The Goods

Mark 10:17-31

October 14, 2018

            Let’s assume from the very beginning of this sermon that Jesus was speaking absolutely and unequivocally truthfully. I know, I know, some of you – perhaps all of you – are thinking,

            “Amy, I always assume that Jesus was speaking absolutely and unequivocally truthfully.”

            I have no quarrel with that. I would claim it as well. But stick with me on this. Let’s all assume that Jesus was speaking absolutely truthfully in our passage from Mark. And with that assumption in mind, let us hear again these words.

            “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.’”

            Are you still assuming it’s all true? And if you are, how are you feeling right about now? I’ll be honest with you. I’m a little nervous. I’m more than a little uncomfortable, because while I am not rich I have a lot of stuff. I own a lot of things. I have a life filled with possessions. And I promise you that when I leave here today I am not going to go out, sell my possessions, and give the money to the poor. I’m not. However, as I have also agreed to assume that what Jesus says is true, I will leave here disturbed by his words and struggling with what to do with them.

            What do we do with these words, these unsettling and disturbing words about riches and wealth and the kingdom of God? First of all, let me share with you something that I learned only this past week. If you have ever been told in a sermon, perhaps one delivered by me, that the eye of a needle was a small gate into the city of Jerusalem, used for camels, it’s not true. There was no such gate. There is no evidence that any kind of gate like this ever existed. According to commentators and biblical scholars, this was made up in the nineteenth century to spiritualize this text. Why? Because thinking that Jesus was referring to an actual narrow gate makes his words sting a little less.

            And that’s what we want. We want his words to sting a little less; because when it comes to wealth and possessions, this story about Jesus’ encounter with the rich man stings. We don’t know anything about this man other than what we read in the gospels. Sometimes referred to as the “rich, young ruler,” in Mark’s gospel we only hear him referred to as a man. But whether we call him the rich, young ruler or just know him as a man of means, the way he approached Jesus was interesting.

            He clearly was not a man looking to trick or ensnare Jesus as the Pharisees did. He knelt before Jesus. The people who knelt before Jesus were the ones in need of healing, either for themselves or someone they loved. The Syrophoenician woman who begged Jesus to heal her child knelt before him. Jairus knelt before Jesus and begged him to help his daughter. To kneel was to prostrate ones’ self. It was a gesture of humility and pleading. The rich man knelt before Jesus. Clearly, he was seeking something he could not find on his own. He was driven by a need that his wealth and possessions could not fill.

            So he ran up to Jesus, knelt before him and asked the question, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

            Jesus’ initial response seems strange.

            “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”

            Was Jesus engaging in mutual humility? Or was he pointing out to this man who had plenty of goods that the real source of goodness was not found in people, not even in Jesus; nor was it found in possessions, in stuff? The real source of good, of the good, was only found in God. God alone is good. So even to refer to Jesus as good was to miss the mark.

            Jesus went on to say, you know your commandments. You know what they are. You shall not murder or commit adultery or steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall honor your mother and father. Jesus added a commandment; one that we don’t find in the original Decalogue. He also said, “You shall not defraud.”

            Did Jesus say this because this man gained his wealth through the defrauding of others? Were his words based on an understanding that many of those who were wealthy were so because of exploitation of others? We don’t know. Again, that’s what Jesus said, and we are assuming that everything Jesus said was true.

            The man answered Jesus saying that he obeyed all the commandments. He followed the Law. He was not guilty of transgression against any of them. Then Mark tells us something that we do not hear in any of other gospel accounts, nor do we hear this in any story about Jesus.

            “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”

            Jesus looked at this man, this rich man, who we assume had goods to spare, and loved him. He loved him.

            Jesus 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.”

            Jesus looked at this man. Jesus loved this man. And Jesus saw that even with all this man had, with all that he owned, he still lacked something. He lacked something that money and possessions could not fill. Perhaps it was that lack, that need that drove this man to Jesus in the first place. Perhaps deep down the man realized that he was lacking, that he had a void in his life that could not be filled by stuff or things or wealth.

            “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.”

            There are so many things to be unpacked in this story, so many levels of meaning in which to dive deeply. I could preach twenty sermons on it, and that’s a good thing. This story pushes us not only to reexamine how we see wealth, but also to consider how we see the poor. To be honest, this story is not just about what Jesus said to some man a long time ago, it is about what he says to us right now. It was not just the man who was shocked and grieved by Jesus’ words, all the others around them were shocked as well. To be rich was a sign of blessing. To be poor was a sign of God’s disfavor, even God’s curse. Are we that much different today? Isn’t poverty more often viewed as a moral failing and wealth a result of doing all the right things?

            Jesus did not chastise the man or reprove of him because of his wealth per se. But he called him to see that his wealth, his possessions; the goods that he set such store by were not really what was good. Only God is good. All good comes from God, not in spite of God. Jesus did not condemn the man’s wealth nor did he condemn the man. Jesus looked at him and loved him, and asked him to see good in something else, something bigger, something better.

            Sell all that you own, give the money to the poor, then come and follow me.

            Jesus called the man to be in a new relationship with the people around him, and Jesus called him to be in relationship with him. Get rid of what distracts you. Give away what binds you, and follow me. In Mark’s gospel especially, faith is not assenting to or ascribing to doctrine or a set of rules. Faith is about following. Faith is about relationship. If there is something that prevents you from following or being in relationship, then let it go, give it up, give it away. All those possessions, all those goods, they are nothing in light of being in relationship with Jesus; of being in relationship with our good and loving God.

            What Jesus said was true, and we have to wrestle with his truth. We have to live with it. I’ve already said that I won’t leave here today, sell what I own and give that money to the poor. I know that. But that does not excuse me from taking Jesus’ words about wealth and following and faith seriously. I cannot spiritualize this story away. I cannot write it off as being something different from what Jesus actually said. For the rest of my life, I have to face the fact that what I own can get in the way of how I live with others, how I treat others, and how I walk in relationship and faith with God.

            Yet here is the good news. Jesus looked at that man and loved him. Jesus looks at us and loves us. Jesus loves us, in spite of the fact that we can so easily fail to follow him, regardless of how many times we, like that man, walk away from him. Jesus loves us in spite of ourselves, and what is impossible for us is never, ever impossible for God. Thanks be to God. Amen.