Sermon for 15 October 2006 - "The One Thing"

Preaching Text: Mark 10.17-31

“One thing,” the Teacher had said. “You lack one thing.” But the Teacher never told him what that one thing was. Perhaps he couldn’t: The Teacher had been ready to leave – it wasn’t a good time for such questions. But the fact of the matter was that the Teacher never told him what he needed to inherit eternal life.

Samuel bar-Ephraim, Samuel “son of” Ephraim, was a merchant, like his father and grandfather before him. He moved spices from Egypt to Rome, carried bolts of cloth and the finest woven rugs throughout Palestine, selling them at a fair profit wherever he went. He hauled olives and dates, figs and grapes, with no damage, right on time. His family pride rested on being dependable, on earning their fees honestly, and if customers had to pay a bit more for Samuel’s services, well, sales and goods were important, weren’t they? But he didn’t cheat his customers, and he guaranteed every delivery. About 4 years earlier, his father was hauling a load of grain up the coastal highway when his wagons were overrun by thieves. The thieves took all the grain and the coins Ephraim had taken in payment for shipping and selling the grain. Some merchants would have just claimed hard luck and refused to refund his customer, but not Samuel’s father Ephraim: he paid every penny back out of his own pocket.

They worked hard, Ephraim and Samuel, as hard at being fair, honest and trustworthy as they did at getting things delivered on time. Some merchants were only looking for the best deal; they saw their profession as part of their work for God. If they did their work well, they would connect those who have needs and those who have supplies. Women who weave tapestries could feed their children if Samuel and Ephraim sold their wares well. Basket weavers and potters could send their goods with Samuel and Ephraim and use their time to make more pots and baskets – Samuel & Ephraim could do the selling for them. Carpenters who couldn’t find enough business in their small towns could send tables and boxes to earn more money than they would get building houses. “This is what I do,” Samuel often thought, “and I’m proud of it. I give thanks to God for my life, and I honor God in all I do.”

Lately, though, things had been different. His life was changing drastically. For one, Samuel had taken a wife, and for another, she had given him a son. Naomi was the daughter of a fellow merchant, a girl who grew into a beautiful woman, and when Samuel asked his father and her father to begin discussing whether they could marry, everyone was overjoyed. Naomi and Samuel became good friends since they were married, and after a year of marriage their Eli was born; the brightest star in their lives. They loved our little one, and Samuel thought he would do anything to see Eli grow big and strong and follow in his father’s footsteps, a fourth generation of merchants. But since Eli was born, Samuel had begun to think about the rest of his own life differently. His father was slowing down quite a bit, and his grandfather died just before Samuel and Naomi were married. He knew it’s foolish, but for the longest time it felt like things would never change; that Samuel would be young and his father would be mature and his grandfather would be the wise patriarch of our family forever. Now Samuel’s father was growing into great wisdom, and Samuel’s infant son was young. Someday, Samuel’s father would be gone, Samuel would be wise and his son would be the mature worker. Someday after that, Samuel’s life, as will as his beloved Naomi’s life, would be over.

This is how Samuel’s mind had been going lately. Merchants spend a lot of time on the backs of camels, and when you’ve learned how to ride a camel without having to hold on for dear life at every moment, you can spend a lot of time thinking about things. Samuel would watch the sun rise and fall while he journeyed and he would think about the rise and fall of his own life. He knew he was a good son, a good husband, a kind and gentle father, and good friend and an honest and trustworthy professional; but was all of that enough? What about a life to come? What would happen after he died? Was there enough good in Samuel’s life to guarantee that God would preserve his family and his name forever? Who could know?

As Samuel was traveling with his goods, another man was also traveling though Palestine. Samuel kept hearing about a man named Jesus who came from Nazareth, the son of a carpenter who was developing quite a reputation for himself. The carpenter’s son was supposedly a great healer, a worker of miracles, some said, though Samuel couldn’t trust such stories. What Samuel could believe, however, was that the man was also a great Teacher and a devout follower of the Law. Just the week before, some Pharisees had tried to trap this Jesus by asking him loaded questions, but apparently Jesus had seen their trap for what it was and had instead trapped the Pharisees in their own hypocrisy and hard-heartedness. Samuel took no joy in people being wrong, but it seemed to him that the Pharisees, with their insistence on purity and right living at any cost, needed to get the wind sucked out of their sails every now and again.

That was all the week before he met the Teacher, this Jesus of Nazareth. Samuel had been hoping that someday their paths might cross, and finally they did. Samuel was delivering a load in a village in the Trans-Jordan, part of Palestine to the east of the Jordan River. He heard that Jesus was also in town. After delivering his goods and packing up for the journey home, Samuel went immediately to the guest house where Jesus was supposedly staying. He found Jesus just getting ready to walk out of town, and before he could help himself, all of Samuel’s worries rose up to the surface and spilled over in a desperate question. “Good Teacher,” Samuel shouted, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus stopped, turned around, found Samuel’s eyes, and stared into them. Samuel had never received such a look in his life; it was as if Jesus could see right through his eyes into his very soul. Quietly, the Teacher asked, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. Don’t you know the commandments? ‘You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.’”

Samuel’s heart leapt into his throat. Maybe it was enough. Maybe his worries were groundless. “Teacher,” Samuel replied, “I have kept all those commandments since I was a boy.” He gave Jesus a hopeful smile, asking the question with his face as well as his words: is it enough? Is this what I must do to inherit eternal life?

Incredibly, the Teacher from Nazareth had smiled at him, a smile so proud and yet so solemn that it took Samuel’s breath away. The love in that smile had been palpable; it enveloped Samuel completely, but at the same time it worked its way into his soul and exposed every speck of dread and fear within him. “You lack only one thing: go, sell all you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, and follow me.”

Samuel had felt the blood drain out of his face as he realized what Jesus was asking. Give up everything? Walk away from this profession, this honorable work that he had done all his life? Walk away from the house he had built for Naomi and Eli and the children to come? Walk away from his father? He couldn’t. It was impossible. To do so would violate all of the commandments Jesus had just listed for him to keep. How could he honor his father and mother by leaving them with no son to carry on their names? How could he provide for his children following Jesus? He would have to steal bread to feed his family! No – it couldn’t be done. Samuel, his heart broken by the harsh demands of the Teacher from Nazareth, turned away, shuffled down the street, mounted his camel and began his journey home.

Samuel couldn’t believe how heavy his heart became in the next few months. Instead of dismissing the Teacher as someone who didn’t know what he was asking, Samuel felt the burden of Jesus’ questions growing heavier and heavier every day, even while his mind insisted that Samuel had made the right choice. How could you leave your family for him? What kind of life would Samuel provide for them, following the Teacher? But the loving gaze and heartbreaking smile of Jesus continued to haunt Samuel, day after day, and to make matters worse, news of Jesus kept arriving with every visitor to Samuel’s town. “He entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey’s colt – could he be the Messiah?” “He drove those Temple hucksters out with a whip and threw their tables out with them!” “He said the Temple was going to be destroyed – what kind of nut is this guy?” “He was in Bethany, and he allowed a prostitute to anoint his feet with oil!”

Samuel left to celebrate the Passover at the Temple with dread in his heart. What if he saw Jesus again – what would he say? What would Jesus say? Samuel didn’t know if he could bear to look into those eyes and see that smile again – but even worse was the thought of looking into those eyes and seeing nothing at all; no recognition, no love, no compassion at all. What if Jesus didn’t remember him at all?

The night of the Passover, Samuel heard that Jesus was going to be arrested. One of the Temple guards told his family that Jesus had been betrayed by one of his own followers; they were going to arrest him that night and put him on trial for blasphemy. The next morning, Samuel heard the commotion in the Temple square, and he knew that even if Jesus didn’t recognize him, he had to see Jesus. So Samuel set off for the Temple Mount, his stomach climbing up his throat as his feet climbed the hills to the highest point in Jerusalem.

But it was already done when Samuel arrived. The Sanhedrin had convened and judged Jesus guilty in the middle of the night, and they had prevailed on Pilate to put Jesus to death for treason and sedition against the empire. By the time Samuel got to the Temple, the crowds had moved to the edge of town where the crucifixions took place, and Samuel found himself following, even though his heart pounded as if it would break at any moment.

The scene at the hill was terrible. There were three to be crucified that day, but the focus was obviously on Jesus. The crowd had been whipped up into a frenzy of hatred; they hurled insults like stones at Jesus. Blood ran from the gashes on Jesus’ back and the crown of thorns some Roman soldier had jammed onto Jesus’ head. But he hung there, arms nailed to the cross, head down and chest heaving, offering no resistance to the crowd’s abuse.

After an hour or so, the crowd seemed to run out of energy. At that point, Jesus looked into the crowd and found Samuel’s eyes, as if he had known Samuel was there all along. Samuel’s breath was again driven out of him, as Jesus smiled at him, the same loving, solemn smile he had seen weeks ago across the Jordan. Jesus remembered him – and Samuel realized that he had, indeed, left everything and had followed Jesus, willingly or not. Jesus smiled at Samuel for just a moment, his blood-stained brow wrinkled in pain. Then his head dropped again, the sun disappeared, and it was night on the hill for three hours. Three hours of darkness and silence; the crowd had fled when the light fell out of the sky. Finally, just as Samuel was beginning to think it would never end, Jesus screamed aloud and breathed his last. Thunder roared out of the midnight sky, and the ground heaved under Samuel’s feet. He heard screams from the Temple and watched as the crowd that had already fled into the city now streamed out of the Temple as well. Then the sun returned, the day warmed, and Samuel saw that Jesus was dead.

The centurion watching the crucifixion staggered up next to Samuel and said, “This man truly was God’s son!” “What did you say?” Samuel demanded. “God’s Son – this man was God’s Son!” the centurion stammered. “One of the charges against him was that he claimed to be God’s own Son! I’ve been on this hill for more crucifixions than I care to remember, and no one has ever died like that. Didn’t you feel the ground shake? Didn’t you stand here in the darkness? This man must have been God’s own Son – heaven and earth wouldn’t have moved for anyone else!”

And like a thunderbolt out of a blue sky, Samuel finally understood what the Teacher had said. “You lack one thing to inherit eternal life,” Jesus had said. But Samuel knew well enough that inheritance could only be given – and only children could inherit what their fathers had to give. If Jesus was indeed God’s Son, then eternal life was the inheritance that Jesus could claim – and perhaps this inheritance, this Son, was the one thing Samuel had needed to receive eternal life. Jesus himself was the one thing Samuel had lacked – and Samuel had now lost him forever.

Three days later, a rumor swept through Jerusalem about the carpenter from Nazareth who had risen from the dead. Supposedly some women had found his tomb empty and had fled in terror because they thought that grave robbers had stolen the body. But more rumors spread that Jesus had been seen walking and teaching in Jerusalem, appearing to those who had been his closest friends; his family, if you will. A last rumor grew that Jesus had walked out of the city to the Mount of Olives and had ascended into heaven, giving charge to his disciples to continue to walk in His ways all the days of their life. Rumor had it that there were several followers who had joined the disciples in the days after the crucifixion, including one whom Jesus loved affectionately; a merchant named Samuel, son of Ephraim.