I owe you an apology. You’d think after preaching for 30 years I’d have figured it out by now.

I try. I really do. I don’t want this kind of stuff to happen. But I’m weak. I should be better, but alas … I’m an imperfect man. And you bear the consequences of my inadequacies.

It pains me to say it, but you could probably go to another church and find a minister without my failings. But here, at DBCC, you’re stuck with a pastor who—try as he might—can’t protect you from Jesus.

Jesus insists on saying things I can’t figure out a way to un-say. If I’m not here to make the gospel a little more palatable for everyday people, if I can’t help Jesus say things in a softer, more user-friendly way, then what am I good for? A really skilled preacher could make Jesus say something different from “Go, sell what you have, and give the money to the poor.”

A really practiced preacher could sand off the sharp edges from a passage like our Gospel for this morning. Something like: “Well, we all know that Jesus didn’t actually mean for the man to sell everything and give the money to the poor. He meant for the man to tackle the one thing that was getting in the way of his personal relationship with God. It didn’t have to be money; it could have been too many bratwursts. So, the whole ‘camel through the eye of a needle-thing’ was meant only for him. You may safely disregard Jesus’ exhortation about selling all you have.”

A deft preacher could make this passage dance in ways I can’t seem to manage. Something like: “The problem Jesus is addressing is that the man is too proud. He only thinks he’s kept all the commandments since his youth. His arrogance is what’s keeping him from God—the whole ‘money-thing’ is just a tactic Jesus uses—a kind of rhetorical punch in the nose—to wake the man up from his hubris.”

But, see, I’m not smart enough to get Jesus to say the kinds of things that would make this passage easier to hear. So, I apologize in advance and ask your forgiveness. You deserve better.

A decade’s worth of graduate school and seminary training, and all I can manage to come up with is that Jesus pretty much meant what he said.

But even though I’m just not that good at this preaching stuff, I guess I probably ought to take a shot at it anyway.

Our passage opens with what appears to be some rather hum-drum scene setting: “As [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him.”

See what I mean? Nothing particularly earth-shattering here. So, Jesus is on a journey. So what?

But saying Jesus is on a journey doesn’t quite get to the important part of what’s actually happening. In Greek, the reading would be something more like “As [Jesus] was heading out on the way.”

Given that translation, what’s the obvious question a studious reader should ask?

“On the way … to where?”

Well, if you’ve been following Mark’s narrative for the past several Sundays, Jesus has just recently predicted his coming execution at the hands of the Romans, which happened in the 8th chapter of Mark as Jesus and his disciples were “on the way.” Then Jesus and the boys go up a high mountain, where Jesus is transfigured. Afterward, in the 9th chapter, Jesus does some more walking and teaching, when he asked the disciples, “What were you arguing about on the way?”

Then we get to today’s passage, which begins once again with that phrase, telling us that Jesus is on the way?

But “on the way” to where?

Jerusalem.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus hasn’t been to Jerusalem before. But he’s headed there now.

Okay, fine, but what happens in Jerusalem?