Impossible
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Scripture: Mark 10:17 – 31
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
The Book of Revelation – the last book of the Bible – is filled with weird and wonderful images. Among those images are some of my favourite parts of the whole Bible. These are the images of heavenly worship.
The vision of heaven painted by Revelation is one in which all sorts of creatures – some fantastic and mythical, others more human – surround the throne of God declaring God’s worth and glory. There’s a sense of hope and victory that pervades these scenes. There’s no more waiting or wondering how things are going to turn out. This is the end – the final, eternal scene. At one point, in chapter 5, the writer sees a Lamb (which is a symbolic representation of Jesus), and the worship shifts to the Lamb. These are the words of Revelation 5:11-13:
Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!”
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!”
Wouldn’t you love to be part of that scene? How incredible would it be to be a participant in that worship! This Jesus, this slain Lamb raised and ascended to His proper place beside the throne of God, is majestic, powerful, and worth everything. And yet, I wonder if we sometimes forget that this is who Jesus is.
On Sunday we’re going to read about a good man who went to Jesus to find out if he’d done enough to inherit the kind of eternal life represented in these scenes of worship in Revelation. Jesus told him there was only one more thing he had to do: he had to sell everything he owned and give the proceeds to the poor. The man walked away, dejected, because this was too much. It was more than he could do. The cost was too steep.
The question that faces us in this man’s story is this: What cost is too much? Is there anything Jesus could ask of me that would make me walk away? When I ask this question of myself, I’d like to think there’s nothing. But I wonder if that’s true. I wonder, if I’m completely honest, if there might be something that would be too much.
As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to consider this question for yourself: Is there anything Jesus could ask of you that would make you walk away? Don’t answer too quickly. What if Jesus asked you to give up your child? What if Jesus asked you to give up your home? What if Jesus asked you to give up your dreams? Is there anything Jesus could ask of you that would make you walk away?
On Sunday, confronted by the cost of discipleship, we will discover the hope and the promise of grace in the midst of our weakness.