Mark 10
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Mark 10:21-27, Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said 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.”
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
In this chapter, Jesus teaches that following him will affect how we behave in the most fundamental parts of our lives. He starts the chapter by teaching on divorce; teaching that marriage is not simply a contract, but a creation of God, and that both men and women are equal partners in the marriage. At that time in Jewish marriages, divorce was common but the men were clearly in control of the marriage, as they could easily discard their wives and remarry. But Jesus is turning this upside down. He is saying, no, in God’s Kingdom, marriage is a covenant between the man, the woman, and God. The commitment is sacred.
He goes on to teach about children. Parents were bringing children to him to be blessed and the disciples scolded them. Jesus intervenes and says, no, let the little children come to me. Keep in mind that children in the first century weren’t seen as having much value. Again, Jesus is flipping things upside down. He says that to follow him, we have to become like little children – vulnerable, powerless, needing someone else to provide safety and sustenance.
And then we come to the teaching highlighted by our focus verses. A man comes to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus says, “Well you need to follow all the commandments.” And he lists them, you shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, give false testimony. You shall honor your father & mother. He adds one, you shall not defraud. This wasn’t in the 10 commandments, possibly Jesus added it because many of the wealthy were wealthy because they had taken advantage of the poor. If that was the case with this man, we don’t know. The man simply says, “Yes, I’ve done all those things since I was a boy.”
Then, Scripture says, “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” The word for love used here, in the Greek, is the highest form of love in the New Testament, meaning love that characterizes God. There must have been something really rare and admirable about the man, because this is the only place this form of love is used in Mark.
Because he loved the man, Jesus looks at him and says there is still one thing you lack. Yes, you follow all the laws, but there is still something you lack. It was assumed that if one followed the law perfectly (we know that’s impossible but if one did a good job following the law) then they would receive eternal life. Jesus is saying, that is not the case. Jesus isn’t denying that this man is following the law, he isn’t disputing that. This is obviously a man of high integrity who is clearly doing all he can to be obedient to God’s laws.
“One thing you lack,” Jesus said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The text says that the man’s face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. This is the irony. The children in the former story who possess nothing are told that the kingdom of God is theirs; yet this man who possesses everything still lacks something! Only when he sells all he has—only when he becomes like a vulnerable child—will he possess everything. But he isn’t willing to do that. He decides to walk away from Jesus. The man wasn’t expecting to have to make that kind of sacrifice. He had no idea following Jesus would be so hard.
And the disciples are really confused by this. At that time, most people believed that being wealthy was a sign of God’s blessing. Jesus is saying that this man has to sell everything and give it to the poor. And that’s when Jesus says the really, really hard thing…it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
They ask, “Then who possibly can be saved?” Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Most of us should feel at least slightly uncomfortable when we read this passage. Don’t dismiss that feeling, rest in it a bit before you move on. The reality is that we are all wealthy in comparison to the rest of the world. Jesus isn’t saying that having possessions is a bad thing. Allowing our stuff, our resources, to get in the way of our relationship with Jesus is a bad thing though.
What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? I think we have so often fallen into the trap of thinking that following Jesus, being a disciple, is about following a list of rules: following commandments, generally being a good person, going to church, giving some money to good causes, and doing good “Christian” things. But here Jesus is saying that being a disciple is not about following a list of rules. If that were the case, then the rich young ruler would have been a shoo-in. Jesus is saying, following him is about denying yourself and picking up your cross. And we don’t like to deny ourselves. We don’t like to be uncomfortable. It means looking at your life and renouncing any part of it that gets in the way of your walk with Jesus.
That means that following Jesus isn’t one part of our life; following Jesus isn’t simply one activity in a busy life filled with lots of great stuff. No, following Jesus means radically reorienting our life. Jesus comes first and our devotion to Jesus as Lord and Savior affects every other area of our lives. Our dedication to Jesus affects how we treat other people, it affects how we spend our money, it affects how we spend our time, it affects how we behave. Following Jesus means a radical adjustment to priorities.
What is it that keeps you from fully following Jesus? What part of your life have you not yet submitted to him? What do you need to renounce in order to submit your whole life to Christ?
Let’s pray…Lord Jesus, I belong to you and you alone. In Your Name, Amen.