Excuse me, just a minute. “Jesus, what is your Word or message to us in and through this text? A young man comes to you--sincerely, I think--asking how he may be received into the Age to Come. You answer by reciting for him the Ten Commandments.

“The young man answers--again, sincerely, I think--that all these he has kept since he was a child. Then it says, you looked straight at him with love and said, ‘You need only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.’ Without surprise, the text then says, ‘When the man heard this, gloom spread over his face, and he went away sad, because he was very rich.’ Jesus, what is your Word or message to us in and through this text?” ...

If you've been here the last couple of weeks, I don't have to tell you: we've really been hearing some tough messages from Jesus! He's called Peter Satan for trying to stop Jesus from getting himself killed. He’s criticized the disciples for having such weak faith that they are unable to heal the sick. He’s told them to cut off their hands and pluck out their eyes if they hinder someone else from getting close to Jesus because of you. And he’s taught that, in his eyes, there is no such thing as divorce. Period!

Tough stuff. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it: today is obviously no exception. When asked afterwards by his followers what he meant by what he said to the sincere young man, Jesus says, “How hard it will be for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God! ... It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”

Let’s not sugarcoat this. Camels cannot go through the eyes of needles, right? But even if they could, it would harder still for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.

There’s a website called The Global Rich List (globalrichlist.com) that invites you to enter your annual income and see where you rank among the people of the world. I’m not in the top third. I’m not in the top ten percent. I’m not even in the top one percent. My household’s annual income puts 99.66% of the world poorer than me.

Am I rich? I don’t feel rich! I sometimes even pride myself on how “simple” I live (for instance, did you know we own only two TVs, and neither of them is high def or widescreen?). But, with 99.66% of the world today poorer than me, who is rich if not me? Or you?

“How hard it will be for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God!” says Jesus. “It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” Jesus, what is your Word or message to us in and through this text?

I’ve been aware for a number of years that what we do with what we call our own--our possessions--reveals our values, our commitments, and our loyalties. We can say we love this and are committed to that or that we value this above all else but it’s our wallets--or, better yet, what we do with what we call our own; our possessions--that tells the truth about our values, our commitments, and our loyalties.

The rich man is told what he must do to enter the Kingdom of God. With love in his eyes, Jesus stared straight at him and says, “You need only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”

Jesus, what is your Word or message to us in and through this text? If he were asking you to sell all you have and give the money to the poor (which, in my case, would evidently be 97.66% of the rest of the people on the planet), would you do it?

Is selling everything asking too much? If it is, then how much is enough? If it is, then how little is too little? Jesus, what is your Word or message to us in and through this text?

Isn’t it interesting that there are two times within this reading when it says that Jesus “looked straight” at someone? In the entire gospel of Mark this only happens three times, and two of them are here! (The third time, by the way, is after Jesus has been arrested and is on trial. It says the servant girl looked straight at Peter and says to him, “You also were with Jesus of Nazareth, weren’t you?” and he denies it.)

Anyway, twice within this reading it says that Jesus “looks straight” at someone. The first time is when Jesus looked straight with love at the man who asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life and said, “You need only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”

When the man walks away, Jesus says to his disciples how hard it will be for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God; harder than a camel going through the eye of a needle. “Who, then, can be saved?” they say in shock.

Here comes time number two! The text says Jesus looked straight at them and said, “This is impossible for human beings but not for God; everything is possible for God.”

What do you make of that? What do you think that means? You can the difference between someone looking at you and someone looking straight at you, right? What’s the difference? Or, more to the point, what’s the meaning of the difference?

What’s the difference between me looking at you and asking, “Is everything all right?” and me looking straight at you and asking, “Is everything all right?” There’s a greater intensity and a greater intimacy, isn’t there?

Twice today Jesus shows his disciples--he shows us--great intensity and great intimacy. He wants us to hear--loud and clear--the call to let go of everything we call our own--our possessions--in order to follow him. Jesus looked straight at the man with love and said, “You need only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”

Immediately after that Jesus looked straight at his disciples and and answered their question, “If this so, then who can be saved?” by saying, “This is impossible for human beings but not for God; everything is possible for God.”

Right now, I believe Jesus wants us to live our lives between that tension. We live between the uncompromising call to leave all to follow Jesus and the uncompromised promise that what we cannot do--our failure to release that which we call our own (at least, “until death do us part”)--God will make possible.

Living in the tension, let us be clear of the generosity and the love expected of us, all the while seeking for God to bring about and complete what we cannot. In Jesus’ name. Amen!