WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.025 --> 00:00:02.125 Grace and peace to you 2 00:00:02.125 --> 00:00:06.825 in Jesus Christ. In our last week's gospel text 3 00:00:06.825 --> 00:00:10.925 we had the first part of the narrative actually that we finished with 4 00:00:10.925 --> 00:00:12.725 this narrative 5 00:00:12.725 --> 00:00:17.425 we have today in the gospel. Man comes to Jesus and stops him on his 6 00:00:17.425 --> 00:00:18.725 way to Jerusalem and asked him. 7 00:00:18.725 --> 00:00:22.725 What must I do to inherit eternal life? And they talk about the second 8 00:00:22.725 --> 00:00:24.225 table of The Commandments. 9 00:00:24.525 --> 00:00:29.525 And then we have a moment there in Mark chapter 10 verse 21 where it 10 00:00:29.525 --> 00:00:29.825 says, 11 00:00:30.025 --> 00:00:34.025 As and Jesus, looking at him, loved him. 12 00:00:36.825 --> 00:00:40.725 And then he tells the man to leave everything behind and come follow 13 00:00:40.725 --> 00:00:45.625 him and the man disheartened walks away. And that prompts then Jesus 14 00:00:45.625 --> 00:00:49.725 comment there about the idea of how difficult it is for a rich man to 15 00:00:49.725 --> 00:00:51.625 enter the kingdom of God. 16 00:00:54.025 --> 00:00:56.925 But that doesn't take away from the fact that Jesus loves the man. 17 00:00:58.525 --> 00:01:00.525 And it's because he loves the man that he tells him 18 00:01:00.525 --> 00:01:01.925 what he needs to hear. 19 00:01:02.425 --> 00:01:03.725 Not what he wants to hear. 20 00:01:04.625 --> 00:01:05.625 In Jesus response 21 00:01:05.625 --> 00:01:07.625 we find the answer to the man's question. 22 00:01:08.925 --> 00:01:10.125 Follow Jesus. 23 00:01:11.225 --> 00:01:13.225 And in one sense that idea is law. 24 00:01:13.325 --> 00:01:17.625 It acts like law on the young man who has to let go of his material 25 00:01:17.625 --> 00:01:19.025 wealth, or perhaps better 26 00:01:19.025 --> 00:01:26.825 let God wrest him out of the grip of greed and it's hold on his heart. 27 00:01:27.625 --> 00:01:31.525 But of course, in another sense, it's gospel because Jesus is calling 28 00:01:31.525 --> 00:01:35.425 this man to himself out of love for him. 29 00:01:37.825 --> 00:01:39.025 And yet, he doesn't come. 30 00:01:40.725 --> 00:01:44.025 How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the 31 00:01:44.025 --> 00:01:47.325 kingdom of God. And he doubles down on that children 32 00:01:47.325 --> 00:01:50.425 he says how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. 33 00:01:50.525 --> 00:01:54.625 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a 34 00:01:54.625 --> 00:01:56.925 rich man to enter the kingdom of God. 35 00:01:56.925 --> 00:02:01.425 And his disciples response is then who can be saved? 36 00:02:02.725 --> 00:02:03.525 Who indeed? 37 00:02:05.125 --> 00:02:07.325 Jesus loves this man 38 00:02:08.225 --> 00:02:09.825 but he walks away disheartened. 39 00:02:10.725 --> 00:02:15.025 Jesus loves his disciples who are amazed to the point of despair by 40 00:02:15.025 --> 00:02:16.325 Jesus words. 41 00:02:17.625 --> 00:02:18.425 Jesus 42 00:02:19.925 --> 00:02:23.925 watches as a disciples try to justify themselves before him on the 43 00:02:23.925 --> 00:02:27.425 basis of that, man, because they didn't do what that man 44 00:02:27.425 --> 00:02:31.225 did. They left everything behind to follow, Jesus. 45 00:02:32.525 --> 00:02:34.025 Jesus loves them. 46 00:02:34.125 --> 00:02:37.625 Jesus loves that, man, even though neither one really understands 47 00:02:37.625 --> 00:02:42.425 what's going on. And Jesus doesn't really use this opportunity actually 48 00:02:42.425 --> 00:02:43.225 to lambaste 49 00:02:43.225 --> 00:02:44.025 the rich. 50 00:02:44.025 --> 00:02:45.925 Jesus is really lamenting. 51 00:02:46.825 --> 00:02:51.325 He's lamenting the power of greed and materialism on us as sinners. 52 00:02:52.725 --> 00:02:57.225 Jesus loves that man and he laments the man's plight. The plight of 53 00:02:57.225 --> 00:03:00.225 all the rich to be blinded by what they have. 54 00:03:01.425 --> 00:03:06.025 Jesus loves the disciples who want to justify themselves in his sight 55 00:03:06.525 --> 00:03:10.325 and have no regard for the man that their Master loves 56 00:03:10.325 --> 00:03:11.025 other than that 57 00:03:11.025 --> 00:03:12.825 he's an object lesson for them. 58 00:03:15.125 --> 00:03:17.825 And is he just that for us also? 59 00:03:19.625 --> 00:03:21.525 Do we lament with Jesus? 60 00:03:22.925 --> 00:03:28.425 Lament the obstacles that people have in their lives to knowing him or 61 00:03:28.425 --> 00:03:30.425 do we just shrug our shoulders in apathy? 62 00:03:31.325 --> 00:03:34.925 When were confronted by belligerent, people who mock our faith 63 00:03:34.925 --> 00:03:40.125 trolling us online or maybe even to our faces, do we lament for them 64 00:03:40.125 --> 00:03:44.525 and the obstacles in their life that are blocking the gospel from 65 00:03:44.525 --> 00:03:45.125 them? 66 00:03:46.025 --> 00:03:49.925 Or do we just seek to get even and have retribution? 67 00:03:50.925 --> 00:03:53.725 What are they struggling with in their lives? 68 00:03:53.725 --> 00:03:57.125 What temptations are causing them to reject the Savior? 69 00:03:57.225 --> 00:03:59.625 How often do we even think about such things? 70 00:04:00.625 --> 00:04:03.425 Do we ever think about such things? 71 00:04:04.625 --> 00:04:07.525 Stuck in traffic and the interstate is we look at the impatient 72 00:04:07.525 --> 00:04:11.725 drivers around us, or maybe when we're wandering around the amusement 73 00:04:11.725 --> 00:04:15.625 park on a hot summer day, even in a pandemic maybe. 74 00:04:16.725 --> 00:04:20.725 Standing in line at the grocery store to pay for what we have. 75 00:04:22.225 --> 00:04:24.725 Do you ever look around and wonder what will happen to these people 76 00:04:24.725 --> 00:04:25.925 when our Lord returns? 77 00:04:27.625 --> 00:04:30.725 This isn't a call to evangelize every waking moment, but it is a 78 00:04:30.725 --> 00:04:36.225 reminder to us of our duty to consider our fellow man as God does. 79 00:04:37.125 --> 00:04:40.925 To tell them about the great gift that God has for them in Jesus 80 00:04:40.925 --> 00:04:41.925 Christ. 81 00:04:42.925 --> 00:04:46.025 And that rather than holding onto the shortcomings of people and just 82 00:04:46.025 --> 00:04:49.825 focusing on the obstacles that they put forth that we should love 83 00:04:49.825 --> 00:04:50.225 them 84 00:04:50.325 --> 00:04:54.825 and lament those things that cause them to reject God. And where we can 85 00:04:54.825 --> 00:04:55.625 help them 86 00:04:55.625 --> 00:04:58.025 let go of those things. 87 00:04:59.525 --> 00:05:03.725 That God would work through us to turn them to Jesus. 88 00:05:05.925 --> 00:05:06.325 Jesus 89 00:05:06.325 --> 00:05:07.625 lament of the impossibility 90 00:05:07.625 --> 00:05:12.025 for the rich to enter Heaven is met by despair from the disciples, you 91 00:05:12.025 --> 00:05:14.225 know, then who can be saved. 92 00:05:14.225 --> 00:05:15.225 But Jesus replied. 93 00:05:15.225 --> 00:05:18.625 There is Jesus reply to us in these moments, in our world 94 00:05:18.625 --> 00:05:20.125 also, with man 95 00:05:20.125 --> 00:05:22.225 it is impossible. 96 00:05:23.625 --> 00:05:25.925 But with God, it's not. 97 00:05:27.025 --> 00:05:29.425 For all things are possible with God. 98 00:05:30.225 --> 00:05:34.225 I mean, we know God loves all men and once all to come to a saving 99 00:05:34.225 --> 00:05:38.225 knowledge of the truth, even those that we tend to dismiss or ignore, 100 00:05:38.425 --> 00:05:41.725 even those that we just don't even want to pay attention to because 101 00:05:41.725 --> 00:05:42.925 they're in our faces. 102 00:05:43.625 --> 00:05:47.325 Even those whose lives on Earth are so tainted with evil, that it 103 00:05:47.325 --> 00:05:48.925 would make us shutter. 104 00:05:50.125 --> 00:05:54.025 A good example of this is not too many years ago before US 105 00:05:54.025 --> 00:05:54.725 Congressman 106 00:05:54.725 --> 00:05:55.025 David 107 00:05:55.025 --> 00:05:58.025 Reichert was a representative for the state of Washington. 108 00:05:58.225 --> 00:06:01.425 He was a sheriff in King County and one of the ones responsible for 109 00:06:01.425 --> 00:06:03.825 catching the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway. 110 00:06:04.925 --> 00:06:09.825 The man killed over 50 women across two decades while he was loose. 111 00:06:10.825 --> 00:06:13.425 And after he'd been captured and sentenced 112 00:06:14.625 --> 00:06:18.625 this Sheriff who had been following him and tracking him for years. 113 00:06:18.925 --> 00:06:22.225 The next day on his day off goes in not in his uniform. 114 00:06:23.125 --> 00:06:29.725 But in jeans and a polo shirt sits down with this man who's done such 115 00:06:29.725 --> 00:06:33.025 great evil, and he said, these words to him. 116 00:06:33.825 --> 00:06:35.625 Look, I don't like what you did. 117 00:06:36.125 --> 00:06:39.625 But my faith tells me that I don't want anyone to go to hell. 118 00:06:40.225 --> 00:06:42.325 I don't even want you to go to hell. 119 00:06:43.225 --> 00:06:44.525 And neither does Jesus. 120 00:06:46.625 --> 00:06:49.925 And when he recounts, the story says, the Ridgeway began to cry there 121 00:06:50.025 --> 00:06:53.325 and reached into his jumpsuit and pulls out a prayer that he had been 122 00:06:53.325 --> 00:06:57.225 given and that he'd been praying ever since he had been put in jail. 123 00:06:57.825 --> 00:06:58.625 One that admits 124 00:06:58.625 --> 00:07:03.725 he's a sinner and is asking God for forgiveness. And his lawyer recalls 125 00:07:03.725 --> 00:07:07.025 later that in a later meeting with Ridgeway that he mentioned that 126 00:07:07.025 --> 00:07:11.625 the sheriff had come not to interrogate him or to be badger him or 127 00:07:11.625 --> 00:07:15.325 even to interview him, but just to make sure that he knew Jesus 128 00:07:15.525 --> 00:07:17.025 and might go to heaven. 129 00:07:17.625 --> 00:07:21.225 And the lawyer says that from that day forth Ridgway was drastically 130 00:07:21.225 --> 00:07:22.225 changed. 131 00:07:25.825 --> 00:07:28.725 The rich man's rejection of Jesus gift 132 00:07:29.825 --> 00:07:30.825 happens all the time. 133 00:07:32.325 --> 00:07:32.925 It happened there. 134 00:07:32.925 --> 00:07:34.125 It happens to others. 135 00:07:35.825 --> 00:07:40.525 But as the people of God, we are still called to pass this gift on to 136 00:07:40.525 --> 00:07:40.825 all 137 00:07:40.825 --> 00:07:43.025 we are able. After all 138 00:07:43.025 --> 00:07:46.625 it's not because you love God, that Jesus died for you are called you 139 00:07:46.625 --> 00:07:49.525 to himself because you didn't love him. 140 00:07:50.325 --> 00:07:53.425 It's not the good things that you did, that made him die for you. 141 00:07:53.425 --> 00:07:56.725 Because all you've done is just rebelled against him in your life, in 142 00:07:56.725 --> 00:07:57.925 your sins. 143 00:07:57.925 --> 00:08:02.025 Jesus didn't pass through death and the grave in victory over sin and 144 00:08:02.025 --> 00:08:05.125 death and the devil because you and I earned it. 145 00:08:06.725 --> 00:08:08.125 He did it because he loves you. 146 00:08:09.525 --> 00:08:10.825 Just like he loves that, man. 147 00:08:12.125 --> 00:08:13.425 Loves his disciples. 148 00:08:14.825 --> 00:08:19.125 Rich, poor healthy, sick, tattooed and pierced 149 00:08:19.125 --> 00:08:22.725 or clean-cut young or old killers, liars, 150 00:08:22.825 --> 00:08:28.725 thieves, bad drivers, Seminary students, even their professors. 151 00:08:30.025 --> 00:08:33.125 Whatever our walk-in life might be 152 00:08:34.625 --> 00:08:37.425 the overriding question is, do they know Christ? 153 00:08:38.725 --> 00:08:42.025 And For Those whom we can we speak to them law and gospel 154 00:08:42.025 --> 00:08:44.725 however, they may need it as the spirit directs us. 155 00:08:44.725 --> 00:08:49.025 And for those who can't, we cannot speak to, we pray for them. 156 00:08:49.825 --> 00:08:53.225 And for all those who enter our lives, we look to show forth, God's 157 00:08:53.225 --> 00:08:58.325 love to them through ourselves that God may work in their lives. And 158 00:08:58.325 --> 00:09:03.725 we do so, because Jesus loves them just as he loves you. 159 00:09:05.425 --> 00:09:08.825 And as he is brought his truth into your life. 160 00:09:10.225 --> 00:09:16.425 So you do through you to those around you because all such things are 161 00:09:16.425 --> 00:09:17.625 possible with God. 162 00:09:19.125 --> 00:09:23.125 And always in Christ while there's breath, there's Hope. 163 00:09:24.225 --> 00:09:24.625 Amen.