Pastor Slaughter
Pentecost 20
10-19-22
Text: Luke 18:18-30
Theme: Depending on God alone for our salvation
How many of you have gone skydiving before? I have gone twice with one of my best friends. Once when we were 18 and the other a few years ago to celebrate his marriage. I have to say it was one of the coolest experiences of my life. After you sign your life away, they take you and give you some sort of instruction what to do and what to expect. They talk about emergency things like if your shoot doesn’t open etc., which always goes by way to fast and you hope that you can remember it if something does happen. Until you are properly trained, you go tandem with someone. They put the harness on you and hope and pray that it is tight enough and that little clips they uses won’t let go because the parachute is on the back of the other guy. The adrenaline starts rushing has you get on the plain and start your climb. And then you get to the right altitude, and they start jumping out of the plain. Then its your turn. They push you to edge of the door. And you look out the door to your death. And they ask you if you are ready and out you go.
Mind racing 100mph. Adrenaline pumping. There was that moment when falling that I recognized something. I was totally dependent on that man strapped to my back with the parachute. There was nothing I could do. I was totally dependent upon someone else.
Have you ever experienced that feeling before where you were completely dependent on someone else for something in your life? Was a situation at work where you were depended on what someone did so that you could complete your job/task? Was it a health-related incident that left you at the mercy of someone else to take care of you? As you were in that situation how did it make you feel? Frustrated that you can’t do it on your own? Angry that you have to rely on someone when you have been so indecent your entire life? Or sad that you have to let go of the control that makes you feel secure.
There was a man in the gospel today who needed to come to the realization that he had to let go of the control in a particular area of his life. He was a good person at least outwardly speaking. He followed God’s commands from his youth (or so he thought). This ruler asked Jesus a simple question, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
What must I do to inherit eternal life? I mean that is probably the most important question a person can ask, right? How do we get this eternal life? It would almost be easier if Jesus had given him the quest for the Holy Grail or something like that. Make sure you do X Y Z and then you will inherit eternal life. If you meet this goal, do these many good things, then you will have eternal life. He assumed he had already done nearly everything God required. He assumed however that with a little help from a good teacher, he could do whatever he still lacked.
Don’t we like that? Doesn’t a part of us really like to hear that if we do certain things we will gain/earn God’s favor. Why do we like that so much? Don’t we like it because we are in control. That God’s favor, that God’s blessing, that our salvation is in our hands. Don’t we just want to hear Jesus say, just make sure you give to the poor, and go to church then you will go to heaven? Even if we do all kinds of outwardly good things there is a part of us that recognizes that we are lacking in something.
Rather than encouraging this eager and at least outwardly upright man to continue his pursuit of being good enough for God, Jesus’ goal was to get him to give up on that pursuit. So Jesus asks him a question to think, “Why do you call me good? No one is good, except one—God.” Jesus could be already trying to get the ruler to rethink how is the viewing Jesus or maybe it was to point to recognize man’s status before God. Either way Jesus points out how no one is good except God. Then he pointed him to the commandments that prove it. “You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. Honor your father and mother.” All these you can can outwardly measure, right? If you are not cheating on your wife, you’re ok. If you didn’t slaughter anyone, then you are doing good. If you don’t lie, you treat your parents well, then you are all set.
How many times do we look at God’s law and think how good we are. “I may not have adverted my eyes but I didn’t commit the act of adultery. I may have hated someone but at least I didn’t kill them. I haven’t stolen anything except maybe that that candy from the secretary’s office but it is not like I stole her wallet or something. I have talked back to my parents before at least I am trying to take of them now.
It’s like we outwardly make excuses that elevate ourselves up. I am basically a good person. I have kept the commandments at least outwardly. I mean I am not like that person who cheated on their spouse or blew through a red light and killed a pastor. I am not like person who embezzled money. I am a good person because of what I do, the laws and rules I keep. Like what the ruler said “I have kept all these since I was child.”
To get the man to give up on his pursuit of being good enough for God by what he did, Jesus has pointed out that 1) no one is good except God, 2) you need to keep the commandments, 3) now he uses the law as a scalpel to cut right into the man’s heart. “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” This man had not done nearly everything God required. When it came to keeping God’s commands, he broke the first and most important one. He loved his possession more than he loved God. When the rule heard the Bible said, “He became very sad, because he was very rich.”
Then Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard this said, “Then who can be saved?” That is the question, right? Who can be saved if it is impossible for someone who has riches to enter the kingdom of God? How can I be saved? If we are honest with ourselves, what do we love? What are the things you love most? Who are the people you love the most? What are those things hobbies and people you love most and Jesus said leave them and follow me could you?
Honestly, it would be really hard for me to hear Jesus say “Leave your wife and kids and pack your bags and follow me.” I don’t know if I could. What are the idols in your heart that would lead you to become very sad like the ruler in our lesson? The point Jesus is making is that salvation is impossible for us because of the sin in our hearts. What must I do to be saved? I can’t do anything to be saved. It is like trying to fit a camel through the eye of a needle. We are completely, totally, absolutely, positively (and whatever other adjective I can throw in there) helpless to save ourselves.
Jesus said, “What is impossible for people is possible for God.” Talk about total dependence on God! Can you make a camel go through an eye of a needle? I know I can’t. But God could and he did. The Beautiful thing is God did the impossible and continues to do the impossible. And I am thankful that my salvation is totally dependent on God, because if I even was just responsible for .00000001% of my salvation, I know I would screw it up. It is all God. He isn’t depending on me. He isn’t expecting me to do anything for my salvation. He lived that perfect life. He died in our place. He creates the miracle of saving faith in our hearts through his Word. He does the impossible through word and water in our baptisms. He does a miracle even greater than threading a camel through the eye of a needle. He has given to us salvation.
There comes a point in skydiving (at least for me) whereas you are falling you realize you are totally dependent on someone else, that it is complexly out of your control. And it was at that point where I could look around and simply enjoy the moment. The same is true when we realize our salvation is totally dependent on God. We can live our lives out of thanks for what he has done. We can be like Peter and say, “Yes God I will follow you” Not as a point system to get blessings from God but out of thanks for the blessings that God gives to us and will give to us in heaven. God has promised to bless us in the here and now and in the life to come.
Sky diving is pretty fun I really think everyone should go at least once. And when you do you experience what it is like to be totally dependent on someone else. The same is true with our salvation. We are totally dependent on God for our salvation. And let us rejoice and thank God that our salvation is dependent on him because he alone can do the impossible for us and save us from our sins. Amen.