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WHAT STOPS US FROM FOLLOWING JESUS

MARK 10:17-31

The Rich Man

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; Honour 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[a] 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[b] 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,[c] “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,[d] 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.”

I was on a discipleship course recently where we were looking at what it means to have faith and live that out in our daily lives. We spoke about what our priorities were, and we had a worksheet with all the different kinds of things that could or do motivate us; things that we assume would bring us lives of happiness and joy. It was things like your health and whether or not you had good friendships and relationships, and whether you wanted lots of holidays and things like that. When I saw the list, my eye made a beeline (if that makes sense!) for the sentence that that said, ‘I want lots of money.’


I thought that was the most important thing, as I figured, if you have a lot of money, then you are sorted or at least you can sort out the other things in life that you want. You can, you can make sure that you are healthy because you can afford private medical care. You are more likely to have nice holidays and a nice house. And being happier and less anxiety prone you are more likely to have good people around you who are your friends. And the evidence bears this out, up to a certain point at least, the more money you have the happier and more content you tend to be. I think it’s if you are taking about £60,000 a year home. At that point, your happiness plateaus.


The young man in our story is rich and a ruler. So on the face of it, it seems he has it made! And yet, he knows deep within himself that this isn’t all there is to life. He wants to know the ultimate meaning and purpose of life and how to get it. He wants eternal life and he knows he hasn’t got it! So, he kneels before Jesus, a gesture of great reverence and respect in those days, just as it is today. And he asks him:


“Good teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”


And Jesus answers

“Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 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; Honour your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money[a] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.’

The first part of Jesus’ statement, the young man could agree with, he had kept all of the commandments and all the old covenantal law of Moses. Commandments which, in the Old Testament were seen as essential to living a long and good and indeed Godly life in the land. The man knows this, after all his is a faithful Jew. But it he knows that this isn’t the whole answer. So we continue:

‘”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.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.’


It seems that the man did not like the answer! He did not want to give away his wealth. And indeed, who of us want to give away our own wealth? Doing that is a hard thing to do, because it removes our ability to make choices and makes us rely on others more. I actually sympathise with the man, he got so used to all he had, he couldn’t imagine giving that up.


But what is Jesus really saying here? Is this some kind of early communist doctrine, where in principle all wealth and property are shared among the people. This is, after all what the early church did as they sold their property and held things in common according to the book of Acts. Now, there are some who are called to do that, people who live in religious communities such as monks or nuns are called to do that. But I don’t think this is necessarily an application to everybody.


Jesus has hit on the thing that would be the most difficult thing for the young man to give up. His wealth, his possessions. He is saying that if you want to follow him, you must be willing to give up all else that is precious to you. Because it is only then that you realise just how much you need God and the provision that he provides. It’s tragic that this young man can’t bring himself to pay such a hard price. He had the security of his estates, his properties and his wealth and he wants to keep it for himself.



It seems though that this is not just a problem for the rich rular, but for many people. He speaks to the disciples afterwards and says:

“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.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Jesus recognises that the temptation to be dominated by your wealth and possessions is strong, it’s hard to break free of. It’s hard to break free of our reliance on the things that we think are so important to us and rely on God and him alone. But look at what he says ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’


All things are possible with God. All our priorities can change if we turn our hearts and our minds towards God, we can give to him our worries about our health and our lack of money and our anxieties over our relatives and everything else as well. We can rely on him and him alone, it is possible but only through the strength of his Holy Spirit.


There may be something in your heart that is preventing you from following Jesus fully, there may be something that you don’t want to give to God, because it gives you your sense of identity, or because it’s too painful or because you feel like if you did give it up then you wouldn’t know who you are.

We all have these things within us, and it can be so hard to give them up. But ultimately we must, because the thing they Jesus promises us is so much greater and better than these things.


When we come to communion, I would like to invite you, as you receive the bread that brings God’s grace, to give him the thing that is stopping you from living life to the full. The thing that’s preventing you from following God with all your heart. The thing that stops all of us from experiencing the peace which passes all understanding.


Amen




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