Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
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Scripture |
Mark 10:17-31 17 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?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 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.’ ” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 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.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. 23 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 !” 24 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 ! 25 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 .” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 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, 30 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. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
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Devotional |
Jesus is on the trek to Jerusalem when he is approached by a young person who calls him “good teacher,” a form of address that we find neither in the Old Testament nor elsewhere in early Jewish literature. The man seems to be trying to ingratiate himself with Jesus and gain a hearing. The man asks the most fundamental question of all: “What must I do to inherit eternal life [i.e., in the future]?” 1 I believe I know this guy. His is an INFJ personality type, a mystic, and also his theological world is World Three: emptiness to fulfillment. “And inside there is this emptiness, a void, an ache that resides in one’s mid-section-the fear of being nobody, which in turn hinders action for fear of being rejected. ‘So I try to be who others want me to be, until I become increasingly alienated even from myself. The result is a paralysis, and aimlessness, a floundering –trapped by myself within myself. My reward is a strange comfort in inertia, where it is too late for action, too soon for regrets.” 2 This young person is focused on self-discovery, self-growth, and in the process he faces self-risk. The self-risk in is in his inability to dispose himself of the possessions that separate him from God. It appears that this young man had obeyed the major commandments, but senses something is missing in his relationship with God. Jesus stresses the point that the demands of discipleship go beyond the Mosaic Law. Was Jesus telling this young man to sell all he had and give it to the poor and come and follow him as another disciple or did Jesus mean for him to seek a closer union with God? The young man had followed the commandments and in the process was seeking perfection. Was he also seeking union with God? “ Union and perfection are two different journeys with very different strategies. Common religion seeks private perfection; the mystic seeks and enjoy the foundation itself-divine union. ” 3 Religion seeks perfection; mysticism seeks union with God. True spirituality is not just the search for a place in the next world; it is a search for union with the Divine. Could Jesus have shown more patience with this young man? The disciples who had been with him for sometime did not really understand Jesus. Would Jesus’ teaching to the disciples have helped the young man? “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children, and fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundred fold now in this age-and in the age to come eternal life.” John Cassian gives us the true meaning of Jesus’ words: “you have each left but one father and mother and home, and as you have done so you have gained without any effort or care countless fathers and mothers and brothers, as well as houses and lands and most faithful servants, in any part of the world to which you go, who receive you as; their own family, and welcome, and respect, and take care of you with the utmost attention.”(Conference 24.10) This seems to be the message that the young man failed to hear. Did the young man know what he was seeking but just ask the wrong question? Henri Nouwen describes what I believe the young man was seeking. “When the two disciples recognized Jesus as he broke the bread for them in their house in Emmaus, he "vanished from their sight" (Luke 24:31). The recognition and the disappearance of Jesus are one and the same event. Why? Because the disciples recognized that their Lord Jesus, the Christ, now lives in them ... that they have become Christ-bearers. Therefore, Jesus no longer sits across the table from them as the stranger, the guest, the friend with whom they can speak and from whom they can receive good counsel. He has become one with them. He has given them his own Spirit of Love. Their companion on the journey has become the companion of their souls. They are alive, yet it is no longer them, but Christ living in them (see Galatians 2:20 ).” 4
1 Ben Witheringtom III, The Indelible Image. Downers Grove : IVP Academic, 2009. p. 629 2 W. Paul Jones, Worlds Within a Congregation: Dealing With Theological Diversity. Nashville : Abingdon Press, 2000. p. 60 3 Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See .New York : Crossroad Publishing Company, 2009. p. 16 4 Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey. New Your: HarperOne, 1997. . |