Mark 10:13-34 It is impossible to be saved

Mark 10:13-34

Previously on “Mark: the Gospel”….

Jesus of Nazareth has burst onto the scene and created quite a stir. He’s been doing massive miracles left, right and centre, healing people, casting out demons, walking on water, making food appear from thin air – enough to feed over 5000 people, and then again 4000 people, and even raising people from the dead! He is no fake. Even his critics cannot deny his power! They accuse him of being from the devil instead. (Dirty politics 101: If you can’t beat them, throw mud at them and hope it sticks!).


And these stories really happened. People were there with Jesus. They SAW him do these things. And these weren’t primitives! We are often so arrogant assuming that people who lived long ago were somehow stupider than we are. That they would be fooled by simple magic tricks.
The society they lived in was complex and sophisticated. They were part of the Roman empire. There was trade, business, long distance travel, courts of law, police, large cities, running water, roads, schools, reading, writing, in fact university-level mathematics, and philosophies that are still in use today (and being heralded as “new”)! It was an advanced civilisation!

So if Jesus had been just a magician (and there were magicians in those days, just like now, it wasn’t something they’d never seen before) he would quite quickly have been exposed for his trickery. Or people would have been entertained, like now, but any claims to divinity would have been met with mocking laughs, just as if Paul Daniels (UK magician) suddenly claimed to be God. So Jesus really did do what he’s reported as doing.

Some say that “Oh no, this was just a story that was embellished (added to)”. They say that the miracles were added in at a later date by some unknown authors. There’s two problems with that:


1. The genre of historical fiction was only invented 1800 years later. Before that time it was never even conceived of to write fiction as if it were history, fact. Myths were written as myths and history as history. As CS Lewis, Oxford Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English, said “I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends and myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know none of them are like this. Of this Gospel text there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage…or else, some unknown ancient writer…without known predecessors or successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern novelistic, realistic narrative.”

2. People were still alive who remembered the events of that day! If I went on NRK today and said that during the 1970’s fuel crisis when King Olav took the tram, after he got out of the tram he launched himself into the air and flew to the top of the mountain, melted some snow with his laser eyes, and then skiied down so fast he broke the sound barrier, I’d be laughed at. No-one would believe me. People remember what happened. That didn’t happen. Additionally, even if it did happen, people would be reluctant to say it happened, because it’s so fantastical. The only way people would agree that it happened would be if they could not explain it away by any other means.

Jesus really did do the miracles he did, and the disciples saw those miracles first hand. They heard his teaching, teaching “like no other”. He made audacious statements “you have heard it said (in the Bible) but *I* say…”. And it still took them over two years before they were able to believe the evidence before their eyes and say “You are the Christ” (the rescuer promised by God in the Old Testament). They still didn’t understand fully, didn’t understand that he was God in the flesh, in person, until his resurrection. That blew away all doubts! Jesus could do the impossible.

And in tonight’s passage Jesus touches on exactly that point.

And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 

1. Only “children” can be saved 

15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

The big theme in this section between the two “blind man” miracles, this part of Mark’s gospel dealing with the question what does it mean to follow Jesus, has been greatness in the kingdom of God. What does it mean to be great? How do we follow Jesus? What does it mean to “deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus”? What does this look like?

We’ve seen so far that Christian leaders lead by serving, not ordering people around. Christians guard their lives carefully, striving to obey Jesus, so as not to lead other’s astray. Christians pray “help me in my unbelief”, dependant on Jesus instead of arrogant self-sufficiency like the Pharisees. And here again Jesus brings home the message that independence and self-righteousness, depending on your own goodness for salvation, like the rich young ruler, doesn’t cut it. Dependence, helplessness, simple trust, faith, like a child – those are the marks of a Christian.

This is not about children! If you doubt that, have a look at verse 24, what Jesus calls his disciples: 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!”.

It is not about AGE but about CHARACTERISTICS. Much rubbish has been spoken about these verses by people who have not read them in context, and ignore the rest of the Bible’s teaching on sin. They say “Children are innocent”.
If you read Mark from the beginning and get here you will know the children represent dependence on Jesus – they certainly don’t represent innocence! Jesus addressed that nonsense back in chapter 7: sin comes from our hearts, inside, not from outside influences. We’re born with it.
Anyone with children will know they are not innocent! No parent sits down and teaches their child to be selfish, or to lie, or to hit their siblings! The Bible tells us time and time again that we are born sinful, born as rebels against God, because we inherit that state from our parents, all the way back to Adam. We are born wanting to be God, independent, determining our own path, deciding for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.

Jesus accepts the little children and blesses them. It was not to demonstrate that if you’re under the age of 12 you go to heaven. If that was the case, the most loving thing we could do is kill every child under the age of 12 to make sure they go to heaven! So, if wholesale murder of children for their spiritual safety is the logical outcome of your interpretation of a verse, you’ve probably got it wrong. No. Jesus blessing the children was a huge message to the disciples to take the message of the Gospel to everyone, even children (the least important in society in those days)!

This deliberate misreading of this verse out of context, ignoring the rest of the Bible - this idea that children are innocent has had tragic consequences: people have stopped telling the gospel to children. Parents aren’t raising their children in the light of the gospel. How do you raise children without the gospel?!
Because kids understand sin and grace much better than we do. They struggle continually with their sinful behaviour – they’re not so sophisticated at hiding their sin and justifying themselves. They know their own sin. And then we say they’re innocent, good.
It is a lie.
And they know it’s a lie because they know themselves. It is a lie with no hope.
And so they reject Jesus, believing him to be a fool. Please, keep telling children the gospel!
Do not be like the disciples, hindering the children from coming to Jesus. For Jesus will terrify you in his anger: it would be better for [you] if a great millstone were hung around [your] neck and [you] were thrown into the sea. 

Tell them the truth. Call sin sin. Show that their behaviour reveals the rebellion in their heart. Help them understand their desires to control, to boss people around, to do what they want, their anger when they can’t be God in people’s lives. Help them know themselves. They need the truth as much as adults do. And then please offer them the wonderful news of the gospel – Jesus has dealt with their problem of sin.

I can tell you story after story of times I have sat with Kristin, tears streaming down her face, as she cries and cries about her inability to stop being naughty, to stop sinning. “I don’t want to be like this”. She knows, she knows. What a horrible father I would be if I lied to her then and said “no, no, you’re good, you’re innocent”. That’s horrible because it’s saying to her “try harder, do better”. You’re failing because you’re not good enough. That’s religion. That’s moralism. And that cannot save. Instead I tell her that her heart is bent, that deep down she hates God, just like me, and that leaks out all over the place – but that Jesus has come to deal with that problem, that he forgives her, that he can wash away her sin and mine, that he loves her, and can hold her in his arms and bless her. And there is the power of eternal life! 

We are to be like children, not innocent, but helpless, dependant, because “it is IMPOSSIBLE to be saved”.

2. Good people can’t be saved 

Here we have the rich young ruler, the pinnacle of society. He is blessed by God with riches, youth, and power. To the first century Jew riches were a blessing from God for being good. Riches meant goodness. And he is a good man, following the Law, a moral man, outwardly a great success. Surely this man God would be pleased with?

But Jesus exposes his heart. “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

What is the man’s problem? He thinks people can be good enough for God. Jesus gently reminds him that only God is good. And then quotes some of the Ten Commandments to him.

Now those of you coming to the Bible Study should remember the purpose of the Law: Rom 3:20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in [God’s] sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
So listening to that list, the man should have realised that he is not good, that he is a sinner - not gone "oh yes, I've done that!". And note the commands Jesus does NOT quote – all those to do with relating to God. This man’s problem is that he is outwardly good but his heart is far from God.
He is self-sufficient.
He can say the right words and play the part, but at the end of the day he saves himself: it is his actions, his words, his goodness that counts, that gets him all the way to paradise.

He does not consider himself helpless, like a child. He does not cry out “help me in my unbelief”. Instead he says “all these I have kept from my youth”.
I did it. I achieved it.
God, you owe me salvation. Indeed. Who is God then if you are ordering God around, making God do things because you’ve pushed the right spiritual buttons?

This whole charade with Jesus is to justify himself. HE wanted Jesus to say “well done, you’ve done it, what a great guy you are.”

But, instead, Jesus loves him, and exposes his heart: sell all that you have and follow me. The man’s security was found in his wealth, his power, his prestige. His “goodness” was based on his abundance, living the good life. Give up your false security, says Jesus, and have faith in me – follow me.

The demand is stark. This man trusts in himself, follows his own path. Jesus demands that he trust in Jesus, and follow Jesus. He’s calling him to obey the commandments he didn’t quote: to have no other gods before him, to stop worshipping idols, to honour his name, to honour the Sabbath (that is find his security in God).

Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

We are in severe danger in Norway: Our wealth blinds us to our need for God. Our self-sufficiency leads us away from him. Our Christian morals leads us to self-righteousness.

Friend, what are you trusting in? Yourself. Your own abilities. When you go to bed at night do you feel good or bad depending on what you’ve done during the day? Do you feel far away or near to God depending on your performance? Beware! Because you may be trusting in yourself rather than the free grace of Jesus. And you are forgetting that you are a sinner. You are a law-breaker by nature, at your very core. You cannot satisfy the perfection of a great and holy and good God, not even as a Christian. No-one is good but God alone. Repent now, stop trusting in your earthly riches, and follow Jesus.

Let me tell you a story about a couple we’ve got to know over the course of the past year. They are lovely people, generous, kind-hearted, friendly. Got everything going for them. They give massive amounts of time to religious work. They are good people. They know the gospel of Jesus. 
But they are the man in this story. Their good works are what justifies them, what they depend on to make them right with God. Jesus’ great act of redemption on the cross is relegated to second place, a kind of gateway to pleasing God, but after that you’ve got to prove to God that you’re worthy of paradise. 
That is not grace. That is not the gospel. That cannot save them, it cannot save us.

Listen to Jesus’ words: they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible.

Good people cannot be saved.


3. God can do the impossible 

Thankfully verse 27 does not end there where I ended it! 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Jesus is about to achieve the impossible. He, the only good man, is walking towards Jerusalem, towards his death. He will pay the punishment our sins deserve – all of our sins, even those we haven’t committed yet – by being “delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him.”

Jesus, who is first, will be last, in order to make us who are last, outside, banished, first, inside, children of the Living God.

And it is a gift of love, a free, undeserved gift. Peter’s self-righteous claim in verse 28 “hey, we’ve followed you” is cut short by Jesus.
“Please, you can’t out-give God!” is what he’s saying in v29-30. It is an undeserved, free gift.

Your own abilities do not save you – in fact, they can lead you away from God.

Instead, come like a child, helpless, dependent, before the feet of Jesus, crying out “I believe! Help me in my unbelief!”. And Jesus can do the impossible and answer that prayer. Amen!