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Monday, October 22, 2018

The One Thing You Lack (Mark 10:17-31)

I didn't get to post this last week because I was out of town.  So here it is today, my sermon from 10/14/2018.  Also today, I will post yesterday's sermon (10/21/18), and a reflection from my experience last week at the New Baptist Covenant Summit in Atlanta.

  



          The disciples heard what Jesus said, and they could not believe it!  Then, he said it again, more forcefully.
            What did Jesus say and why did it shock them so much?

            Jesus was in the region of Judea, beyond the Jordan River.  This is a period of history in which everyone traveled by foot.  You walked everywhere.  So you traveled at a walking pace.  Today, if some teacher set up and began to teach on the side of Interstate 40, the people whizzing by at 70 mph would not even notice.  In 30 AD it was common for itinerant teachers to teach spontaneously along the roadside.  When they did, they always drew a crowd. Those passing by were not headed to a movie theater or a stadium to watch a game or to the downtown shopping district.  The roadside preacher was a welcome amusement whether or not you liked what he had to say. 
            Most people liked what Jesus had to say, or were at least intrigued by it.  His teaching was both familiar and new.  He challenged his listeners even as he entertained them with humor.  He gave wisdom and truth.  And his teaching was powered by the Holy Spirit of God.  “Crowds gathered around him,” Mark writes, “and as was his custom, he again taught them” (10:1).
           
            This is what’s happening when Mark writes, “a man ran up and knelt before him.”  Jesus has just again collided with Pharisees; he was intent on teaching the Law in a way that gave people life and joy; the Pharisees wanted to use the Law to trap him (10:2-12).  Jesus won the rhetorical duel and laid down strict prohibitions against divorce in the process.  Then he welcomed the messy, chaotic joy of children leaping on and about him, and reprimanded his disciples who tried to keep the children at arm’s reach. 
            So, we see him clashing with authority, teaching strict adherence to the Law of Moses, and at the same time upsetting the social order by elevating the voiceless – children.  Now, a zealous man has made a show of kneeling before Jesus to tout his own righteousness.  He heaps flattery upon him because he wants to hear Jesus say, “O wise, righteous man, you are already bound for the kingdom of God.”
            Jesus does not say that.  Instead, he calls the man out for the flowery words. “Why do you call me good?  No one is good but God alone” (v.18).  The disciples have already heard demons call him “the holy one of God” (1:24).  Mark is not, at this point in the story, asserting Jesus’ divinity.  He’s hinting at it.  And this is another of those hints.  Jesus says this, “no one is good but God alone,” for his disciples’ benefit.  And Mark situates Jesus’ statement for his readers’ benefit.  The disciples knew Jesus was good.  They had seen it over and over. We, Mark’s readers know Jesus is good.  We’ve seen it and many of us have experienced it.  Get the hint?  The man who ran up kneeling and asking and boasting did not.
            Jesus tells him the path to the kingdom is one he already knows.  He must keep the Law of Moses.  In a statement of bald arrogance so glaring it’s hard to believe the man could blurt it out with a straight face he says, “I have!”  I have obeyed the laws of God since I was a kid.  That’s not true of anyone.  We all have moments when we lie or we steal or we gossip or we covet something our neighbor has or we fail to honor our parents or we ignore the Sabbath.  The one who honestly thinks he has totally kept the law lives in the worst kind of self-delusion.
            Jesus doesn’t call this man on his absurd claim.  If that man wants to live in a reality in which he observes the Law perfectly, Jesus will join him in that fantasy.  Jesus wants this man to hear the truth so clearly that he cannot miss it even hiding behind the walls of self-delusion he’s constructed.  Jesus looks at him and loves him.  He doesn’t want to hurt this man.  He wants to free him.
            “You lack one thing.”
            Now, we have to pay close attention to the action.  This man ran up to Jesus.  Knelt before him.  Asked his question, a clearly self-aggrandizing question.  And for good measure, he boasted of his own righteousness.  That’s the action so far.
            Now Jesus gives him new actions to take. “Go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, and follow me” (10:21).  Go!  Sell!  Give!  Come!  Follow!
            Suddenly the man of action isn’t running any more.  Suddenly the man of obedience who has kept all of God’s laws since his youth, isn’t obeying any more.  Upon hearing what Jesus said, he is shocked.  He wanted to be promised Heaven.  But he didn’t want to change his life.  He wanted praise and promises from the great teacher who had again and again outshined the Pharisees in rhetorical flourish.  The great teacher doesn’t give what he wanted.  And he is a rich man.  One of the things to know about rich people is they usually get what they want. 
            “You lack one thing!”  Jesus says to him.  He says that to every one of us; to you; to me.  What is that one thing we lack?
            Two things we must avoid are diluting this story and diverting this story.  We dilute the story when we find ways to lessen the blow.  In verse 23 Jesus says, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”  Then in verse 25 he drives the point home.  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a wealthy person to enter the kingdom of God.”  The disciples and most people in their day believed material wealth was a sign of God’s blessing.  Wealthy people had to be closer to God; it’s why they were rewarded with wealth.  So, if what Jesus says is right, that it is impossible for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom, then certainly poor fishermen and villagers will be left out.  “Greatly astound they said to one another, ‘who can be saved’” (v.26)?
            Unable to tolerate such a conclusion, we find ways to convince ourselves that Jesus didn’t really mean that.  I even had a college professor who researched and discovered that there was indeed a gate called the “Eye of the Needle” gate, which was quite narrow.  Getting camels that gate was quite hard, but not impossible.  My professor, a history teacher, could not accept that salvation is impossible.  Jesus wasn’t talking about a narrow gate.  He meant apart from following him, not believing, but following him, salvation is impossible and especially so for rich people.  We must not dilute his teaching and rob the message of its force. 
            We must also not divert it.  Yes, Jesus did say it was impossible for the rich to be saved, but I am not among the rich.  You might know a lot of people who are wealthier than you.  But, if Jesus said to you, go and sell your possession; give all the money you make to the poor; and then, come and follow me.  Would you do it?  Would you do it joyfully?  Sell your car and your house and your computer and, gasp, your phone?  Mark did not include this episode from Jesus’ life for other people.  This is here for me and for you. 
            One other thing to note.  In Luke’s Gospel, chapter 8, we meet several wealthy women.  They use their means to support Jesus and the disciples financially.  He didn’t just turn stones into bread and multiply loaves and fish all the time.  Most of the time Jesus ate food the same way you and I do.  Someone bought it and then he ate it.  He did not tell those women who were supporting him to go, sell, give, and then come and follow.  He did not say that to Zacchaeus, the short, wealthy tax collector.  In the case of Zacchaeus, Jesus invited himself to the rich man’s house and ate a fine meal at the rich man’s table. 
            What gives?  Why in one case does Jesus tell the rich man, you have to give it all away?  In other case, he meets the rich man on the rich man’s terms and promises the rich man salvation without ever threatening the man’s rich’s?  What gives?  Which word does Jesus give to you or me when we meet him?
            “You lack one thing.”  This is true for every single person.  Before we enter the Kingdom of God, there is something we lack, something we must give up.  And we don’t get to choose what it is.  I know, Jesus, I’ll give up eating Shrimp!  (Don’t tell Jesus, but I’m already allergic to shellfish).  That man had to give up his riches because his riches are what came between him and God. 
            Most rich people like being rich.  At least, they think they do.  Whatever new things enter their lives have to fit in with their riches.  So if this guy is going to listen to Jesus, Jesus’ message cannot threaten his wealth.  Thus he has a problem because “to enter the kingdom of God one must submit to God’s rule so that God reigns over every aspect of life.”[i] For most rich people, it is the riches they don’t want to give up, not even for the promise of Heaven.
            Middle class and poor people are just as troubled because everyone has something they don’t want to give up.  “God, this is how I am and I am not changing and I am not sacrificing.  I think you made me this way, so your laws and life as a disciples has to accommodate me.” 
No!  That isn’t how life in Christ works.  When we run up and kneel before Jesus and say, “Jesus, tell us what to do so we can go to heaven when we die.”  Jesus says, “Do?  There’s nothing you can do.  Turn every aspect of your life – all your stuff, your most cherished relationships, your career, your appetites and attractions, all of it – turn it all over to me.”  That’s what Jesus says.  He demands to be Lord of all of it, all of life.  We lack the will to surrender.  We want to be assured of heaven even as we continue to live on our own terms.  Jesus wants to let God the Father take care of the Heaven part.  Jesus wants us to live this life totally committed to Him, surrendered to His Lordship, dependent upon his Holy Spirit.
Remember, he looked at the man and loved him.  The life of following Jesus would lead to hardship and sacrifice and it was better than anything that man’s riches could buy. The life of following Jesus is a happier, fuller, more adventurous, and more rewarding life than any other.  But that man could not bear to let go and surrender to God.  So he who came running up to Jesus full of himself walked away sad because all he had was himself. 
The disciples saw this exchange, and they were shocked.  Are we?
What do you have?  What are you holding that is dearer to you, closer to your heart than anything else?  Is the life Jesus has for you better than that thing you’re holding so tightly?  Would you risk following him to find out?  That’s what Jesus is asking you to do this morning, right now.
·         Take an inventory of your life.
·         Identify that which is more precious to you.
·         In faith hand that thing over– possession, relationship, dream – whatever it is; hand it over to Jesus.  Maybe he’ll let you keep it.  Maybe he’ll transform it.  Maybe he’ll tell you to get rid of it.  The point is to trust him.  He is Lord and matters more than even that thing you love most.  So hand it over to Jesus.  You will have treasure in Heaven.
·         Then come and follow Him.

AMEN



[i] David Garland (1996), The NIV Application Commentary: Mark, Zondervan (Grand Rapids), p.400




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