Ez 28:1-10, Dt 32:26-28,30,35-36, Mt 19:23-30

I have to tell you that when I started to pray with these readings, I had real trouble sticking with what initially caught my attention. I consider preparing a homily a prayer process and my prayer said one thing and my head wanted to write something else. It was enough of a conflict that it cost me several hours off on the wrong tangent before I could hear and write about what I think God was trying to tell me. I mention this because I think it’s important to realize that sometimes what we think about and what God may be telling us clearly isn’t the same.

As you probably know, the Hebrews of New Testament times considered that a person’s success or failure was evidence of his or her relationship with God. They thought that people who were rich were favored by God while those who were poor or afflicted with disease were being punished for sins they or their ancestors had committed. That attitude is based on the great insight of the Jewish faith that God was involved in human history. However, the people of the time were rather literal in their thinking of God as the reason, rich people were rich and why the down and out were down and out.

That is why what Jesus says would have been very shocking at the time. To suggest it is hard for rich people to enter God’s Kingdom is to turn the normal way of thinking of heavenly reward upside down. It is this kind of idea that got Jesus killed.

When the Apostles ask, “Who then can be saved?” The question is coming from men who are truly shocked and confused.  Jesus gives what for me is an amazing answer, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” This is what today’s readings emphasize for me, that for God all things are possible.

Because this reading is preceded by the story of the rich young man and then questions by the apostles about how much they have given up, it can be interpreted as a lesson about self-sacrifice and whether God is the center of our lives. I think that’s true but I think there is another message here as well.

The part of the reading I heard. That spoke to me was, that exchange between Peter and Jesus, Peter wondering, “who then can be saved” and Jesus’ response, “that for men it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

Jesus is actually saying that for human beings on their own salvation is impossible. And I think, really? It’s impossible for us? Haven’t we always been taught about the importance of good behavior? Somebody would say, don’t do those things because you won’t get to heaven. Jesus seems to be letting us off the hook. What happened to the narrow way, the “eye of the needle” that rich people can’t get through?” I think we all have figured we were supposed to work hard, maybe even suffer so we would earn our heavenly reward. Now Jesus in this little exchange says, “for men it is impossible.”

Now I don’t think Jesus is giving out a free pass here. He’s not suggesting we can all go out to indulge in excessive drinking, drug consumption or free love, as we used to say in the 1960’s.

But I do think he is trying to give us an honest sense of who we are. You might say Jesus is trying to keep us humble. We need to have an honest assessment of what we really accomplish in this life when it comes to heavenly aspirations. I think Jesus is letting us off the guilt-hook with a reminder of who is really in charge.

As much as I believe that God gives us a real job to do in this life. As much as I believe we are responsible for making the tough choices and are accountable for our actions. I think that God asks only that we do our best in the life we have been given. We have not been asked to be a perfect anything, to live perfectly, to make flawless judgments, or to respond correctly to everything that happens in our lives. I don’t think God expects human beings are going to perform in any of the ways we often imagine we should. The best example is right from Scripture. How often are the Apostles shown to miss the point or misunderstand what Jesus is trying to teach. They are living with the Son of God, day after day and they fail to grasp some of his best stuff. At the same time, he is saying it all clearly enough that the Pharisees and Scribes who have something to lose, end up killing him because of what he is doing.

I ask you, if you had accompanied Jesus, in person, for several years and then run away when he was arrested. How would you feel afterwards? That’s a pretty big collapse don’t you think, a failure to respond, a lack of courage, name it anyway you want. But Jesus in our Gospel today says, Yup, you’re not always going to do what might be considered the right thing. However, the truth is, that for God all things are possible. Therefore, we can mess up and God can make it right anyway. We don’t have to be perfect because as we just heard in yesterday’s Gospel, “there is only One who is good.” We need to stay close to that One and let the rest go.