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Dr. George A. Purnell
October 11, 2009
“Okay, What’s it Going to Take?”
Mark 10:17-31
The gospel lesson you just heard is familiar to many of you. It is a straightforward story about a man who ran up to Jesus as he was traveling, knelt before him, and asked a question: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
(It is interesting to observe that the main character in Mark’s story is simply “a man” who “ran up” to Jesus. Matthew (young) and Luke (ruler) describe this man with other adjectives, so some identify this story as the one about “the rich young ruler,” combining the three gospel accounts.)
Notice the emphasis: what must I do? This man believes that he controls outcomes in life, and despite his place in the world, he wonders if his life has eternal worth. So he approaches Jesus and asks the question that had been eating at his soul.
Jesus first says that “no one is good but God alone” – echoing the daily prayer offered by devout Jews called the Shema. He then tells the man, “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.”
But this man’s sense of urgency and assurance is indicated by his interruption of Jesus before he can finish reciting the commandments: “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”
Still, as virtuous as this man seems to think his life has been, he was not sure he had done all he needed to do, or he would not have come as he came: a man of high standing kneeling before a poor itinerant teacher – an act of deference to the other’s wisdom and authority – asking “what must I do?”
Now it is naïve and self-righteous (not to mention untrue and obnoxious) for anyone to say they have kept the Ten Commandments. Okay, done that, can check off the commandments, now what else is it going to take? Yet Jesus – who often reacted harshly to self-righteous people (particularly the Pharisees) – doesn’t scold this man. Instead, we read: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said…”
For me this is the defining moment in the story. Jesus looked at the man. He looked with a perceptiveness that penetrated to the man’s core. He knew that the man’s need to control outcomes was a huge barrier between him and his relationship with God. He knew that the emptiness the man sought to fill could only be filled when he became willing to accept his complete dependence on God.
Jesus saw the man and loved him, and then asked something of the man that he knew he could not give: “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 knew the man would never have a First Commandment relationship (you shall have no other gods before me) with God until he became able to relinquish his possessions, which made him feel in control of life. When Jesus challenged him at that point, we read that the man “was shocked and went away grieving.” Imagining a future without the things he owned was impossible for him.
I know this person. The main character is a man in this story, because a woman would not run up to a man, kneel before him, and speak to him publicly in Mark’s culture, as this man does to Jesus. But, if written in our day, this story could just as easily have had a woman approach Jesus and ask – “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
The man in the story thinks a lot like us. Indeed, many here today fit the profile of this main character. We are responsible, conscientious, and successful. While we may not be intimately familiar with the Bible, we are familiar with its foundational teachings, such as the Ten Commandments, and we have been diligent in applying these in our daily living.
We have peeled potatoes in the kitchens of homeless shelters. We have hammered nails and helped build Habitat homes. We have traveled to take aid to victims of devastating earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes. We have opened our checkbooks and given generously, sometimes even sacrificially to our church and to other organizations that champion social justice and offer mercy.
Whether or not we like to admit it, many of us believe that we control our own destiny, much like the man in the story today. As much as we say we believe that we are saved by grace through faith and not by any works of our own, we secretly believe that God looks upon us differently than God looks at the criminal in prison or the selfish millionaire who lives extravagantly, oblivious to the needs of the poor.
We look to the good works we do and believe that we can determine how God will view us (or control the outcome), so we rest in the assurance that God will favor us over others who are less deserving.
Like the man in the story, we have many possessions.
- spacious homes outfitted with the most recent technology
- new model vehicles, outfitted with the newest in gadgetry
- access to dining, entertainment, travel and cultural enrichment opportunities
- clothing for all occasions
- access to health care and acceptance of it as an entitlement of our class
As comfortable as they make us, however, possessions can represent evil in our lives if we can’t imagine a future without them. These things seduce us, and keep us from having a relationship of complete trust with God.
It would be nice if evil wore a grotesque and repulsive mask, because then we could recognize and avoid it, and choose what is good instead.
But evil often masquerades as good. It wears the mask of being the one thing we must have to be complete, to be happy. This is the genius of the timeless truth we find in the description of the fall of humankind in Genesis. Adam and Eve have access to anything in creation, except one thing: they are denied access to the tree in the middle of the garden. They are told they cannot eat its fruit, or touch it, or they will die. So, what are they irresistibly drawn to? The only thing they cannot have.
Eve believed the serpent when it told her that she would not die if she ate the forbidden fruit. To the contrary, the serpent said: “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)
So both the man in our story and Eve in the creation story believed that they could control their destinies. They could become like God, and by their acts secure their eternity.
Jesus recognized that he had to shock the man out of this false security that had him believe that he could “do” some thing to inherit eternity.
What must I do, he asked? “You know the commandments.” Keep them, Jesus replied. Oh, you already have, you say. Okay then, there is one more thing, “sell what you own and give the money to the poor…then come, follow me.”
“When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”
Jesus’ words shocked the disciples too. We read that they were “perplexed” by what Jesus had said. “Then who can be saved,” they asked. Jesus responded: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
There is a saying that the enemy of great is good. We can begin to believe that we are enough when we are serving the hot breakfast at Shalom…when we are helping rebuild homes in New Orleans…when we pray daily and worship weekly.
But we are not enough. We can never be enough. Only God is enough.
Even a literal obedience to Jesus’ words would not be enough. Someone could sell everything in a dramatic act of discipleship, yet still cling to the self-centeredness that this teaching targets as the true obstacle to eternal life. In First Corinthians 13, the chapter on love, Paul wrote: “If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
Grace is the great leveler, thankfully, because no one among us is enough, regardless of our faithfulness. We can spend a lifetime doing everything we think is required to please God, but we know the nagging truth. We know that God knows who we are where nobody sees. We may be seen as a saint, but we know better, and God does too.
Today’s lesson is about money, and many people get nervous when the topic of money is brought up in church. Some pastors even imply that it demeans the gospel to talk about money, when in truth there is nothing more integral to the gospel of Christ than talk about money and possessions.
Jesus regularly spoke about money and possessions and their role as barriers to a relationship of complete trust with God. And he did so without apology. He had an acute awareness of human nature, because he knew that the thing we cannot let go of is the very thing we put our trust in and look to for our security. Then and now that one thing is money.
We spend our adult lives working to earn money. But if we look to money for our security, we will always feel we do not yet have enough. We fear not having enough while our families are young. We fear not having enough to provide for our children’s education. We fear not having enough to retire on, and thus become dependent on our children or others. We fear dying without having left our heirs enough to make their lives easier.
Money is important for many purposes in our lives, but it does not have the power to either secure the future or bring contentment in the present.
Are we required to sell all we own and give the money to the poor, like Jesus required of the man in our story today? No, I don’t believe we are to take that command literally.For that matter, Jesus does not make that demand of everyone. Luke tells us that Zacchaeus, a rich and corrupt tax collector, told Jesus that he would give half of all his possessions to the poor, and that was enough for Jesus to declare, “today salvation has come to this house.” (Luke 19:9)
But we are required to have no other gods before God. Keeping the first commandment is about priorities, not poverty. My prayer is that between now and November 8 we will all have prayed about and set our financial goals and priorities for 2010, and that this process will break down the barriers between us and God. Amen
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