Scripture Mark 10:17-31 (NRSVUE)
As [Jesus] 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.”
Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus 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 who 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. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Sermon
The story I’ve just shared with you is usually referred to as the story of the Rich Young Man. One of the first questions I was asked about that in Bible Study was, “Where does it say he’s young?” and I was stumped. It doesn’t say that in our story. I looked as Matthew and Luke’s versions of this episode, and it doesn’t say that in either of them. I’ve concluded that we infer it because the man rushes up to see Jesus—he runs to him, and he kneels before him. Having knelt in the ladies’ room on the Loder Avenue side of the building this week, and then having gotten up, I can tell you based on the kneeling alone, I would testify to the man’s youth. And, of course, there’s also the running.
If only the rest of the passage were that easy to understand. This is a passage that has caused no end of consternation among readers and hearers, ever since the words recorded here left Jesus’ mouth. Jesus is making an impossible ask: that we should sell all our possessions, and give the proceeds to the poor, so that we can follow him. How do we do that? I’m here to tell you that preachers over these last nearly two thousand years have done backbends trying to make this passage better, make it easier, make it doable. Or at least, make it so that we can all have some hope that we can be faithful followers of Jesus ourselves. Other sermons have enumerated in detail the many ways this was done—everything from the entirely fictional “Eye of the Needle” gate in the Temple wall, to casting aspersions on this young man as insincere, to the Hail Mary pass of “For God all things are possible.”
I propose to address this passage by looking at seventeen words, or, more specifically, three words and four phrases we find here. I think these words can lead us somewhere useful. I think these words can lead us to hope.
Our first word is “inherit.” It’s an odd word here, and it’s translated differently in the gospel of Matthew, where we read “what… must I do to have eternal life?” Time to look up the New Testament Greek. It turns out the word being translated is something like “tenanting,” as in, being a tenant, or “enjoying the allotment of.” The young man is envisioning eternal life as the place he wants to be, a dwelling place. A quick reminder that for Jesus, as for all the others in the gospel who use the phrase, “eternal life” is never only about the afterlife. It’s always about a quality of life that begins here, and now. The rich young man longs to dwell in eternal life, to dwell in connection with God.
Our second word is “good,” and it seems to offend Jesus. The young man has called him “Good Teacher,” and he immediately responds, Why do you call me good? Only God is good!” And he’s right! Of course, no one is perfect, or perfectly good, except for God. We may do good things, but we are all fallible, we are all flawed. We can’t measure up to God’s absolutely pure and unreproachable goodness.
Our third word is “commandments.” In response to the young man’s question, Jesus replies, “You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery…” etc. etc. Here’s something I find interesting about these commandments. They are all about our relationships with other people. Jesus does not mention the “Love God, do not make idols, do not take God’s name in vain” commandments. Only those that have to do with how we treat the people we encounter every day, whether in business, in leisure, at work, at home. Jesus cares, God cares, about how we treat one another.
On to the phrases. Our first phrase is, “Jesus…loved him.” Whatever we might be tempted to think about the rich young man, Jesus loved him. Jesus saw his faith, saw his earnest desire to do good, to be good, and saw that he was very, very close to what he longed for: eternal life with God, beginning immediately.
Our second phrase is, “sell what you own.” This is where this passage starts to feel personal. Beginning with this command, and continuing through the rest of the passage, Jesus makes it clear that he believes wealth and possessions are a stumbling block for those of us who want to be closer to God. And it’s not an accident that Jesus directs that the proceeds from the sale should go to the poor. There are two things happening here: one for the benefit of the rich young man, and the other for the benefit of the poor. Their fates are bound together.
What is it about wealth and possessions? I guess I’ll just give one example. Consider the smart phone. A tiny computer anyone can carry and use any time. With my phone I can open my Shazam app and find out the name and artist of the song that’s playing in a restaurant or a grocery store. I can open my Audible app and lose myself in the book I am currently reading. I can open the Pray as You Go app and start my day with scripture, beautiful music, and a guided meditation. I can open my New York Times app and get the latest news on the hurricanes, the elections, and find a fast and easy recipe for the middle of the week. This little item is powerful. It has the power to entrance me—to keep me reading until I fall asleep with it in my hand and it slips to the floor. It can buzz during dinner so that I look away from the person next to me who’s telling a story and focus, instead, on the text I just got or the breaking news about Israel, Gaza, and Hezbollah. I can spend literally hours absorbed in the information and conveniences it provides. And all that can crowd God right out of my life, if I’m not careful.
I believe Jesus’ concerns about wealth and possessions is the amount of time we must spend managing them, caring for them, being absorbed by them, and moving them around. Do these interfere with our connection with God? Is there space in our lives for God? And if there’s not, it’s at least a small possibly that it’s our possessions that have taken our focus away from the one who created us, saves us, and sustains us.
Our third phrase is, “follow me.” One thing that occurred to us at Bible Study—Peter helps us to see this—is that Jesus is asking the young man to do exactly as all the other apostles have done: leave everything behind and follow him. They have left family, friends, jobs, houses, spouses, and, yes, their possessions, to follow Jesus. It sounds as if Jesus wants this young man—whom he already loves—to join his band of wandering teachers and healers. It’s true that most of the twelve apostles were not wealthy when Jesus called to them “Follow me,” but a few were. Certainly, Matthew the tax collector would have had to give up the lucrative scheme that his job was.
One more thing about “follow me.” Where would the rich young man be following Jesus, exactly? He’d be following him to Jerusalem, to the cross. Mark’s gospel has made it clear that Jesus and his followers are on the way, a symbolic statement that became the name of the early followers of Jesus—people of The Way. Not just a journey, as Mark’s gospel translates it—making it sound as though it were a merry caravan to a great celebration. On the way. One way. Jesus isn’t asking the young man to do anything he’s not already done himself: following God’s beckoning to Jerusalem and his fate.
Our last phrase is the one I described as a Hail Mary pass. For those of you who don’t know that phrase, my first encounter of it goes back to Doug Flutie, but I know it originated with Roger Staubach in the 1970’s. A Wikipedia articled describes it as a long forward pass, thrown in desperation, very unlikely to succeed. Thus, the use of the “Hail Mary,” a Catholic prayer for strength and help “at the hour of our death.” Flutie was a quarterback who arrived at Boston College the year after I graduated, and who promptly became the backbone of the team. On November 23, 1984, Boston College was losing to Miami, 45-41, with six seconds left in the game. Flutie, a 5’9” sophomore, threw a 63-yard pass to teammate Gerard Phelan, who was standing in the end zone, unprotected, because no one on the Miami team thought Flutie could throw that far. Turns out he could.
“For God, all things are possible.” This is our last phrase. Jesus has been talking for quite a few minutes about how it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to get into heaven, and more things of that nature. But then he tosses this sentence downfield. He says, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God, all things are possible.” Which, in one way, can have us all mopping our brows with relief, much like Doug Flutie’s coach must have been after that saving throw.
But the heart of Jesus’ concerns are still there, and this, I believe, is what we are left with. God loves us, yes. God wants the best for us. Always. God wants us to live in union with God, not only in the afterlife, but in this life. So, what, if anything, is keeping us from responding to God’s gracious invitation? Or, to put it another way, what is holding such a large space in our lives that we might need to curb or limit or even rid ourselves of it, if we want to find ourselves as close to God as we long to be?
For the rich young man, it was his possessions, and his wealth. It may well be the same for us. What is taking up all the space in our souls? What is capturing our focus most of every day? What is the thing to which we, by our actions, reveal we are most committed? Let it be God. Let it be God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.