blacken the sky & sharpen the axe

forever cursed to live unrelaxed

A sermon on Jesus and the rich man who was poor in life:

Here’s a guy who has it all. And he really has it all, too. He’s devout. Plus, he’s well-off, to boot. 

And yet! And yet, for all that, this fellow doesn’t feel like he’s got it all. Quite the contrary, he lives with—No, that’s not quite right. He’s not "living with.” No, he’s dying of—he’s dying of a constant, nagging sense that it’s all about to slip through his fingers. Instead of assurance, he feels anxiety. His life of means is not one of satisfaction. Rather, it’s a desperate one with a gnawing sense of having had, and forever lost, something of infinite value.

Have you ever felt that way? I bet you have. I bet you have because, and here’s the bad news: I bet you have because that’s how it works! This rich man, as exceptional as he is, is not the exception in this regard. No, he’s the rule. Not the ruler, the rule.

Sure, you and I may not tend to think of ourselves as especially rich or religious. And we can bicker about that later. But, and be honest, don’t you ever feel like all your hard-won achievements are just on the verge of coming to nothing? AND isn’t this feeling most acute in those places of your life you’ve worked hardest to shore up? 

I bet you have. I bet you have because that’s how it works! Just ask the rich man. All of his accomplishments haven’t filled that pit in his stomach. Rather, they’ve done just the opposite! ALL his attainments have only opened a void in him, a rift so deep that no amount of money or piety could ever fill it. 

But worst of all, the chasm in this man is so complete that it’s consumed him, too! This guy can only think of himself from the perspective of his predicament. INSTEAD of seeing himself as he is, someone in dire need, he believes he’s getting it all together. The tragedy, though, is that all his so-called improvements are only throwing his life into serious disarray…

This is a paradox for us. Isn’t it? Like the rich man, it is hard for us to even notice this curious dynamic. First of all, we plain don’t want to. We don’t like to consider the possibility that our very attempts to allay our anxiety only exacerbate it. Do we?

And it's also difficult for us to entertain the notion that our remedy is really a poison because there’s an entire cottage industry out there dedicated to insisting otherwise! Isn’t there? I’m talking about, of course, self-help. You know, that particularly modern genre full of tips and life hacks. 

We love self-help, too. Don’t we? But, you’ve got to ask, if self-help is so effective, why hasn’t it worked yet?!? A quick Wikipedia search will tell you that the topic isn’t modern! The ancient Greeks dabbled in self-help! Plus, the term itself isn’t even new, either! Self-help turned up in the early 1800’s! Self-help is older than Trinity!

Wouldn’t you think that, by now, we would have come up with a cure? Instead, we only seem to have come up with more self-help books! Haven’t we?!? If you ask me, it appears the only people being helped by self-help are the authors and publishers.

The truth is, the proposition itself is flawed. And if you’re not so sure, just think about this: self-help is a flat contradiction in terms! Tell the truth; what gets you into most of your trouble? I bet it’s you! Isn’t it? 

So how can the very thing that got you into a bind, your self, ALSO be the thing that gets you out of it, too? It can’t! Can it? No, there’s absolutely no way the same faulty equipment that created your problem will also be able to solve it! That scheme will only increase your problems every time. Just ask the rich man…

The rich man really does have it all. Yes, he’s wealthy. And that knowledge colors our outlook on him. But did you notice Mark doesn’t reveal that fact until the end? It’s as if Mark wants that piece of information to land like a punchline.

What Mark does tell us straight away, though, is that the man is devout. Now, as good Lutherans, you and I have an allergy to righteousness. Don’t we? We hear this joker saying that he’s kept the second table of the commandments all his life, and we think, “Malarky!” 

But check this out: Jesus doesn’t! When this guy says he’s kept the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and fourth commandments, in that order, Jesus doesn’t challenge him! Does he? 

Don’t you think, if this guy were outright lying, Jesus would call him on it? Instead, Jesus looks at him and loves him! In fact, he’s the only person in the Gospel of Mark we’re explicitly told Jesus loves. And not only that, Jesus also invites this guy to become a follower, too! 

It’s right there, though, that things get interesting. Pay attention to how Jesus responds. It’s enigmatic. Jesus says, “There’s one thing left.” But the NRSV is a little closer to the Greek. It’s on page 43 in your pew Bibles. Jesus says, “You lack ONE thing.” 

That’s an odd way of putting it. Isn’t it? Instead of saying, “You have just one more thing to do,” Jesus says he lacks one thing. Jesus looks at this man who has it all and sees it’s all really just one big abyss. 

BUT because we already know the guy is rich, we miss this observation altogether. In fact, our preconceptions lead us to believe we know this guy’s problem better than Jesus! And the irony is, it makes us start acting like the rich man in today’s Scripture ourselves! Instead of seeing the issue as a lack, as Jesus frames it, we treat the issue as another one of doing. BUT that’s the very thing that’s gotten the rich man into such a jam. Isn’t it?!?

…This is a bit mystifying. Isn’t it? In our day-to-day lives, it’s the engine of willpower that gets us from point A to point B. But remember, we’re dealing with the exception that breaks the rule here, not the rule. 

Willpower is fine and all. The trouble comes when you start to trust it. When that happens, you try and shift willpower into a gear it doesn’t have! And at that point, burnout is inevitable. 

That’s fine, too. Believe it or not, hitting a wall is really just running headlong into reality. And, as we like to say around here, true spiritual is life—where? That’s right! Reality! True spirituality is life in reality.

The trouble comes when you either get lucky or go stubborn. Have you heard the saying that beginner’s luck is a curse? Well, catching too many breaks can lead you to believe you can do it all yourself. And it can make you think you’re supposed to, too!

And if you’re stubborn, the other thing that can happen is, you can refuse to accept tough breaks. Should that happen, you’ll begin to believe in your ideals more than the God who promises to meet you in the thick of reality. Either way, the outcome is the same. LIKE the rich man, you start to feel as if life itself is never enough! 

We’ve all been there. Haven’t we? Some of us might be even there right now. And it’s awful. It’s a small, shallow existence where all the best parts of life are gutted by anxieties and ingratitude. 

As bad as that is, the real horror isn’t where you start; it’s where you end. Not only do you begin to feel as though nothing is ever enough, but you end up believing God is nothing more than just some help in your pursuit of a life where you never really need God. And when that happens, life itself, for all intents and purposes, stops. Instead of living, life becomes nothing more than an endless slog with no greater purpose than accumulating assets and reducing liabilities.

And if you don’t believe me, just ask the rich man. Doesn’t that seem like the corner he’s painted himself into with all his so-called success? He thought he was making a life for himself. But ultimately, he only discovers that he’s undermined the very possibility of actually living one! That’s why he runs to Jesus! He’s desperate!

…And this is why Jesus, in turn, gives the man a desperate solution! And make no mistake, it is a solution. Jesus isn’t tricking the guy with his proposal to sell everything and give it all away. And Jesus isn’t giving him some impossible project, either. 

On the contrary, Jesus sees that this man’s management of life has kept him from really living it. So Jesus proposes something only he can. Jesus tells the guy to take the nuclear option! Since this man can’t bring himself to really live because he’s too worried about mismanaging life, Jesus tells him just to do it himself! Jesus tells the man to blow up his own life! And then find out what it’s like on the other side. 

But that’s the one thing this man can’t do. Isn’t it? No, it’s here that he walks away grieving. And it’s only then that Mark tells you he’s wealthy. 

Like a good 1-2 punch, though, it’s the first hit that really lays you out. It’s not that this man is rich. No, it’s that he’s poor in faith! This man won’t trust anyone other than himself. And it leaves him walking away from the one who is his cure AND for whom all things are possible, too!

Jesus was right. Wasn’t he? The man only lacks one thing. And it’s not giving away everything. No, what he lacks is literally anyone else! Ultimately, though, what he lacks is Jesus Christ himself.

This man wants for nothing. And so, he lacks everything. He’s doomed to his own efforts, his own accomplishments. He’s trapped in his own little skull-sized kingdom. Yes, he might look like a winner, but on the inside, he's lost everything.

…We’re not told what finally happens to the rich man. Are we? Maybe that setback was his first hard step back on the road to reality, and, therefore, Christ. Perhaps meeting that challenge he couldn’t overcome himself turned him straight into the wounded hands of Jesus Christ, the one who held his redemption all along. 

We’re never told. But you’ve got to hope. Don’t you? You’ve got to hope because, let’s face it, we’re this rich man. We have plenty of resources. But we’re short on trust. Aren’t we?

Well, that’s not exactly right. We do have trust. It’s just misplaced. And as such, we run out of trust fast. What happens is, instead of setting our hope on Christ, our help in ages past, we place it on ourselves. And like the rich man, all we have is a lot of anxiety to show for it. 

But! But, if you’re sick and tired of that dead-end, maybe you’re ready to succeed where the rich man failed! And it’ll happen right in the midst of all your failures! When you stop placing false hope in yourself, you’re finally ready to really put it in Jesus Christ himself! And Christ, he won’t let you down. 

In fact, Christ will use those places you’re already laid low to lift you into his warm and tender embrace! What’s more, Christ will take all your failures and use them to give you the unconquerable power of faith in him! Christ will even make that spot you’ve come in last INTO the place you first turn to him and his victory! In other words, in Christ, all your nothing is absolutely everything you really need!

Jesus operates in exactly the opposite fashion of all those all-consuming to-dos out there! When he comes in, everything else opens up! When Jesus gives you himself, he gives you everything else, too! Including yourself, the real you! Not the you that tries to manage life into some pale imitation of the real thing. But the real you that springs to life at the shocking and wonderful gift of life itself.

And this is the existence we all want. Isn’t it? The irony is that it’s always been there, right underneath our noses! We just thought we had to do something to earn it first. But today, Jesus comes and brings an unceremonious end to that  wretched lie. And in that end, your life can finally really begin!

This incredibly free life Jesus proposes really is possible! And it’s possible for uptight people such as you and me! It’s possible because, in your baptism, your life already ended! In your baptism, that fate you’ve been trying so assiduously to avoid has already came to pass!

In your baptism, you died. BUT you died in Christ. And, as Saint Paul says, if you share a death like his, much more surely shall you share a resurrection like his! The nuclear option has already been taken for you! BUT it was Christ who took it! Christ gave away HIS life so that you might have life in him! And true life, too!

…But you know what? I can’t talk you into taking this deal of more than a lifetime. Should you choose, you can walk away. It’ll be sad, no doubt. It’ll be needlessly painful, too. But it’s an option. 

Go ahead and try to make it on your own. See how that works out for you. I can tell you, it’s no fun. And I can tell you it won’t play out how you think, either. Plus, I’ve got the rich man on my side. But go ahead and find out for yourself. 

I bet you’ll be back. And when you do, I won’t have to spend all this time talking about what a drag the myth of self-sufficiency is. Instead, we can have some fun hearing about the wonderful trip life in Christ is! After all, it’s all already yours! Christ has already won it all by his CROSS we thought spelled the end but was really just the preface! And the first word of this ever-new tale is the one of praise that begins near the cross

Hymn number 325, Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross. Let’s get started! Let’s sing! Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, ELW 335