Mark 10:17-31
19th Pentecost
It was the first game of the year and I was a freshman in the football Marching Band. After I got home from school in the afternoon I found one of my sows that was expecting had started into labor, just a couple hours before the game. I say "my" sow because I had taken on raising hogs as a project to earn money for college. Also Dad wasn't home at the time and so when I discovered what was happening I was in a panic.
Do I go on to the game and let nature take its course in the barn? Or should I stay at home in case help is needed?
Whatever our backgrounds here this morning a part of growing up for all of us is learning to accept the responsibilities that go along with keeping a commitment. And often in life we will be confronted with situations where we may have two or more commitments that clash. One has to override the others. But in choosing between commitments we also run the risk of creating potential regrets that may haunt us in the future. "If I had only done this, or done that, or said this rather than that."
I think of this today in relationship to that very devoted man of long ago who came to Jesus one day. He also had a clash of commitments. He was very rich which meant he was a "community benefactor." Wealth was a sign of God's favor. And so the rich supported local synagogues and the Temple sacrifices in Jerusalem much as we support the church and worthy causes today. This generosity demonstrated your "special relationship" to God and enhanced your prestige and status in the community.
Yet, there is an appetite in this man that is not fully satisfied. He wants to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Heaven and life after death were relatively new beliefs in Judaism at this time. Some Jews such as the Pharisees embraced this, but others like the Sadducees did not. At any rate this man wanted to know how he could have eternal life. Like everything else he had "earned" in life, so he was willing to do whatever was necessary to receive eternity too.
The fact that he addresses Jesus as "Good Teacher" shows that he held the Lord in high regard. His question is sincere and not designed to entrap Jesus as the scribes and Pharisees usually tried to do. Jesus begins to answer by reminding him that only God is "good" and then adds from the Ten Commandments – 'you shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, defraud others and you shall honor your father and mother.' The man has done all these from his youth.
This man is not only rich in wealth, but rich in obedience to the laws of his religion. He's very devout and sincere. Morally he's impeccably clean. He worships regularly, prays and tithes his income. He is the ideal church member. We have no reason to doubt his sincerity either because Marks says that Jesus loved him. Jesus could read this man's heart for the good in it. But he also sees that something is lacking. So he goes on to say: "Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
According to Jesus eternal life takes a total surrender of one's life to God. It is a commitment that overrides everything else. In selling off his earthly things the rich man would be giving other things too. He would give up his prestige as a power broker in the community to live as a commoner. Imagine a Bill Gates, selling off Microsoft, selling off his homes and giving away all his billions, and living off the hospitality of you and I. No longer would he command the attention of Presidents and be one of the most famous names on Wall Street. His influence, not just his wealth, would be gone. At least you would think so.
When faced with a similar choice then it is understandable why the man before Jesus was shocked and walks away in grief because he had so many possessions and the power and prestige that went along with them. "How hard it will be," Jesus says, "for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"(MK 10) In the Kingdom world God is first and everything else second.
Now because this man was a "Bill Gates" or "Donald Trump" type, we may think that his story is not about us because we are not rich like them. But Jesus is not just poking here at "riches," but at the "desires" that drive everyone from within. Even those who are not rich are still driven by the same ego and the appetite for personal success and worth which is defined by the assets they possess and their power and influence over others.
Even with less we can be like the disciples who argue among themselves about who was the greatest. They wanted to have power and influence in the Kingdom. But Jesus said: "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."(MK 9)
As an example Jesus used children who typically have no pretense about themselves. "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God [in the spirit of] a little child will never enter it."(MK10) In God's Kingdom the drive for power and influence for oneself is not allowed. In God's world there is only one Number One and it is not us. The disciples are flabbergasted even more when Jesus says. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle that for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
"Then who can be saved?"
Jesus: "Well, for mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."
This is not just about wealth and possessions. It's about a "new definition" and "understanding" of who we are as children of God. Is our worth defined by the success we have in accumulating power and wealth for ourselves? Or is our worth defined by our relationship to God? Jesus answers this with a promise. If you give up everything to follow him then you will get it all back again plus more.
'There is no one who has left house or siblings, parents or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive back again a hundredfold now in this age –houses, siblings, moms and dads and children and fields with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life."
When you give up everything to Jesus, you get it all back again. And so what's the difference here? Why give up anything if you're going to get everything back? The difference is this. When the bounty returns it will no longer belong to us as our own. It comes back as a gift from God. Instead of thinking that it belongs to us, we have a different perspective now that everything we are and have belongs to God. We are the stewards of property belonging to God.
Jesus is not saying that we should all quit our jobs or that it's inherently evil to enjoy material comfort. What he is saying is that our worth as a human being is not defined by things or power over others. Our worth is defined by how we use what we have received. So we can enjoy things and exercise power, but we can let go too and not be enslaved to them because we depend on a higher security than that which we achieve on our own.
Earlier I mentioned that if a rich man gave up all his possessions and lived as a commoner you would think that he would no longer have any influence or power. But that isn't true. Not in God's world. The difference is that when we receive everything back power and influence are used for the good of all, not just for self.
Actually, Bill Gates and his friend Warren Buffett are doing just that. They each understand that they have received a tremendous bonus in life and now they have partnered together to give back and do something good for the world as a whole that will benefit many generations to come. We may not do as much as they, but we can follow the same pattern and use our "bonus" too regardless of size in ways that benefit the needs of the present as well as future generations.
It's a normal desire to be in the marching band of life, but then something happens to remind you of a more important commitment and the responsibilities that go with it. The rich man walked away from Jesus because in the clash between the eternal and the earthly he chose the latter. I wonder if he ever changed his mind. Did he ever come back? I think that's possible. In fact Jesus told a story to this point about a father with two sons. One said 'yes' when asked to work in the fields one day, but he never showed up. The other son said 'no, he wouldn't work' but later he changed his mind and did what he was asked. I would hope the rich man was like the second son.
More importantly though is not what the rich man did, but what we do? Following Jesus is not just a onetime decision. It's not about what we do on Sundays or special holy days because every day we choose between God and self, the earthly and the eternal. Between what we want and what God wills. In the day to day world it is in the nature of things for earthly obligations to clash with the call of Jesus and eternal life depends on which commitment overrides the other.
'For there is no one who gives up everything for the sake of Jesus and the good news who will not receive everything back again along with persecutions and sacrifices of being a servant and in the age to come – eternal life.'(Mark 10)