Mark 10:17-31 (NRSV)
The Rich Man
17 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?’ 18Jesus
said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You 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;
Honour your father and mother.” ’20He said
to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’21Jesus,
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.’ 22When he
heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 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!’ 24And the
disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again,
‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It 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.’ 26They
were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be
saved?’ 27Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For
mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’ 28 Peter
began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ 29Jesus
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, 30who 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. 31But many who are first will be last and
the last will be first.’
The Rich Young Ruler is also difficult
because it is so easy to think that it refers to someone else. But it has a
message for us all. Moule points out that “… possessions can be a prison …’ Possessions
- especially those we really like – can be a prison.
The young man before Jesus, by all
accounts, was a lovely, good, upright man who had always lived a good life. But
he lacked the readiness to take risks, to give up the security of wealth for
the sake of others. Moule suggests that he also lacked the warm-hearted concern
for others because he always calculated what it would cost him.
While I am by no stretch of the
imagination ‘rich’, I fear I am afraid I am just like this!
What
is ‘eternal life’? I am sure we would all agree that it refers to life
that never ends with our Lord, but I think it also refers to something that we
experience now and not just when we die and leave this life. You will remember
that flippant little comment that, as Christians, we experience not only ‘… pie
in the sky when we die, but also steak on the plate while we wait …’ Moule
suggests that we cannot have ‘real’ life without being prepared to lose life.
Jesus uses the proverb of a camel
going through the eye of a needle and suggests that it would be easier for this
to happen than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God! This is because
attachment to possessions will hold them back. This is a telling comment,
because I believe it means that our attachment to things of this world can rob
us of real blessing even now and even for those of us who are followers of
Christ. But the good news is that God can release us from this when we are
reminded and have a glimpse of the real love of God. This was the experience of
people like St Francis of Assisi who ‘… suddenly caught sight of the love of
God …’ and as a result possessions became irrelevant. When I teach the Year 8
classes about the life and ministry of Mother Teresa, I always became aware of this
yet again. When she died, all she had was two saris, a bucket (in which to wash
the one she was not wearing) a pair of sandals and a cheap pen; but she was
rich, because she had glimpsed the love of God in Christ.
Moule points out that Jesus is not saying
that the only remedy is to give everything away – he is saying that we must
possess our possessions rather than let them possess us. You will probably
remember that excellent little book that really touched us when we were
undergraduates, Richard Foster’s “A celebration of discipline”. He tells of
being set free from his possessions by, when feeling that the attachment was
becoming a problem, he gives them away.
Sometimes the rich need to keep their
riches ‘… and bear the burden of using them wisely for the kingdom of God …’
but ‘burden’ is the right word for this is indeed what they can so easily
become.
What a powerful thought. We are so
blessed by all the good things we have, but we must not ever let them possess
us.
So far, I have reflected on this passage
using the wisdom of C F D Moule, but I now return to Barclay for my inspiration;
and once again I am so blessed by this Godly man’s insight.
The young man ‘… ran up …’ to Jesus
and was keen and enthusiastic – he also flattered Jesus by calling him ‘good’.
Jesus needed to do a number of important things in the interests of this lovely
young man: he needed to make sure that he was not taken away by the emotion of
the moment and he needed to make sure that he focused on God and not Jesus the
man. We need to hear this because it is so easy for young people to like us as
we are blessed in being popular with them – but they must not commit to us –
they must commit to God.
People today also fall into the trap
of thinking that being respectable is enough. I have often heard it said: “I am
a good person [meaning respectable], so if there is a God, I will be okay!” The
commandments Jesus tested the young man on, are all those that refer to not
doing anything bad to anyone else. Barclay writes: “Respectability, on the
whole, consists in not doing things.”
But being a disciple of Jesus means much more than this and says (in Barclay’s
words):
“Get
out of this moral respectability. Stop looking at goodness as consisting in not
doing things. Take yourself, take all that you have, and spend yourself and
your possessions for others. Then you will find true happiness inn time and in
eternity.”
The man had never defrauded anyone, he
had never stolen but neither had he ever been, nor could he make himself be
positively and sacrificially generous. Being a Christian is not only about
being respectable; it is about living for others. The young man could not do
this!
I am wary of some evangelism that can
focus on emotion, experience alone and personality; true evangelism includes
the great cost of discipleship.
Jesus looked at the rich young man and
loved him. He was not angered by the young man’s response, he just felt deeply
for him. He was probably also sad for him, knowing that he was going to miss
out on so much.
The disciples were shocked and amazed
and this is simply because what Jesus was saying went against everything that
society held to be true at the time (and sometimes even in some Christian
circles today). They believed that if a person was prosperous, it meant that
they were being blessed by God – ‘… prosperity was the sign of a good man …’ they
did not see the danger of prosperity:
(i)
Material
possessions fix one’s life on the things of this world rather than on the
things of God. “These are the things that make it difficult to die …”
(ii)
Material things
make us think of everything in terms of price. (This makes me think that even
the great C F D Moule probably read Barclay!) Living this way means that we
lose sight of what really has value. The best things in life have no price and
so money simply cannot buy – the most precious being our salvation.
Probably
most importantly, the rich young man mistakenly thought he could earn his way
into God’s favour. If salvation did depend on human effort, then it is
impossible. But salvation is God’s gift – for all things are possible to God.
The person who trusts in themselves and their possessions can never be saved.
Dear fellow Christian,
Thank you for reading my humble offerings.
I hope that you will find them to be of some help, especially those who are preparing
to lead worship and preach next Sunday. They are a little rough at the edges, but
form the basis for my sermon preparation for next week. I would love to hear from
you and enjoy your fellowship. If any are interested in making contact, but do not
wish to sign up, please make contact to: d.owen@lesgrammar.org
God bless you,
David
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