St. Luke and Needles

October 18, 2015
St. Luke Day (Red)
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 24)


GOSPEL LESSON:　　Mark 10:23–31
23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “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.” 26And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”
27Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
28Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
29Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

When you came into church this morning you might have been surprised to see that the color of the paraments of the altar and lectern and the pastor’s stole was red. Red is the color of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost who came as tongues of fire. It is also the color of the blood of the holy martyrs who died in the Name of Jesus. Today, October 18th is the day on the church calendar when we remember St. Luke. Luke wrote two books in the New Testament: the Gospel according to St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. We cannot be sure whether he died a martyr’s death or not, but this day is appropriately red because the Holy Spirit was at work in him to write two books of the New Testament. These two books are crafted with style and eloquence which make them easy and exciting to read.

St. Luke was a companion of and co-worker with St. Paul and Luke went with St. Paul on a number of his missionary journeys in the book of Acts. St. Paul mentions him in three letters, and it is from Colossians 4:14 that we lean that Luke was a physician. So Luke was an educated person which is shown in his writing style. That he was a physician can be seen in one interesting passage, Luke 18:25, which is the same as Matthew 19:24 and Mark 10:25. “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.” In Matthew and Mark, the word for “needle” is a “sewing needle, raphis rafis ” whereas in Luke it is the word for a “surgical needle, belone belonh.” The Greek words used are different, but the meaning of the words of Jesus does not change, however, it shows how a person’s background is used by the Holy Spirit when proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And this leads us into today’s Gospel reading where Jesus did say, “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.” Jesus said this right after meeting a rich man who wanted to follow him. Mark 10:21-22,

“21 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.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

The man thought his riches were more important than going to heaven. Many rich people think their treasures are signs from God that they are especially blessed and so surely saved, but Jesus taught the man that a person must not trust their riches. And so Jesus said, “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.” The disciples were poor. They had no signs of blessings by God. So they were not sure of their salvation either. They asked, “Then who can be saved?”

We might think that Jesus was speaking of the millionaires and billionaires. Sometimes they are good people, sometimes they are proud, ungodly, ruthless people. But you know, Jesus was speaking about us. In the eyes of many poor people in the world, we are rich. We have shoes on our feet and a roof over our heads. We have money and possessions and families and friends that are very important to us. These are all blessings from God. But if we trust those things, then those things will become big camels that keep us from entering the Kingdom of God.

The disciples 26 were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Of course in our human pride, even though it is impossible, we still want to find a way to go through the eye of the needle, camel and all. We humans want to find a way that we can do it without the help of God. There are two classical ways to do this. We either make the eye of the needle bigger, or we make the camel smaller. And so perhaps the eye of the needle was a narrow gate in the wall of Jerusalem. A camel could not pass through the gate unless it unloaded its baggage from its back, then it could squeeze through. So, with this interpretation, to get to heaven we have to get rid of all our baggage, our burdens, our sin, our possessions, everything. But that is not what Jesus meant here in this passage. He meant a real sewing needle and a real, very big camel. That is, Jesus said it was impossible for anyone, even if we got rid of everything, because we would still be too big.

Salvation is the work of God. “For all things are possible with God.” We are saved by faith, and faith is not something we do, faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, so we cannot even take pride in that we have faith, because faith knows that we are saved by the grace of almighty God who can do all things. He can do impossible things, like: being born in a stable, taking the sin of the world upon himself, dying on the cross, and passing alive through the needle eye of the door of the tomb.

Which side of the eye of the needle are you on? Have you passed through and so now are in heaven or are you still on this earth? Maybe we are like a thread. We are part way through, but there are a lot of worldly things that keep pulling us backward. (“Back sliding.”) We have a lot of burdens and worries and fears and sins. Yet, at the same time we have the love of Jesus pulling us through. We have the promise of Baptism that Jesus will never give up on us. And God always keeps his promises because, “all things are possible with God.”

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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