Mark 10:17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before Jesus, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 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.’” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 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.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Mark 10:23 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!” 24 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! 25 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.” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
Mark 10:28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 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, 30 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. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
A few weeks ago, I heard that Big John Carter, one of the members of our fellowship was going to give a TEDTalk at Massachusetts College of Arts. So I got myself all signed up and yesterday I sat down in an auditorium full of interesting people. The lights dimmed and out came the first speaker. Speaker after speaker told their story, and all of them came to points when they wondered why they cared, what was the point, am I really making a difference? Those are the kinds of questions I know I ask myself. I suspect they are questions all of us have asked in way or another. I believe it’s a set of questions that the young man in our story today is asking too. If we follow Jesus’ conversation, we begin to see one of Jesus’ bad habits: He said money is a tool not the goal.
First, Jesus makes it clear that being good is still not enough. So let’s take a moment and make a list together: what are some of the things “good girls” or “good boys”—good people don’t do?
It’s a list, right? A list largely of our culture’s making. Jesus makes a list too, from the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses. The thing about the list of things we shouldn’t do is that if we are human, we have all broken at least one commandment. Jesus reminds us that only God is completely good, and provides a way out of the guilt and shame through forgiveness. When the young man says to Jesus, “All these I have kept from my youth,” can you hear what he’s really saying, “I really want to be God’s man, to have [as he puts it] abundant life for the ages”? Even if we could keep all the rules, at the end of the day it’s not enough. There has to be something more.
Second, you’ll notice that Jesus loved this guy for wanting more, for recognizing the emptiness. The other day, I finished cleaning the bathroom. I know…I’m weird…but I really like cleaning the bathroom. I like that when I do a great job, it actually feels clean as well as looks clean. So the other day, I finished cleaning, and not even 5 minutes later someone went in to use it and did something unspeakable. Really? But isn’t that how it is with everything? No sooner do we get one thing nailed down, then something else pops up. If we get that problem solved, then something else comes up. It’s like it never ends! Sometimes, doesn’t it feel like life is just grinding us down? When that’s happening for me, I find myself getting depressed or angry or anxious or upset, or some combination of all those things. When I finally come to the point where I throw up my hands, when I stop working harder at things that aren’t really getting me anywhere, when I take a deep breath and ask, “What am I doing?” I feel like Jesus is there, smiling, saying, “Well, it’s about time!” When I ask for help, I have a sense of Jesus saying, “I was wondering when you were going to let me help.” I wonder if that’s what Mark means when he writes, “Jesus, looking on him, loved him…” When we take a moment to realize the emptiness of our path, and express how unsatisfying this is, then we are right where God wants us to be.
Finally, Jesus challenges the young man to let his stuff be tools for grace and to make God His goal. Just so you know, I really don’t like it when Jesus says things like, “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.” Instantly, I ask myself why I haven’t done that, and I start feeling guilty for having a fancy phone and a car and…and…and… Let’s be clear: that you and I are here, that many of us have vehicles and places to live and food on the table, makes us part of the 1% most wealthy people in the world. In the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, still 1 in 6 people are “food insecure” either they are hungry or they are not sure they will have enough to eat. That’s wild. The question Jesus’ response to the young man in our story forces us to ask is “Have I made gathering, organizing, using my stuff and resources the goal of my life?” Jesus asks us today to contemplate a world in which we lose all our stuff. God forbid, but what if our houses burned down today, and we were left on the street with no stuff. What would our lives be worth then? What if all our financial gain was lost overnight? What would our lives be worth then? When we think this way, we begin to realize that all we have is a gift from God, and to ask ourselves how are my resources working for God? Are there any resources that aren’t working for God? If I have a car, how am I showing grace with my car? If I have an education, how is that education a blessing to someone else? If I have financial wealth and am good at making it grow, how could my financial resources make a high impact difference in the amount of grace in the world? When Jesus suggests thinking like this, the young man goes away sad because he had lots of possessions—and they were his goal, his trophies that showed his hard work—the designer clothes and slickest phones. Give them up? Put them in God’s hands? That’s hard! Jesus said, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth 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.” It’s hard to put our lives in God’s hands, and sometimes it’s even harder to let God work change in us. What if our stuff and our wealth were tools for helping ourselves and others know that loving God and each other is the real goal in life?
I was so impressed with the people I heard at the TEDTalks yesterday. Musicians, artists, leaders, activists, trainers, especially Big John. All of them asked why they cared, what was the point, am I really making a difference? And all of them shared their discovery that they can and do make a difference, even if it’s in a small way. I left the TEDTalks yesterday, so encouraged about where the emerging generations are able to go with their determination and vision. It got me thinking about the adventures for which God has gathered us. Here we are with all the resources of experience, gifts and financial wealth at our disposal, trying to figure out how much grace we can pour into our community, not just for ourselves and our friends, but for the emerging generations—our children and grandchildren. How can this church help others who are wrestling with the emptiness and meaninglessness of our world, looking for a purpose, longing for a sense of community and a sense that, together, we are changing the world?