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?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 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.'" He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." They were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."
Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."
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?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 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.'" He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." They were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."
Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."
I doubt many of us would consider
ourselves wealthy; perhaps comfortable, but wealthy? But, if you have a bank account with even a
few dollars in it, you are among the wealthiest people in the world. But, what does it mean to be wealthy? Well, that depends on how you think about
wealth. Does it mean how much money you
make, how much property you own? Is it
your ability to provide for all your needs and still have stuff left over?
I found a list online[1] of the average yearly income of individuals
around the world broken down by countries.
Of the 214 countries listed, the
countries from 183 down have an average yearly income of less than $350, that’s
31 countries. From 152 to 182, 30
countries, the average is less than $2000.
From 114 to 152, the average is less than $5000. So, 100 countries have an average yearly
income of less than $5000. From 83 to
114 the average is less than $10000. The
average income of the top 50 countries finally brings you in above $20000. The top 10 countries average in near or above
$50000. If you add up the average of
the top 10 countries ($580,600) it’s the equivalent of the bottom 114
countries. In case you are curious, the
United States falls in at number 10 with an average per capita yearly income of
$48,800.
As all of us are far too aware, it’s an
election year. Time after time, it seems
as if the primary question politicians ask us has to do with our wealth. Are you better off now than you were four
years ago? There are so many things that
the government can focus on, that they could be concerned with. And yet, so much of the time the focus is on
money. The politicians like to look into
your eye, grab you by your greedy little boots and make you think first and
foremost about yourself. Perhaps, in the
light of this morning’s text and the teachings of Jesus the better question
would be, “Is your neighbor better off than they were four years ago, and what
have you done to better their situations?”
The text we heard is common, we've all
heard it before, and it’s one of those texts that make us squirm in our
seats. Individually, when we compare
ourselves to our neighbors we might think of ourselves as being better or worse
off, but in comparison with just about every country around the world the poor
here are among the richest, which makes all of us here among the wealthiest in
the world. And we all remember what
Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the
kingdom of God." No wonder the
disciples exclaimed, “then who can be saved?”
In ancient times (and in our time)
financial blessings were seen as being a confirmation of the blessings from the
divine. We heard from Job this morning,
at the beginning of his trials, at the end, after all the death and disease,
poverty and exclusion we read, “The Lord
blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen
thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand
donkeys. ” There it is, right there in the Bible, we see
material and financial comfort being synonymous with God’s blessings. No wonder the rich young man didn't consider
his wealth as that which was holding him back; no wonder the disciples were so
surprised by Jesus’ words. His wealth was
a sign of God’s blessings, at least it was in his eyes.
He
had lived a blessed life. He was without
a doubt a person of great faith. He had
lived his life in a way that was in accordance with the law of Moses. He had done everything in his power to ensure
his place in paradise, everything in his power to inherit eternal life. Yet, even though he had done so much, he
still felt unsure of his final destination.
So, he comes with his question.
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It’s a question that I’m sure many of us have
uttered, or something very close to something we have felt. Really, it’s not a question that you ask
unless you have faith of some kind.
That’s why Jesus looked at him and loved him. In fact, this is the only person in Mark’s
gospel that Jesus loved. The young man’s
faith is deep, he’s made sacrifices in the way he lives his life, seeking to
follow the way of God, his faith is his guide.
Jesus loves him. And based on the
way he addressed Jesus, and came seeking his wisdom and guidance, the man loved
Jesus as well.
Yet,
there is something missing, and he can sense it. Jesus answers his question, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give
the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow
me." Based on the young man’s response, that
probably wasn’t the answer he was looking for.
We could even ask if he really wanted an answer, maybe he just wanted to
hear confirmation from Jesus about how he had succeeded all expectations and
had inherited eternal life. Regardless,
the young man hears Jesus’ answer and walks away grieving. Was he grieving because he knew he could
never do what Jesus asked? Was he
grieving because he was going to do what Jesus asked and he was overwrought
with emotion? Had Jesus’ answer closed
in like a heat-seeking missile on how it was the young man defined himself?
How do we define ourselves? Is it our possessions? Our relationships? Our job?
How did the young man in our text define himself? - his possessions? Is Jesus challenging him and us to release
ourselves from the ways in which we define ourselves? That those things don’t really matter, and
that clinging to those definitions limits our ability to allow God in and
transform us into the person we were created to be? For the young man, it appears he defined
himself by the things he had accomplished, the things he had done, the
possessions he had, the land he owned, the amount of money in his bank
account. Jesus looks at him, loves him,
and challenges him to redefine himself – it’s not about what he has, or what he
has done. Gaining eternal life is never
about anything that we can do, faith and its rewards are never about anything we
do.
Jesus tells the young man to let go, don’t
cling to the things you think are important, don’t trust in the things you have
done, don’t focus on what you do. If we focus on our actions, on what we do,
entering the Kingdom of God is impossible (a camel through the eye of a needle)
but if we focus on God’s grace, and God’s actions then anything is
possible. Entering the Kingdom isn’t
about us doing, it’s about God having done.
What must we do to inherit eternal life?
We must let go of all that we have and all that we do that gets in the way of
seeing that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Even then, letting go
of it all is beyond our capacity. The hardest news Jesus has is the best news
we could get -- our salvation is impossible for us to work out "But not
for God; for God all things are possible."
Discipleship, following Jesus, isn’t
like getting into a pool step by step, inch by inch, until you are finally in
the water (on your terms), it’s about letting go completely and jumping in,
committing totally to getting wet, rather than trying to keep your hair dry. Following Jesus isn’t about trying to make
the needle bigger, or the camel smaller so that things get easier. It’s about trusting in God to make the
impossible possible. It’s about focusing
less on ourselves and more on our neighbors.
It’s about remembering that God is God, and we are not. It’s not about the size of our bank account,
the number of successes we have, the ‘blessings’ we have received. It’s about not focusing on what we think we
can do to get into the Kingdom of Heaven, it’s about doing all we can to
transform the world we live in into the Kingdom of God. It’s not about us doing anything to earn or
receive eternal life, it’s about giving everything up to God. And, giving things up completely to God is
what grace is all about. Amen.
