Mark 10:17-31
This morning we begin with sobering news, but I promise we end with wonderful news!
Today’s passage from Mark looks at an important area in our life that can get in the way of receiving the Kingdom of God – money. However, this passage could also be called the Gospel of our First Love.
The rich young man thought he was good in every way; except his first love was not God.
But when reading this passage we need to be a bit cautious! The danger is to assume things that Jesus doesn’t at all say.
‘I must give away everything and live as a hermit!’ Not so. “Jesus will reward me a hundred-fold for what I give as my church offering!” Certainly not so, as if generosity were an investment.
Last week we spoke about how the Kingdom of God is something that is received as a child receives all things from their parent. It is not something to be attained by doing certain things, or ticking certain religious boxes. Enter the Rich young man from today’s gospel.
He ran up to Jesus, knelt before him and asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life? Good teacher’ V.17), what must I do. Now, he came to the right person, didn’t he? He came the right way—he ran and knelt before him.
He respected Jesus. He was like so many who came to Jesus before, falling at his feet, begging for help.
He had been greatly blessed by God with wealth and had everything; except hope. God has placed in our hearts this desire for eternal life, in everyone’s heart. Some may not believe it, yet they want it.
Jesus gave him an answer, yet he walked away grieving or sorrowful. From optimism to sorrow in seconds, what happened? Well, he came to Jesus to ask a question, but he wouldn’t follow him to find the answer.
He wants to know what to do. Jesus tells him. Look at their conversation in verses 19-20. Jesus summarises the 10 commandments. God’s law. The man says he’s obeyed them from his youth.
Now notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, ‘No, you haven’t.’ He doesn’t say that at all. By outward appearances, this young man is not what we would call a bad person. And that was his problem.
He was trusting in his goodness, and he thought there was some other good he could do to inherit eternal life. It turns out the rich young man did not love the Lord his God with all his strength. The word here, ‘strength’ or ‘might,’ in the Hebrew means your wealth and power.
Jesus actually named for the rich young man his false God!
Jesus effectively says to the rich young man, “If you’ve obeyed the law, obey this. If you call me Good and only God is Good, obey this. Make me your only possession. Attach your life to me alone. Jesus gives the young man a list of explicit instructions on what he had to do.
Go. Sell. Give. Come. Follow.
Then you’ll have eternal life because you’ll have me. I am the way, and the truth, and the life. I am the Kingdom of God.
He was looking for some spiritual something to add to his life. But Jesus doesn’t work like that. Jesus doesn’t point us in the direction of the way to go. Jesus is the way. He will destroy fundamentally change a false life and remake it in himself.
Christianity isn’t an add-on; it’s a whole new life. If we want eternal life, it comes only through the life God gives by his Son, through his Spirit.
The rich young man goes away very sad because he can’t do what Jesus told him to inherit eternal life. There is nothing any of us can do to earn us eternal life.
The question in this whole passage is not so much about money, but the nature of blessing; specifically, the blessing of eternal life.
Now, in Israel, a camel was the biggest animal. The eye of a needle was the smallest opening. Jesus is saying, ‘You know what’s absolutely impossible? That big camel fitting through that tiny hole. You know what’s even more impossible? Earning a ticket to heaven.’
If we could earn it, the cross means nothing
What is it that is Jesus doing? He’s telling us that eternal life is something we can only receive through himself. This is the central message of many of Paul’s letters. When we try to prove how good we are, we are just Iike a camel, lumpy with unrighteousness, trying to fit through the narrow holiness God requires.
Does this mean that we all need to give away all our possessions to gain life eternal? No. Jesus was naming this particular person’s false God. For most of us probably aren’t very wealthy.
But we may have something else that we might be tempted to put before God, which is why Jesus says, just as it is impossible for a camel to enter the eye of the needle, with humans it is impossible to enter eternal life if we have another love before Christ Jesus.
The rich young man was “shocked” (v.22). The disciples were “greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?” (v.26).
Now here is the good news! Jesus then says, “but all things are possible with God.” What sort of things? I wondered when writing this sermon.
I went through the gospel of Mark up to today’s passage and at a very quick count there are at least nineteen impossible things that Jesus has done, and we still have six chapters in Mark to go, including the resurrection. From making a paralytic walk, to feeding well over 5,000 people with a few loaves and a couple of fish.
So just so far in Mark’s gospel, we see that for all our impossibility, Jesus has silos full of possibility. Jesus came to make a way and become the way. With man it is impossible, but not with God. Not with Jesus.
“Then who can be saved?” The disciples asked. Well, we all can. But before I can be saved, Jesus must deal with me – the real me - not the dressed-up me.
And here’s the thing. After the rich young man said he’d kept the law, which Jesus knew he hadn’t, look what it says in v.21. “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”
Why did Jesus love him? Or rather, when did Jesus love him? Did he love him when he came in reverence, falling at his feet? Did he love him after he called him Good Teacher? Well, yes, Jesus loved him then, but that’s not when Mark mentions it. He mentions it after the man said he obeyed the law. Why then?
Because Jesus loves us in our most vulnerable place. The very place where we are the farthest from God is the very place Jesus loves us most, because he came to die for that sin. He came to redeem you from it.
Let’s go back to the rich man’s question that initiated this whole incident: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” His question already hints at a deeper answer. What can anyone do in order to inherit anything? Inheritance is more about belonging to a family than earning something, and this explains what is going on in vv. 28-30.
Leaving everything and following Jesus, as Peter says the disciples have done, brings them into a new family. This household of God is an incredibly rich present reality. It is also a future reality characterized by fullness of life where first and last will no longer have any relevance.
Finally, keep in mind that for an inheritance to be given and experienced, someone has to die. How can this be? It is thanks be to Jesus who did just that, that all things are possible with God! Let me pray ...