Mark 10:17-31
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?” 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.”
So this man comes to Jesus because he’s sick, abundant life choked out by his many possessions, such that even a righteous life doesn’t satisfy but still leaves him feeling empty. And Jesus, out of love for this man, tells him to give away what he has.
Except he doesn’t just tell him to give away what he has. He tells him to give it to the poor. Which means that, according to Jesus, our life is inextricably bound up with that of others. We have difficulty receiving abundant life without committing ourselves to the wellbeing of others.
Can we imagine that? That our wellbeing is intimately tied to the wellbeing of others?
This is not the imagination that animates our culture. We live in a world shaped by an imagination of scarcity where there is never enough and all of life therefore becomes a kind of never-ending competition. It is social Darwinism where only the fittest survive by accumulating and controlling scare resources.
Yet when this man asks how he might inherit eternal life, Jesus points him 180 degrees away from a model of scarcity and invites him to delight in his wealth by giving it to those who are poor. This isn’t, I think, simply divestment of riches or a call to a simpler life or even a warning about the love of money. This is a call to recognize that we – all of us – are in this together. That God cares for all of us. That we are, truly, brother and sister to one another and that our happiness and joy is therefore bound part and parcel with that of those around us.
Riches, countless recent studies have shown, tend to isolate us from those who are poor, insulate us from their conditions and need, and, over time, make us less sensitive to their pain and even their humanity. When we give what we have – freely, joyfully, sacrificially – to those in need we don’t only help them, we help ourselves by entering into the fuller humanity that God created us to enjoy together.
So this man comes to Jesus because he’s sick, abundant life choked out by his many possessions, such that even a righteous life doesn’t satisfy but still leaves him feeling empty. And Jesus, out of love for this man, tells him to give away what he has to the poor, for only as he joins himself in solidarity to those around him can he, indeed, inherit abundant and eternal life.
Imagine.
Prayer: Dear God, renew in us the joy that comes from sharing all that we have with those around us, and keep us alive and sensitive to the need and bounty, the sorrow and joys, of our neighbor. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reminded me of those things which we all too often forget. Also, it hearkened back to Jay B. McDaniel’s essay “The Passion of Christ: Grace both Red and Green”-
“But one thing is clear: we cannot be saved alone. Part of being saved lies in awakening to our connections with others, cognizant that we are gathered together in a network of inter-being. If someone asks, “Are you saved?” we should not say “Yes” or “No.” We should say, “Sometimes, but you better ask my neighbors, too. If they are still suffering, I’m not saved either. We are in it together.””
Thanks for your always timely, powerful, and Spirit-filling words.
Great quotation, Jonathan. Thanks for sharing.