Mark Chapter 10

"Who then can be saved?" -verse 26

Jesus establishes an impossible standard. Divorce is the same as adultery. Sell everything you own. These teachings are in line with others found in the other gospels, where Jesus equates lust with adultery and hate with murder. The question the disciples inevitably ask is the one we all ask when faced with Jesus' standard: who then can be saved? We know human nature too well. Not even the best among us can achieve it.

If you recall Jesus' encounter with the Greek woman in Mark 7:24-30, I think you can start to see a pattern in Jesus' teaching. He openly offended her--not from malice, but as a method of moving her heart and mind to a place where he could perform a miracle in her life. His words to her reminded her of her utter helplessness and dependence upon him. When she accepted it, he healed her daughter. I see the same thing in these teachings in chapter 10. Jesus delivers impossibly difficult teachings that, if accepted, render us helpless. Yes, we resent them. Yes, they are offensive. And they leave us only two choices: to reject them and walk away, as the man did in verse 22, or to stand in Jesus' presence and utter our own helplessness, as the disciples did in verse 26. And at that moment, just as he did with the Greek woman, Jesus delivered hope: "With human beings this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

I think about how close the wealthy young man was to life. If he had stayed only minutes longer, he would have heard those words. He didn't have to achieve the standard Jesus set for him, he only had to acknowledge that he couldn't reach it.

How many times do our efforts to justify ourselves prevent us from experiencing life? How often do we walk away sad, when all we have to do is acknowledge our dependence on God? It's one of the great paradoxes of following Christ. The impossible becomes possible at the moment we let go, the moment we humble ourselves, the moment we admit we're powerless. Little if anything is possible on our own strength, but all things are possible with God.