“What is Needed”
October 13, 2024
Rev. Rebecca Migliore
This passage is familiar to many of us, and may have caused some uneasy feelings when we hear it read. Because it deals with a topic few of us like to mention in church—money. Especially if we are hearing that you might have to sell all you have and give it to the poor! And so we find all kinds of ways of talking about anything but what really happens here.
We get caught up in the image of a camel going through the eye of the needle—and whether Jesus is speaking literally (which would make it impossible, unless there were an “eye of the needle” that was much bigger than we are thinking), is he talking literally or figuratively. OR we, along with the disciples, move to wondering who then can be saved? (since people were supposed to be rich as a blessing, and thus would be the most likely people to be in God’s favor). OR we, along with the disciples, might lift up how much we have actually given up for Jesus. See?!
Let’s spend a few moments today, taking a deep dive with this man who appears as Jesus is “on the way.” The man appears from nowhere. And he appears at a run. He runs up to Jesus and kneels before him. I’m sure the disciples aren’t surprised. They have seen others act this way—someone in need of healing, someone in need of exorcism, someone in need. Why else throw yourself at someone’s feet?
The motion of going forward towards… (was it towards Jerusalem?, or towards Golgotha?, or simply towards the next town?) Wherever it was—their progress has been stopped. There is someone in need. Someone kneeling at his feet. Everyone waits to hear what has brought this about.
But we don’t get a request for his body or anyone else’s. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with his mind. From the dust of the road, the man, panting from running, asks a question.
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And I can see the disciples rolling their eyes. They have seen so many people on this odyssey with Jesus—lepers, and women who are bleeding, and blind people, and people out of their minds—and this guy thinks THAT questions is of top priority?
So, is our man just looking for attention? Is he asking a question that he knows the answer to, or thinks he does? Let’s for argument’s sake, believe that this person is obsessed with doing what God requires of us. This person is willing to make a show of stopping Jesus. Willing to ask the question most important to him openly (he doesn’t try to catch Jesus and take him aside). He thinks he is willing to do whatever it is that Jesus says will give him eternal life. He just wants to know what that is.
What do I have to DO? We learn later in the story that this person has a lot of money, or a lot of possessions, or a lot of something. Maybe our questioner has lived a life where he was rewarded for what he did. He had studied hard, or he had learned a trade, or he had been willing to invest with some risk, or any number of other things—and so, he had learned that if you want something, there is always something that you can do to get it.
Now, we know that this isn’t always the case. You can’t always do something to have good health. You can’t always do something to make sure that you find love. You can’t always do something to become rich. But this is how the man sees the world—if you want something, you do something to get it. And so he’s kneeling in front of Jesus and asking, what is it I have to do to be in God’s favor?
And Jesus gives him a stock answer—you know the commandments as well as I do. And he ticks them off, ‘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.’ Not exactly in order, but you get the point. And the man lets out a deep breath and says, “Well, I’ve already got those covered. I’ve done that since my youth.”
And it says, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” And I’ve read that in the whole gospel of Mark this is the only time that it said Jesus loved a particular person. Nowhere do we read that Jesus loved Peter or Andrew or James or John or Matthew, or even Mark. Jesus isn’t said to have loved Zaccheus, or the little girl he raised from the dead. Of all the people Jesus encounters in this gospel, this man is the one that he loves!
Why does Jesus love him? Because he is so wide open in his desire? Because he is so eager to accomplish this one important thing that is lacking in his life? Because Jesus can see into his soul? Jesus loved him and so he speaks honestly to him. He’s already lifted up commandments 5-10, the “love your neighbor as yourself” portion. We expect him to drill down on commandments 1-4, the God part: loving God with everything we have, making God first in our lives.
And maybe that is exactly what Jesus does. But he does it in a particular way, particular to this particular man. Jesus sees him, he knows him, he loves him. And he invites him to let go of what might be standing between him and God. “Go, sell what you own, give the money to the poor, and then, come, follow me.” And when the man heard it, his face fell. He was shocked, and went away grieving, because he had many possessions.
This is something new. In Mark’s gospel, when Jesus invites people to come and follow him, they leave everything and do so. And in fact, there are those who want to follow Jesus, but he says, no, go to the priests and be declared clean, or no, you are well, go home. This is the only place that we hear of someone who has refused to come and follow.
And that is why I think we, along with the disciples and maybe even the writer of the gospel want to move from that story to the wider question of “Can rich people get into heaven?” or the statement “Look what I’ve done!” I want us to sit here for a while. Because this man, this story, is a dangerous one.
Even though Jesus is pointing to the fact that we cannot earn our way into heaven, as the apostle Paul would put it, that it is only by God’s grace that we are saved, it does seem that there are things we can DO to find ourselves on the way with Jesus.
I call this story dangerous because Jesus loved this man. And we have been taught since we were little that “Jesus loves us.” And if this beloved, this man that Jesus loved, can turn away, can be unwilling to make God first in his life, then we must be willing to look at ourselves and think what might Jesus say to us! Some of us aren’t running to Jesus. Some of us aren’t willing to kneel to begin with. Some of us might not have the courage to ask the question. Some of us might know exactly which of those commandments (5-10) we might have broken, But even if we do all these things, even if Jesus loves us, this story suggests there is the possibility that we might not be willing to do what is needed to be done to get on the way, what is needed to get ourselves right with God, what is needed to gain our inheritance.
Now the good news is that Jesus doesn’t say, “Well, there you are. That guy is a goner.” No. We hear that with God nothing is impossible. We hear that if we give up something in this world, we will somehow receive more, spiritually speaking. We hear that the first shall be last and the last, first.
And just to put this all in perspective, Matthew Myer Bolton from SALT gives us this commentary. “If your household income is $100,000 a year, or you have $500,000 in net worth, you probably consider yourselves solidly middle class. But actually, this would put you in the top 20% in terms of wealth. [That kind of makes you rich.] And if we talk about the world, if you have a net worth of $100,000, that puts you in the top 10%, and if you have an annual household income of $40,000 or more you are right at the top of the global income scale. [Again, kind of rich.]
I don’t know if Jesus would say exactly the same to us as he did to this man—sell what you have, give to the poor, and then come, follow me.
What I do know is that we cannot think that the Jesus thing can be divorced from economics. Jesus in another gospel directly says, “you cannot love both God and money (mammon).” Something has to have priority. And that something needs to be God. That is exactly what the first four commandments are all about—what “loving the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind and strength” is all about.
Of course, there is forgiveness. Of course, there is grace. Of course, Jesus loves us. None of that absolves us of trying to follow Jesus, as best we can. None of that means we can continually put something other than God in the most important place in our lives, in our minds, in our hearts. I think the lesson for today is that there are sometimes things that can make it hard for us to truly be on the road with Jesus.
What is needed is for us to clear away those things. If we can’t, that doesn’t take Jesus’ love away. But it makes it a lot harder to answer the call, “Come, and follow me.” May God give us the wisdom to know what those things might be for us. May God give us the courage to try to start letting go. May God give us the patience to keep working on this goal. And May God give us the comfort, the assurance, and the good news, that no matter what Jesus loves us. What is needed is for us to love Jesus, and those around us, back.
May it be so, Alleluia, Amen.