Enter
Mark 10:17-31
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In the passage right before ours in Mark’s Gospel this morning, we find Jesus, much to everyone’s consternation, not just tolerating, but welcoming the little children. Welcoming those who in that culture were the least important. And then, as Jesus does, he takes things a step further in elevating the least of our world by saying that “whoever does not enter the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”
Continuing this world-flipping exploration of who can enter the Kingdom of God and how, we move to our passage this morning which tells the story of a rich man. In other Gospels he’s identified as a ruler, but here in Mark he’s only identified as rich. And being rich, he is important. The polar opposite of the little children Jesus had just welcomed.
In that culture, and I think also in ours, there was an assumption that wealth indicated God’s favor and blessing. The rich young man here is exactly who those early followers of Jesus expected to see at the front of the line into the Kingdom.
And once again Jesus perplexes the crowd. Hear now, with open hearts, God’s words for you this morning:
Mark 10:17-31
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?” 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[c] 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.
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[d] 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,[e] “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.”
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,[f] 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 couple weeks ago I read a story about a pharmaceutical executive who quadrupled the price of an essential antibiotic to nearly $2500 a bottle, claiming that it is his moral obligation to sell medicine for as much as he can because it’s a business.
I also learned that apparently, the three wealthiest people in the US have a combined wealth that is around the same amount as the poorest half of our country.
You see - there is always someone with more money, or someone more obviously corrupted by money, to point fingers at when we read this passage. Those are the people Jesus is challenging, right?
We read this passage and about the only thing we can do is find ways to manage it, explanations to tame it, interpretations to soften the impact. I mean, all of us came here this morning wearing nice clothes. Most of us probably drove cars here from warm homes. Clearly none of us have followed Jesus words here all the way to their literal end.
And so, there are all sorts of paths that we find to take around the meaning this morning.
We can look to somebody with more wealth and assume this message is for them, you know, for the rich.
We can suggest that Jesus knew the specific weakness of the specific rich man he was talking to. For him, money was a problem and so he needed to sell his possessions. But maybe for me money’s not my problem. Maybe for me it’s chocolate?
Or, we can soften it with the interpretive magic of other scholars who, when Jesus says it’s harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, like to say that there was a very low gate in Jerusalem that was sometimes called the eye of the needle – and camels would struggle to get through it, but it was definitely doable! The rich CAN enter the kingdom, but you might have to unload the camel a little.
Or we can follow the lead of ancient scribes and add a couple words, so Jesus doesn’t say how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom, but instead, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom. We can have all the riches we want as long as we don’t trust in them.
Or at the end of the day, we can say that all of this sounds exactly as difficult as Jesus meant it, but his purpose was only to expose our shortcomings – to show us our need for God and the futility of trying too hard since we’ll never be perfect. We don’t need to sell our things, we just need to repent.
Perhaps there’s a kernel of truth in some of these. But all of these explanations blunt the full force of what Jesus asks this rich young man to do, this command that makes all of us so uncomfortable. Go, sell all of your possessions, give to the poor, then follow me.
Of course, history is peppered with examples of those who have taken this literally. We think of St. Francis of Assisi and his dramatic renunciation of riches, rejecting his father’s wealth from the lucrative Italian cloth trade.
We think of Mother Teresa and her life in the streets of Calcutta. We think of countless others who have done exactly this, in radical ways that challenge us, perplex us, and inspire us.
It seems that the first hearers of this teaching were just as astounded by it as we are. And as per usual, Peter was the first one to speak up, his mouth running faster than his brain, saying to Jesus: “Look! WE have left everything and followed you!”
And Jesus says, “good job! You get a gold star, Peter!”
Not exactly
No, at this point Jesus takes a surprise turn and says something unexpected about family.
He looks at Peter, and says: 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,[f] 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
It seems that Jesus isn’t calling us so much into a life of asceticism, but into a new community. Family is expanded. Community is redefined. It includes all - and with it, the persecutions and burdens that they carry.
When Jesus answers the rich man’s question about how one is able to enter the Kingdom, he doesn’t just say he needs to sell all of his possessions. But he says he also needs to give to the poor.
But he doesn’t just say he needs to give to the poor, he says he needs to understand them as family.
It’s a call not to charity but to solidarity and kinship.
When we see others through the lens of God’s Kingdom, when we know our unity and understand our deep connection to all people – the gift of that kind of community will also be costly.
When we think of the ways that we care and sacrifice for our own families, and then extend that out to the hundredfold brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields that Jesus promises upon our entrance to the Kingdom, well….that very well might cost us the price of all our possessions!
This renegotiated understanding of family, this counter-cultural kind of Kingdom community asks those of us with privilege to look with clear eyes at the way systems that we have benefitted from have oppressed our brothers and sisters. You see, in God’s Kingdom, privilege gets flipped upside down. The last shall be first. The first shall be last.
So, perhaps the question for us this morning is about how we understand our responsibility to each other. Perhaps it’s a question about who we understand as family and who we exclude.
Maybe Jesus’ words this morning draw forth a confession of how easy it has become for us to walk right on by the suffering of others.
When the ‘other’ actually becomes family, we have to take notice. We have to stop and listen. We have to care and advocate. That’s what family does.
Maybe this morning the question on offer is about how Jesus asks us to share our privilege in ways that might cost us – financially, socially, politically. This is not simply a question over selling possessions or giving to charity, those are the easier things to do.
No, Jesus here challenges the entire system that allows for some to profit at the expense of others. Gender. Race. Class. This is a giving away of power as much as it is about possessions. The Kingdom of God is all kinds of upside down.
I don’t know what this passage speaks to you this morning. I think it might ask all of us different questions. And I think it’s good to leave the loose ends untied so they can continue to work their way into our hearts and minds.
We don’t even know how this story ends. Everyone assumes that the rich young man walks away grieving and never comes back. But the text never says that.
A professor of mine in seminary had a theory that he makes another appearance as the mysterious random young man who runs naked through the garden when Jesus is arrested at the end of Mark’s Gospel – literally following Jesus with zero possessions. It’s all conjecture, of course. The only thing we know for sure about this young man is that Jesus loved him and with God nothing is impossible.
And so with this rich young man this morning, let us hear with open hearts and clear eyes, the challenge and the cost, as well as the hundredfold gift of entrance into God’s kingdom, where belonging is redefined, isolation is swallowed up by community, where nobody is left behind. And this, not just a promise in the age to come, but a reality to work for here and now, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.