Mark 10:17-31
Let us pray:
Be with us, O Lord, and give us the Spirit of Christ. Amen.
We have before us in Mark’s Gospel what I would call a “Kingdom Question.” This morning’s lesson poses the important question about who will and who will not inherit eternal life.
The story lays out an unresolved tension that has no easy answers; yet, the encounter of the rich young man with Jesus was so important to His first disciples understanding of eternal life and membership in God’s Kingdom that it is included in all three Synoptic Gospels.
We do not the young man’s name and we never find out. He is one of those mysterious figures who appears in the Gospels and then disappears never to be heard of again. Yet what is remarkable about this particular young man is that Jesus loved him. There must have been some quality of character, some remarkable potential in him, that Jesus saw and so wanted him to join Him as a disciple or possibly even as one of his apostles.
The story is clear at the outset. A young man filled with expectation comes up to Jesus and asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus refers him to six of the Ten Commandments relating to how to treat one’s neighbor. Respectfully, he says, “Teacher, I have kept all these commands…” What more is there? He has followed the Law, been obedient, cared for other people and done well. Jesus acknowledges the man’s respect and sees the potential within him and loves him for it. Coaxing him, Jesus says you have only one more thing to do and that is to give away all your possessions. Imagine the shock and chagrin that came over the young man’s face when Jesus informs him to give away all he owns.
I suspect there was a long silence at this moment. Picture if you will the picture now: Jesus looking upon the man with tenderness and sadness. The disciples witnessing this encounter wonder what the man would do. And the young man, thinking to himself that Jesus is asking more than he can give: I can’t give away my security, my freedom, my influence, and my identity…
Despite Jesus’ promise of a heavenly treasure, the rich young man could not bring himself to part with his possessions and goes away grieving. All that he thought he was, all that he believed made him who he was, he could not part with. The question of eternal life has now become a matter involving everything he possesses. Knowing that the disciples have followed this conversation carefully, Jesus tells them that wealth is such a barrier to eternal life that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.
As you and I reflect upon this Gospel text, it is obvious that Jesus is saying that you must give up all your money and wealth to enter the Kingdom. I remember once someone telling me that the US government is coming up with a new revised and simpler tax form. All one has to do is report their gross annual income on the first line; and the second line reads, “send it in.” Please do not misunderstand me. Under no circumstances do I want you to equate the KOG with the IRS! The seeming point, that on the surface, wealth and eternal life do not go together.
Years ago, I heard a true story about a newly married couple who lived in Vermont. They lived a righteous life on a simple farm and one might call them children of the sixties or “hippies.” One day, the woman’s aunt died and left them one million dollars. Equating wealth as morally decadent, the couple decided to give it all away: every dollar, every cent. About a year later the IRS came knocking on their door and said they owned back taxes on the one million dollar gift amounting to about two hundred-fifty thousand dollars. They did not have it. They gave it all away. To settle with the IRS, the couple had to sell their farm and all there possessions to pay the government. They became penniless and eventually divorced. It is a sad story without a happy ending. What would have happened if they had been responsible with their newfound wealth? What if they set aside enough for the taxes and given the rest away? It would have been OK.
This story of the Vermont couple is instructive to the Gospel message for today. Jesus is not talking about the immorality of wealth. Jesus had plenty of followers who were wealthy like Joseph of Arimathea and Mary and Martha. Jesus is talking about not about how much one owns but how one is attached unnaturally to their possessions. Jesus is speaking to his followers to act responsibly with one’s wealth by managing it wisely and by not becoming too attached. Jesus later instructs them that to follow him there is a cost to discipleship: Do not be overly attached to worldly things replacing those things for God for it will cost you your soul.
The economic global crisis has brought into sharp relief the Madoff’s of the world. That by amassing fortunes at the expense of others is indeed to lose one’s soul. We read in the paper of wealthy people unhappy, directionless, and living a life devoid of meaning. In this way, Jesus is saying that for wealthy, selfish, people a camel will get through the eye of the needle before them. As Frederick Buechner, the Christian author and novelist, writes, “a checkbook does not solve the big problems: How to be happy, how to love and be loved, how to find meaning and purpose in life.”
What Jesus is saying is that if you want to inherit eternal life and enter the KOG shed all of your earthly attachments. For one’s life and one’s resources both spiritually and materially is about relationships and about sharing. Plumbing the depths further in this text we come to a fundamental question unrelated to dollars and cents, houses and cars, club memberships and second homes. What Jesus is asking of the rich young man, his disciples, and you and me, is where does God fit in to your life?
While the rich young man did keep six of the Ten Commandments, the Gospel lesson does not say whether he kept the other four commandments of which three relate to God. And the one command that underscores this whole passage is the first one, which exhorts all faithful people to have no other gods before the Creator.
You and I live a god-cluttered world. It is a world in which sports athletes are treated like gods. Movie stars are considered “goddesses.” There are the gods of distraction and seduction, of power and influence, of ambition and novelty, and the choice is up to us all to decide what gods, what ultimate concerns, are manufactured by man and what are created by God.
More simply put, these false gods’ maybe detractors from the life-giving time we spend with God in prayer or worship. It may be a frame of mind where God is a choice among other choices. What Jesus is saying is that God is not a choice but is the choice. The Creator God, who made heaven and earth, who created the moon and stars, who brought the people out of bondage into freedom, who came into the world to be one of us, who rose from the dead, who gifted the Holy Spirit to the apostles, and who lives and reigns today, does not, will not be relegated to third place… nor second place.
Over and over again, Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of God and that God’s reign is being built with or without our help. It is coming. In some ways, it is already here.
We can see signs of the kingdom being built wherever people put God first in their lives, where people share their wealth and resources with the least, the last, the lost and lonely, and where yearning hearts find a freedom and peace that the world cannot give.
As I said at the beginning of this meditation, this is a hard text. Not because it means that we have to give up all we possess to be a disciple of God. It is hard because we have to be responsible with what we have making sure we share it with others by either tithing or offering our time, talent and treasure. It is hard because we have to let go of our attachments to the false gods of culture and society and place God the creator, redeemer and sustainer first and foremost in our lives.
Remembering back to the rich young man it is instructive for us to consider that perhaps he went away sorrowful but eventually changed his mind. Perhaps, the hopeful words of Jesus took root in him when he remembered what Jesus said that for God all things are possible. Perhaps, the love Jesus had for him was stronger than anything that the world could give him. We will never know; but we know on this side of the Resurrection that new life grows in places we never expected. Such divine love changes everything. Such love changes the world. Such love changes you and me.
And now to God be the honor, the glory and the praise. Amen.
Let us pray:
Be with us, O Lord, and give us the Spirit of Christ. Amen.
We have before us in Mark’s Gospel what I would call a “Kingdom Question.” This morning’s lesson poses the important question about who will and who will not inherit eternal life.
The story lays out an unresolved tension that has no easy answers; yet, the encounter of the rich young man with Jesus was so important to His first disciples understanding of eternal life and membership in God’s Kingdom that it is included in all three Synoptic Gospels.
We do not the young man’s name and we never find out. He is one of those mysterious figures who appears in the Gospels and then disappears never to be heard of again. Yet what is remarkable about this particular young man is that Jesus loved him. There must have been some quality of character, some remarkable potential in him, that Jesus saw and so wanted him to join Him as a disciple or possibly even as one of his apostles.
The story is clear at the outset. A young man filled with expectation comes up to Jesus and asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus refers him to six of the Ten Commandments relating to how to treat one’s neighbor. Respectfully, he says, “Teacher, I have kept all these commands…” What more is there? He has followed the Law, been obedient, cared for other people and done well. Jesus acknowledges the man’s respect and sees the potential within him and loves him for it. Coaxing him, Jesus says you have only one more thing to do and that is to give away all your possessions. Imagine the shock and chagrin that came over the young man’s face when Jesus informs him to give away all he owns.
I suspect there was a long silence at this moment. Picture if you will the picture now: Jesus looking upon the man with tenderness and sadness. The disciples witnessing this encounter wonder what the man would do. And the young man, thinking to himself that Jesus is asking more than he can give: I can’t give away my security, my freedom, my influence, and my identity…
Despite Jesus’ promise of a heavenly treasure, the rich young man could not bring himself to part with his possessions and goes away grieving. All that he thought he was, all that he believed made him who he was, he could not part with. The question of eternal life has now become a matter involving everything he possesses. Knowing that the disciples have followed this conversation carefully, Jesus tells them that wealth is such a barrier to eternal life that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.
As you and I reflect upon this Gospel text, it is obvious that Jesus is saying that you must give up all your money and wealth to enter the Kingdom. I remember once someone telling me that the US government is coming up with a new revised and simpler tax form. All one has to do is report their gross annual income on the first line; and the second line reads, “send it in.” Please do not misunderstand me. Under no circumstances do I want you to equate the KOG with the IRS! The seeming point, that on the surface, wealth and eternal life do not go together.
Years ago, I heard a true story about a newly married couple who lived in Vermont. They lived a righteous life on a simple farm and one might call them children of the sixties or “hippies.” One day, the woman’s aunt died and left them one million dollars. Equating wealth as morally decadent, the couple decided to give it all away: every dollar, every cent. About a year later the IRS came knocking on their door and said they owned back taxes on the one million dollar gift amounting to about two hundred-fifty thousand dollars. They did not have it. They gave it all away. To settle with the IRS, the couple had to sell their farm and all there possessions to pay the government. They became penniless and eventually divorced. It is a sad story without a happy ending. What would have happened if they had been responsible with their newfound wealth? What if they set aside enough for the taxes and given the rest away? It would have been OK.
This story of the Vermont couple is instructive to the Gospel message for today. Jesus is not talking about the immorality of wealth. Jesus had plenty of followers who were wealthy like Joseph of Arimathea and Mary and Martha. Jesus is talking about not about how much one owns but how one is attached unnaturally to their possessions. Jesus is speaking to his followers to act responsibly with one’s wealth by managing it wisely and by not becoming too attached. Jesus later instructs them that to follow him there is a cost to discipleship: Do not be overly attached to worldly things replacing those things for God for it will cost you your soul.
The economic global crisis has brought into sharp relief the Madoff’s of the world. That by amassing fortunes at the expense of others is indeed to lose one’s soul. We read in the paper of wealthy people unhappy, directionless, and living a life devoid of meaning. In this way, Jesus is saying that for wealthy, selfish, people a camel will get through the eye of the needle before them. As Frederick Buechner, the Christian author and novelist, writes, “a checkbook does not solve the big problems: How to be happy, how to love and be loved, how to find meaning and purpose in life.”
What Jesus is saying is that if you want to inherit eternal life and enter the KOG shed all of your earthly attachments. For one’s life and one’s resources both spiritually and materially is about relationships and about sharing. Plumbing the depths further in this text we come to a fundamental question unrelated to dollars and cents, houses and cars, club memberships and second homes. What Jesus is asking of the rich young man, his disciples, and you and me, is where does God fit in to your life?
While the rich young man did keep six of the Ten Commandments, the Gospel lesson does not say whether he kept the other four commandments of which three relate to God. And the one command that underscores this whole passage is the first one, which exhorts all faithful people to have no other gods before the Creator.
You and I live a god-cluttered world. It is a world in which sports athletes are treated like gods. Movie stars are considered “goddesses.” There are the gods of distraction and seduction, of power and influence, of ambition and novelty, and the choice is up to us all to decide what gods, what ultimate concerns, are manufactured by man and what are created by God.
More simply put, these false gods’ maybe detractors from the life-giving time we spend with God in prayer or worship. It may be a frame of mind where God is a choice among other choices. What Jesus is saying is that God is not a choice but is the choice. The Creator God, who made heaven and earth, who created the moon and stars, who brought the people out of bondage into freedom, who came into the world to be one of us, who rose from the dead, who gifted the Holy Spirit to the apostles, and who lives and reigns today, does not, will not be relegated to third place… nor second place.
Over and over again, Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of God and that God’s reign is being built with or without our help. It is coming. In some ways, it is already here.
We can see signs of the kingdom being built wherever people put God first in their lives, where people share their wealth and resources with the least, the last, the lost and lonely, and where yearning hearts find a freedom and peace that the world cannot give.
As I said at the beginning of this meditation, this is a hard text. Not because it means that we have to give up all we possess to be a disciple of God. It is hard because we have to be responsible with what we have making sure we share it with others by either tithing or offering our time, talent and treasure. It is hard because we have to let go of our attachments to the false gods of culture and society and place God the creator, redeemer and sustainer first and foremost in our lives.
Remembering back to the rich young man it is instructive for us to consider that perhaps he went away sorrowful but eventually changed his mind. Perhaps, the hopeful words of Jesus took root in him when he remembered what Jesus said that for God all things are possible. Perhaps, the love Jesus had for him was stronger than anything that the world could give him. We will never know; but we know on this side of the Resurrection that new life grows in places we never expected. Such divine love changes everything. Such love changes the world. Such love changes you and me.
And now to God be the honor, the glory and the praise. Amen.
