When a man wanted to know how to receive eternal life, Jesus asked him to set aside his wealth – which he would not do.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the tenth chapter of Mark’s Gospel (Mark 10:17-31). A wealthy young man — a ruler, the text says — asked Jesus what to do in order to receive eternal life. Jesus named the commandments to him, and the young man said, “I have done these all my life.” Jesus looked at him and loved him — Mark said, “looked at him and loved him” — and then said, “There is one more thing. Sell all that you have, give the money to the poor, and follow me.”
And the young man went away sorrowing, for he had many possessions.
Jesus’ disciples were as shocked by this, apparently, as the young man was, because they wanted to know if the rich couldn’t be saved, who could? And the conversation ended with Jesus saying that strange thing he keeps saying in Mark: “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”
In the first century some people believed that wealth and power were signs of God’s favor. You were wealthy because God was on your side, and God was on your side because you were doing the things that God expected. And the wealthy young man quite possibly assumed that that was true about himself, although his belief wasn’t so fixed that he didn’t go and ask the travelling rabbi that question. The problem is that the “health and wealth Gospel” is not true. Wealth is not the result of righteousness and faithful living. Wealth is the result of a good many other things, many of which have nothing at all to do with righteous living.
Wealth could be inherited — that’s got nothing to do with you. Wealth can be accumulated through hard work — now that’s got something to do with you. And wealth can certainly be accumulated by cheating as many people as you can — and that’s got nothing to do with righteousness.
Jesus’ disciples had kind of assumed that in the course of Jesus’ life and ministry that at some point he would attain power and wealth. The two of them went together in the first century and, come to think of it, in the twenty-first century. So how could it be difficult to be saved as a wealthy person if they were going to share in that wealth?
But that wasn’t the wealth Jesus was offering, was it? Jesus offered a wealth of the spirit, a wealth of the soul, and wealth of money is not particularly associated with that one way or another. Some wealthy people have rich souls, and others do not.
Seek, as Jesus put it somewhere else, seek the treasure that endures. The treasure that lasts is the treasure of the soul. And leave those other treasures behind or, better yet, use them so that those in needs may not suffer.
It may be difficult for the wealthy to find that way into that depth of soul, “As difficult,” said Jesus, “as getting a camel through an eye of a needle” — “but all things are possible with God,” he went on to say.
And may that also be possible with us.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
