Time To Let the Camels Go - Mark 10:17-31

Welcome to the story of the rich young man. You might have noticed that Jesus has been on a bit of a tear these last few weeks in Mark’s gospel, and today is no exception. We’ve heard about cutting off limbs if they cause us to sin, then adultery and divorce, and now money, perhaps the hardest teaching yet. A man with wealth comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to sell all of his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow him. For Christians with a bank account of any size, this is one of the most uncomfortable lines in the Bible. Mainline Protestants try to explain it away and Biblical literalists tend to skip over it. I mean, good Lord, are we supposed to give all of our money away? Our minds quickly go to our very real need for financial security in this world. Who would pay the bills and feed the family if we gave everything away? And, not to get too specific, but stewardship season is just around the corner at church, and if everyone gave everything away, who would be left to fill out a pledge card?  

For these and a million other reasons over the years, people have tried to soften Jesus’ answer to the rich young man. Let’s get a few of obvious attempts out of the way. Jesus says that it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. No, there was never a small door next to a gate in Jerusalem called the “Eye of the Needle” that camels couldn’t fit through. That’s a myth. Jesus is talking about the hole in a sewing needle — just the way it sounds. And it’s likely that he meant camel when he said that, too, despite efforts to explain that one away. In the fourth century, Cyril of Alexandria suggested that the Greek words for camel and rope differ by only one letter, and Jesus must have said rope, which would make more sense in the metaphor. But chances are he said camel, and we just have to work with it (Barbara Brown Taylor).

Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that interpreters have further mangled this story in at least two ways. First, by acting as if it were not about money, and second, by acting as if it were only about money. Is the story about money? Yes. Is it about more than money? A resounding yes. It is a story about love, healing, failure, and grace. 

Let’s begin with the failure. This is the only story that I can think of where Jesus offers to heal someone, and the person walks away instead. The young man has stellar religious credentials and wealth, which at the time was seen as a blessing from God for the righteous. But he knows that he is missing something, that something is off and he needs healing, despite everything going well in his life. That checks out, doesn’t it? We can feel the same way, even when things are going well for us on paper. So with his resume of righteousness in hand, the man kneels before Jesus to ask about attaining eternal life. Jesus looks at him and loves him, and in that love diagnoses the young man’s problem. As long as the man is using his resume, specifically his wealth, to justify his good standing before God, he will not be free to receive God’s grace. He can’t get to eternal life on his own steam because it cannot be bought. It can only be received, as a gift. One must be empty handed enough to receive the gift. When Jesus tells him to sell all he has, it’s meant as medicine for the man’s soul. But the man is not yet ready to let go of what he has in order to gain what he needs, and walks away in sorrow. After all, as the story goes, it would be easier to thread a camel through the eye of a needle. The disciples are quick to ask, if this is so hard, who then can be saved? Jesus replies, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” 

Whatever the size of our bank accounts, this story is as much about that rich young man as it is about us. When we wonder about eternal life, about whether we deserve God’s grace, Jesus looks at us with love and a prescription. What resumes do we insist on handing to God? How do we size up our worth - in money, smarts, kindness, generosity, good behavior, or whatever we do or have that we think is pleasing to God? Conversely, in what ways do we worry that we don’t measure up, that we are unworthy of grace? Or that someone else is or isn’t in God’s good graces? Such a system of measuring and comparison is exhausting, and it’s not how God’s system works at all. It’s as if we keep trying to thread our camels through a needle when it’s only grace that gets us through anyway. The young man’s camel was his wealth, which Jesus told him to give away. He would tell us the same thing about our own camels, to let them go. 

This story is about much more than money, but it’s also about money. We should remember that Jesus talked more about money than just about any other topic, because of its spiritual dangers. When he tells the young man to give it all away, we get uncomfortable not only because of how scary that sounds but also because of how attached we are to money - emotionally and spiritually. We can certainly make an idol out of it, just about everyone does, preachers included. But it doesn’t have to be that way. As I reflected on the gospel story I kept thinking about Ellen Gray, a long-time member here who died at the age of 91 last week. Tributes are pouring in ahead of her funeral on Tuesday. One of the things she will be remembered for is her extraordinary generosity. She created a sizable portfolio over the course of her trailblazing career. But her wealth never clouded her understanding that God’s love for her had nothing to do with it. In fact, she nearly lived this story to the letter - and gave away most of her money before she died. I think she was somewhat worried that she would outlive what she had left. She made it possible for us to launch the campaign to restore the stained glass windows here at Christ Church. She gave similarly transformative and joyful gifts to the symphony, to Habitat for Humanity, and other nonprofits she was passionate about. I am certain that she gave her money away not to earn God’s love but as a result of God’s love and grace, a gift she freely accepted and celebrated through her good works. 

What’s the the moral of all of this, you ask? There are two, actually. The first is about working on a spiritually healthy relationship with money, whatever the size of our bank account. Jesus doesn’t want money to get in the way of our relationship with God. The second is to take stock of the camels we keep throwing at the sewing needle of grace, whether that’s money or anything else we insist on to prove our worth before God. God’s not interested, because God has already offered us eternal life. According to Jesus, it’s time to give away the camels.