tax had expired ages ago!

I failed right there and then!

Have you ever had one of those moments?

Where you think you have it all together - but there was something critical you’d missed?

We’re continuing our journey through Luke’s telling of the story of Jesus, the Gospel of Luke.

We’ve been working through it bit by bit for over a year now - and today we come to a story which has one of these moments right at the heart.

Why not find Luke chapter 18 with me and we’ll read together from verse 18. Luke 18:18 - page xxxxxx - Chapter 18 - big 18, verse 18, small 18. page xxxxxx.

Jemimah is going to come and read for us this morning.

Luke 18:18-30

winners?

[rich guy picture]: Sometimes these stories can feel very distant, very remote from us.

But I’ve found this one seems far less foreign.

In fact, I think we'd see pretty much the same thing happening to most of the successful, affluent bigwigs of our day.

I think it’s pretty easy to imagine Jesus out in the street in the city of London, and a suited winner coming up to him, feeling super-successful, to ask for a top tip.

“What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?” - that is, what do I need to do to be sure of winning in the next life - just like I’m winning here?

“You know the commandments,” says Jesus, and rattles of a list - though, it’s worth us noticing that’s not the full list of the famous ten commandments he’s pulled out there by an means - it’s just a slice.

You know what being good looks like, he says, you know what it says on the tin, you know the big no-no’s.

So, have you been a good boy?

“Totally”, comes the reply, anticipating a pat on the back and a nice treat.

“just one more thing...” says Jesus, one teensey weensey little problem with that for you [and at this point, I think any reasonable person would have their stomach churning - uh oh] “Just one more thing: how about … how about you go sell everything and give it all to the poor.”

Aaaaagh dagger to the heart.

[action] “you’ll have treasure in heaven” Jesus adds.

“then come follow me.”

[fall down dead]

For the avoidance of doubt, that was not the answer the rich guy was looking for back then.

It’s not the answer our suited winner of today would be looking for either.

Actually, I think most of us would struggle with that answer if we were honest.

Sell everything?

Everything?

But… how’s that going to work?

What about my retirement?

How will I pay the bills?

What about dinner tomorrow, for that matter, once I’ve sold everything in the fridge?

I can’t just let go of everything Jesus - that’s silly.

Impractical.

Impossible.

The rich guy thought he’d done pretty well.

But he’d missed one thing, he still lacked one thing - the critical thing, so much more important than anything else, than everything else.

But hang on - did you notice Jesus says he’s lacking one thing - v22 - but then gives him three things to do: sell, give, follow.

One thing he lacks, three things to do.

What’s going on here?

He lacks one thing - but Jesus doesn’t tell him what it is.

He gives him a three-part diagnostic that will show him what it is instead.

Let’s press pause right here for a moment.

Why don’t we have a go at running that diagnostic [stethoscope] on ourselves?

Just imagine for a minute that’s you, right there in the story, in the middle of an encounter with Jesus.

And he turns to look at you and says “you still lack one thing.”

gulp!

And then he asks you for something massive, for the hardest, biggest thing you could imagine.

What might that be for you?

What would Jesus put his finger on for you?

For this man it was his riches, his stuff.

But that’s not all of us.

What would put the dagger in like that for you?

Close your eyes and think for a moment: what would it be?

your xbox?

your friends?

your holiday?

your reputation?

your plans for your future?

wait 30s

How does it make you feel, imagining Jesus asking you to give that up?

Makes me pretty queasy.

It’s pretty terrifying.

I’m sure there are things Jesus could ask each one of us for that would put us in the same spot as this rich ruler.

Why does Jesus make his big ask?

Not so the rich ruler knows more boxes which need ticking, so he can try harder and do better.

Jesus is running a diagnostic.

He’s showing the rich ruler the one thing he lacks.

He’s putting his finger on the real problem.

Through Jesus’ radical call, the rich ruler gets to see his own heart.

And ultimately it’s a heart that’s unwilling to bow the knee.

A heart that won’t trust and obey.

A heart that demands “I rule here, not God”.

That’s the one thing the rich ruler lacks: a soft heart that will bow to God as king.

He’s got the answer to his question, how to inherit eternal life.

He needs a changed heart, a new heart.

But instead of embracing that answer, he walks away, sad.

how hard is it?

What does Jesus have to say about all this?

v24 - “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”

And how hard is it?

Harder than getting a camel through the eye of a needle.

Perhaps some of you will have heard the idea that there was a gate called the needle’s eye which was really small but you could just about get a camel through it at a push, down on its knees?

That’s not what Jesus is getting at here.

He’s not trying to say that it’s hard, more like getting a flea through the eye of a needle.

He’s not saying that it will be difficult - but at a push you could do it.

If you get just the right angle, follow the right steps, you could do it.

In fact, that’s pretty much the exact opposite of what he’s saying here.

His crazy picture of trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle is meant to communicate exactly what it seems to us at first glance: absolutely impossible.

No way.

Obviously so.

Even to a child.