The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on June 26, 2022. The Bible verses used are Matthew 19:16-30.
There’s an old story about this guy who dies
and goes to meet St. Peter at the Pearly Gates of Heaven. St. Peter says,
“Okay, so you need to tell me why we should let you into heaven.”
The
man says, “Well, you know, I lived a pretty good life. I think I should
get into heaven.”
St. Peter says, “Well, here’s
the deal. You need 1000 points to make it into heaven. You tell me
all of the good things you’ve done, and I give you a certain number of points
for each item. When you reach 1000 points, you get in.”
“Okay,” the man says, “Well,
I was happily married to the same woman for fifty years and never cheated on
her, not even in my mind.”
“That’s wonderful,” says
Peter, “that’s worth two points!”
“Two points?” he says. “Well,
I attended church all my life and gave my ten percent tithe faithfully.”
“Terrific!” says Peter.
“That’s definitely worth a point.”
“Only one point? My goodness!
Well, what about this: I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a
shelter for the homeless?”
“Fantastic, that’s good for
two more points,” he says.
“TWO POINTS!” the man cries.
“At this rate the only way I can get into heaven is by the grace of God!”
“Now that’s what we’re
looking for! That’s worth a thousand points. Welcome to heaven!”
Now that’s just a story, of
course. And yet, how often do we look at our faith that way? We
know, and we say, that we get into heaven by faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s
love and grace and mercy. And yet, we often feel like we have to earn our
way to heaven. Like we need to accumulate points with God in order to
receive our salvation.
That’s what the guy Jesus was
talking to in our Bible verses for tonight seemed to think. He comes up
to Jesus and says, “What good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”
Not “what must I believe to receive eternal life?” Not “who must I
believe in to receive eternal life?” “What good thing must I do to receive
eternal life?” He was trying to accumulate points, and he wanted to know
what he could do that would boost his point total over the line.
And you can see that as the
conversation continues. Jesus tells him that he should keep the
commandments, and he answers “Which ones?” Again, how can I get that high
point total? Which commandments will give me the most points if I keep
them?
Jesus gives him a list.
And the guy basically says, yeah, yeah, I know all that. I’m doing all
that. But I don’t feel like it’s enough. My point total is not high
enough yet. There’s got to be something else, something that’ll get me
over the limit. What is it?
And Jesus, of course,
responds, “Go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor”. And of
course, the man turns away, sad because, we’re told, he had great wealth.
But you know, I wonder.
What was it that really held him back? Because if you were paying
attention, you noticed that I cut off Jesus’ quote. Jesus did not just
say, “Go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor.” He told the man
to do that, of course, but he told the man to do one other thing. That
other things was, “Then come, follow me.”
Which was it that was the
real stumbling block? Was it that he did not want to give up his
possessions? Or that he did not want to follow Jesus?
Probably it was both.
Because this guy was simply looking for a good thing to do. He wanted a
box to check, something that, again would give him brownie points with
God.
That was not what Jesus had
in mind. Jesus knew what he was telling this man to do would be
incredibly hard for him. Jesus deliberately told him to do something
incredibly hard. After all, in all the gospels, there is not another
instance of Jesus telling anyone they had to sell all their possessions.
This man is the only one Jesus told to do that. Did you ever wonder
why? Why would Jesus single this man out to do something he did not ask
of anyone else?
Well, it was not because
Jesus was trying to be mean to him. Jesus was trying to make a
point. It’s not the fact that this man had wealth that was the
problem. The problem was that this man was too attached to his
wealth. His wealth was getting in his way. His wealth was keeping
him from truly worshiping God.
Think of it this way.
If this man had sold his possessions, and given the money to the poor, but had
not followed Jesus and had not changed his life in any other way, would he have
received eternal life? No, I don’t think so. The only thing that
would’ve changed about him would’ve been his financial status. He would
not have loved God more. He would not have loved his neighbor more.
He would not have done any of the things the followers of Jesus are supposed to
do. He just, again, would’ve been trying to earn his way into heaven,
trying to accumulate more points. But he would not have done anything to
show his faith in God or his faith in Jesus as the Savior. And so, in
God’s eyes, he really would not have accomplished anything.
What Jesus was telling this
man, and us, is that getting eternal life is not a matter of doing things and
accumulating points. Getting eternal life requires a change in our life
on earth. To receive eternal life, we need to follow Jesus. And we
need to get rid of everything that’s holding us back from following Jesus.
Jesus recognized how hard
this would be for the man to do. He told the disciples about it. He
said, “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.” In other words, as
Jesus later acknowledged, it’s impossible. It’s impossible for
humans. But it’s not impossible for God. We cannot get into heaven
by doing good things and accumulating points. But we can get into heaven
by having faith in Jesus Christ and receiving God’s love and grace and mercy.
But to do that, we need to
get rid of the things that are holding us back from following Jesus. For
this man, it was wealth. What is it for you? What is it for
me? What is it that’s holding us back from truly following Jesus?
None of us here, and probably
no one watching the livestream, would be considered wealthy by American
standards. Still, don’t just discount that wealth and possessions could
be holding us back. A person does not have to be wealthy for wealth and
possessions to have a hold on them. No matter what our financial status
is, we’re all subject to letting wealth and possessions be more important to us
than they should be. And so, we’re all subject to letting wealth and
possession hold us back from truly following Jesus?
But it can be lots of other
things, too. In fact, it can be almost anything. Anything that’s
more important than to us than it should be. Anything that, if Jesus
asked us to give it up, we would be hesitant to do so. Sports.
Chocolate. Quilting. Music. None of those are bad things, of
course. In their place, they can be good things. They can even be
used to honor and glorify God. Okay, I’m not sure how chocolate can be
used to honor and glorify God, but the other things can. But the point is
that even things that are not bad, even things that can be good, can be things
that hold us back from following Jesus if they become too important to us.
So take a look at your
life. Is there something that’s holding you back from following
Jesus? Maybe not–I don’t know. It’s not my place to judge
you. Only you can answer this question for you, just as only I can answer
this question for me.
But it’s an important
question, and it’s important that we do answer it. So again, we all need
to take a look at our lives. Is there something that’s holding us back
from following Jesus? And if there is, what can we do about that?
How can we get rid of that thing that’s holding us back?
Well, we can try to do it on
our own. But–I don’t know about you, but I seriously doubt that I can do
this on my own. I could maybe do a few little things, maybe make a few
changes at the margins. But I very much doubt that, on my own, I could
truly make the kind of changes in my life that Jesus asks us to make.
So how do we make these
changes? How do we get rid of the things that are holding us back?
We do it the same way we get into heaven–by the grace of God.
We need to ask God to help us
make these changes. We still have to do our part–we cannot expect God to
just automatically and magically change us. But we also need to allow God
to do God’s part. We need to allow God to help us make those
changes. More than that, we need to rely on God to help us make these
changes. For me, this might be impossible. But as Jesus said, with
God, all things are possible.
So, if you feel you need to
make changes in your life, if you feel there’s something that’s holding you
back from following Jesus, ask God to help you. Ask God to pour out God’s
Holy Spirit on you. Ask God to show you what you need to change, and to
give you the courage and the strength to change it.
We can never accumulate
enough points to go to heaven. But through faith in Jesus and by the
grace of God, we can all have salvation and eternal life. For humans
alone, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.
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