BY DR. KENNY CAMACHO / SERMON DELIVERED 22 JANUARY 2022 FOR REVOLUTION CHURCH
Tonight, we’re continuing in the second week of our new series, (Un)Certainty. Last week, we started this series–and, in fact, started our year–by looking at the difference between certainty and confidence. We said that certainty is paradoxical: we put tremendous value on certainty, on being sure, in our culture…and yet, we live in a time when certainty seems deliberately hard to find. As we dug into that, we started to uncover that certainty can feel like a basic need…but in truth, it’s a mask for a desire for safety and control. So, when we consider that the world our God made seems designed to frustrate that desire, to give us so little certainty, we’re forced to rethink things: how can we square ourselves with a loving God who won’t let us know everything, or feel safe on our own? The answer we began to wrestle with is that perhaps we’re not intended to find safety and security on our own; perhaps we’re made not for certainty, but for confidence.
This year, we want to spend our time during the teaching portions of our services each week keeping that wrestling match going: what is confidence? How can we have more of it? How can we put more of our trust in God…in a way that doesn’t demean or cheapen our value, as bearers of God’s image? Our hope is that we emerge from this year with a greater and deeper confidence not just in God’s authority, but also in God’s love…and His ability to equip us to be people who can share His heart with others.
To that end, our question for today is: how does confidence grow? And the answer we’re going to find is: curiously, faithfully,…and sacrificially.
There’s a story in the Bible that gets at all of this, and you can find it in the tenth chapter of the gospel of Mark. Jesus and his disciples are making their way from Galilee, a more rural region of Israel in the north, to Judea proper, where the capital city of Jerusalem is found. As they walk, many people come out each day to meet them, to hear Jesus speak, and to see Jesus work miracles. We pick up in verse 17, which reads
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him.
“One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Then Peter spoke up: “We have left everything to follow you!”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and, in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Mark 10:17-31
This story is commonly referred to as the story of the “rich young ruler”–although the age of the man isn’t clear, and we don’t know about his wealth until after he exits the stage. But in any case, the basics of what we see here are that a man calls Jesus a “good teacher,” and then he asks Jesus a question: what do I need to do to earn eternal life? On the surface, it’s a reasonable thing to wonder, and Jesus is the right person to ask: he has been talking all throughout his journey about the Kingdom of God, what it will be like, and how folks can be a part of it. But there’s a catch to how the man frames his question that Jesus picks up on: he wants to know what he must do.
We often give this character in Scripture a hard time, but in the context of Judaism–a religion with a long history of people agreeing to covenant relationships with God and then letting down their ends of the bargain–it’s not a ridiculous ask, and Jesus doesn’t immediately criticize him. Instead, Jesus gives the man the “right” answer, which is to obey and keep the Law, or the Ten Commandments. The man seems to have anticipated this response, and so he’s quick to say something amazing: he tells Jesus he’s already done this. Check!
At this point, if you’ve been reading Mark’s gospel, you know this guy just messed up. Jesus has been saying all along that the purpose of the Law is to equip us to see and share the heart of God, its Author. In the verses just before this story, Pharisees ask Jesus about divorce, citing the guidance of Moses, and Jesus tells them that the laws take into account the weaknesses of human beings, but the desire of God for His people is more lofty and uncompromising. In other words: the Law doesn’t save you; the Law puts guardrails on a path aimed at understanding the character and the love and the will of God. So, the rich young ruler is missing this point. He’s kept the letter of the Law…but missed its purpose.
So, we brace ourselves for Jesus to just totally roast this kid. But what does the gospel say?
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Mark 10:21
So, let’s work this through: how does what Jesus says answer the man’s question? How does it answer his question compassionately, after Jesus has seen him and loved him? There are 2 parts to Jesus’s answer, both of which are necessary for this man to find the hope he is looking for:
First, Jesus tells him to sell everything he has and give it to the poor. Why does he say this? On the surface, it’s certainly a good idea: living generously and helping the poor are good, moral things to do. But of course, Jesus says it because it exposes and pokes a hole in what the man has revealed about himself, which is that his confidence is in his ability to make himself feel safe. He’s mastered the Law, but he hasn’t internalized its purpose, its Spirit: mastering the Law is just another way he is trying to hold onto control–something his material wealth is also doing for him. So, his wealth becomes this analogy for his whole attitude towards life. Jesus gets this, and by telling the man to sell all he has and give it away, he’s trying to point the man towards his key problem, which is that pursuing God’s Kingdom means letting go of your own. Jesus is compassionate in this when he tries to tell the man, “Hey! Your wealth isn’t going anywhere–it transfers! You’ll have treasure in heaven, in God’s Kingdom! But you’ve got to let go of the things that are holding you back here first.” We’re hard on the rich young ruler, but we certainly make the same mistakes, don’t we? We put our trust in our ability to have control–especially when it comes to following all the rules! But is that what the rules are really for?
The second thing Jesus says is to come and follow him, and again, there is deep love and compassion in this answer: Jesus knows that if the man were to give his sources of safety away, he would need new ones, and Jesus is offering to take care of him! But again, the man’s confidence isn’t really in Jesus, after all (even though he called him a “good teacher”). We get a rare picture in this story of how someone reacts to Jesus’s challenge, and we see the man’s face fall; we see him walk away sad, because he had great wealth. We get the sense that Jesus knew this would happen…and that he is sad, too. And then, Jesus turns to his disciples and tells them, twice, that following is particularly hard for people who have the means to convince themselves that they can create their own safety, create their own certainty. This is our mirror! We need to see ourselves in it, because it’s much easier for those who can clearly see the limits of themselves to put their trust in God.
Of course, the disciples still struggle. They say, “who then can ever be saved?” Which is an odd response–especially since none of them seem wealthy. But my sense is that it reveals just how much everyone trusted the power of rule-following, the power of self-control, in their day. It also implies that the disciples had a bit of a “health and wealth” mindset about God, and they might have seen wealthy folks as folks with whom God was well pleased! One imagines Jesus was a bit disappointed in them…until our old friend Peter chimes in. Peter seems to have tracked the story a little more closely than his friends, and he is characteristically quick to point out the right answer: he says “we have left everything to follow you!” And Jesus lays out just what this will mean for them: their community, their security–and their suffering–will certainly increase.
The story of the rich young ruler is about the illusions of safety wealth can create, and it’s about our arrogance when it comes to following the letter of the Law (even when we miss the spirit of it). But it’s also a story that reveals what it is Jesus is trying to show everyone, what he’s trying to offer everyone…and why that can sometimes be such a hard sell. Following involves hardship and danger…which means that prioritizing safety is fundamentally at odds with what Jesus asks.
At the outset today, we framed our question as how does confidence grow?, and I said that the answer we’re going to find is that our confidence grows curiously, faithfully, and sacrificially. Here’s what I meant by that: the root trouble for everyone in the story–the ruler, as well as the disciples–is that they just want to feel safe with God. They want to know that He really does love them, and He really is working out what’s best for them, in the short term and in the long term. For the rich young ruler, safety is something you can create by following the rules and being wise and industrious–by being “wealthy,” in the context of this story. But Jesus points out that this is an illusion: you can’t put confidence in God that you’re already putting in yourself. For the disciples and Peter, though, safety is something you create by backing the right horse and getting the right ending: “Jesus works friggin’ miracles, so if we put in with him, surely we’ll get a heavenly reward.” But Jesus’s interaction with the rich young ruler should challenge them, too, because the safety Jesus was inviting him into wasn’t about outcomes, it was about an ongoing relationship and God’s personal presence with them. If the rich young ruler’s mistake was searching for safety in what he has already done, and if the disciples’ mistake was resting in what Jesus will eventually do, the actual place where confidence seems to grow is in a daily, living relationship walking alongside Jesus right now. It’s not about what you had to do to earn that walk; it’s not about what reward that walk will eventually get you. The confidence, the goodness, is in the walk itself! And walks require those 3 things to grow, to be productive: they require curiosity (to even get them started), faithfulness to the process of them, and acceptance that sacrifice is an inherent part of choosing to do this thing versus something else. Curiosity, faithfulness, sacrifice: these things help our confidence grow, because they keep our confidence living and active–not tied to the past or the future.
What we need to get at, as we move forward this week, is processing and beginning to trust that growing confidence in our relationship with God–in His love for us, in His commitment to our good and our maturity–is one reason why we are all here. It’s one reason why church is worth doing, why it’s worth committing to. As our confidence grows, two incredible things happen: first, we start to live, little by little, like Kingdom people, which is to say like people who live out the kind of hope and love for others we learn about through our relationship with God. And second, we start to see a community forming around us that encourages and supports that transformation. We become a real church, which is to say that we become a community of people, with Jesus himself as our head, who can offer a taste of God’s Kingdom to the world God loves and is committed to transforming. What I’m learning these days as a pastor is that this isn’t work that starts with me, or with a great mission statement, or with programs…it’s work that starts with us, choosing day in and day out to take the small steps that will help us all grow in our confidence in Jesus: in who he says he is…and in who he says we are.
That choice is going to look different for each of us, just as it looks different to the rich young ruler than it does to the disciples. But it begins with introspection. It begins by looking at ourselves and how we are feeding our desire for safety, for control…and learning where we can let go, and see where letting go takes us. We won’t always move forward; there will be times when we retreat back into ourselves. But if we keep faith with each other, and have grace for one another, our uncertainty can be transformed from something that terrifies us into something that has promise and power and potential.
With all of that in mind, I want to take a moment tonight to do something a little bit different–and to encourage anyone watching to do something different, too: I want us to have a real moment of quiet to turn all of this over inside ourselves. The question might seem vague, but I want you to think on it: what is my “wealth”? What am I holding onto for a sense of control or security? Write down what comes to mind, or at least try to name it and hold onto it for yourself. And then, if you’re comfortable with this, I want you to actually close your eyes and pray: “God, what would happen if I set this down? What would happen if I trusted you instead of myself? In your mercy, please tell me…because I know you want me to have confidence in you.”
Revolution Words 