Jesus said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
This comes a the end of the story about the rich man, the camel and the eye of the needle. Jesus is telling his disciples that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Upon hearing this, the disciples wondered aloud, ‘who can be saved then?’. Jesus responds with this, that it is impossible for mortals, but with God, all things are possible. Peter follows up with the logical mortal question, ‘we mere mortals have left everything. We’ve done what you asked’. He’s effectively asking if they are the exception to Jesus’ statement that mortals it is impossible. Peter wants Jesus to acknowledge what he’s already given up, and perhaps to acknowledge that Peter has acted in a way that Peter’s actions will warrant God’s grace and mercy. For Peter, it is possible, and Peter’s actions are sufficient.
Oh, I really like Peter. Yes, he can look like a hot-headed, impetuous, mercurial guy. But he also asks the questions others are thinking. He helps bring clarity to Jesus’ statements by testing them, by poking and prodding around the edges. In response to Peter’s questions, Jesus answers the questions many others have, but are afraid to ask.
And Peter’s question here is a good one. If the disciples have left everything and are following Jesus, isn’t that enough? Shouldn’t that warrant a mere-mortal-yet-sufficient-for-salvation effort? Bringing this forward to modern times, I think about people in my church and world. There are people who leave the comforts of home to serve God in mission fields half way around the world. Isn’t that enough? What about people in religious orders, who leave their families to dedicate their lives to God? Isn’t that enough? In a church setting, what about the people who volunteer all their time to help keep the church beautiful and well maintained? Or the musicians, or clergy, or altar guild?
People who have faith and dedicate themselves to God in big and little ways likely wonder if what they’re doing is enough. Maybe they don’t voice these concerns out loud, but I imagine everyone has these thoughts. Or if not that, these dedicated folks might wonder why the effort, when God loves everyone, including the C&E Christians, those who only darken the doors of church or think about church on Christmas and Easter. Isn’t our effort enough? Doesn’t it make us at least a little bit closer to salvation than those others?
Jesus explains that it is God, not us, who offers salvation. God alone. Our actions are done because we want to do them, because it’s how we want to show our love and praise to God. It’s the part of ourselves that we consecrate to God. We do these things because we want to. Yes, God wants us to serve, to help, to worship, even to polish the candlesticks. But God wants that because that’s how we are called to show our love for God. We are not filling up our scorecard, so that eventually, we have enough good marks to warrant salvation, or warrant anything in particular. God alone offers salvation. We need to get over ourselves and our sense of self importance. This morning, I’m thinking about all the ways where I’m keeping a scorecard, and going to try to rip that card up.
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