OCTOBER 15, 2006 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
AM 5:6-7, 10-15; PS 90:12-16; HB 4:12-16; MK 10:17-31
Shocked and in Awe
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we believe and in believing we obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In worship last week, the Gospel lesson pointed a two-edged sword at the hearts of people whose lives have been touched by divorce. Well, we all get to feel awkward this week.
Our discomfort derives from the author of Hebrews, who writes that The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit…judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account (Hebrews 4:12-13). Since God sees all, we are all shocked and in awe.
It’s shocking to think that our actions and thoughts are laid bare before God. It was shocking for the rich man to hear Jesus say, Go, sell what you have, give the money to the poor and follow me. It was shocking to the disciples, who believed that a person’s wealth was proof of God’s blessing. How else could a person have money except by God’s stamp of approval?
Shocked and in awe.
So let’s start with the wealthy man: Why does Jesus ask him to make such a significant sacrifice? To punish him? To prove a point? To make him atone for the greed of all humanity?
I’ve been wondering about this all week…and here’s what finally clicked for me. I think Jesus’ meaning, ministry and mission to the entire world hinges on what is said in v. 21. Look up Mark 10:21 on your bulletins or in the Bible. The author tells us that Jesus, looking at the man, loved him…
This is the only time in the whole Gospel of Mark that Jesus is said to love anyone. For that reason alone we ought to pay attention: something unique is going on here, something staggering, in fact. Because what Jesus says after this remarkable revelation appears to be anything but compassionate, loving and kind to that man…Go, sell all that you have, give the money to the poor and follow me. It stuns him…as it would the rest of us.
Shocked and in awe.
Yet this touchy tête-à-tête is nothing new for Jesus. In fact, his life is filled with such intense interactions. It is the way he operates, like a surgeon with a sharp-edged scalpel. He engages a person in conversation, hones in on their heaviest burden, their most carefully concealed confession, then he takes that double-edged sword of God’s Word…and slices right through it. The woman at the well and her shady past…timid Nicodemus who will only meet Jesus at night…even the great Pontius Pilate – the list goes on and on.
And just like those others, this well-raised, well-gifted, well-intentioned man gets it, he gets what God is all about…he has since he was a child – I have kept all (the commandments) since my youth, he tells the Lord…and means it! If anyone ever deserved God’s blessings…this is the one…and yet...
Still there is a dis-quiet in the depths of his soul, a hollowness or hurt in his heart, a barrenness in his bones, a sense of uncertainty in his spirit. Given all that he has and done, still he asks Jesus, What must I do to inherit eternal life? What is it about faith and life that isn’t working for him? Anyone?
In a journal article, Pastor Stacey Simpson offers a fascinating insight. This episode, she says, is set up to unfold exactly like a healing story in Mark’s Gospel. The scene is set for (the rich man) to request and receive healing, she says…his running and kneeling show that his request is both urgent and sincere (Who Can Be Saved? The Christian Century, Sept 27-Oct 4, 2000, p. 951).
I looked up two references as proof. Back in chapter 1, verse 40 we’re told that A leper came to Jesus, knelt before him, and said, If you choose, you can make me clean. Again, in chapter 5, verse 22, we’re told of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, who falls at Jesus’ feet and begs him to heal his daughter. The same formula is in place here: A man ran up and knelt before Jesus asking him, Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Then we’re told that Jesus looked at this man…and loved him…Why? Why is he singled out over even the disciples to be loved by the Lord?
I think that Jesus loves this man…because he is Everyman, Everywoman, Everychild – he is every one of us who has a hard time trusting: that the Lord is our shepherd, that we will be led in right paths for his name’s sake, that we need not fear any valley of shadows, that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, and that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever…simply because God promises to love us.
Our rich friend in the text, I think, wants proof of God’s love. Honestly. His heart is in the right place, and I think that warms Jesus’ heart. And, I think, those few amazing words of love help us by taking the pain out of the shock, the venom out of the bite, the poison out of the sting of Jesus’ words that follow. He challenges this good man to trust not in what the world can do for him, but in what God can do through him for the Gospel. In a sense, Jesus says to him, Short of trust, there remains one thing to do…let go of the wealth that secures your life, and see how God will secure your heart.
Shocked and in awe.
In truth, there is nothing that anyone can do to inherit eternal life – no quest to the farthest corner of the earth, no sacrifice of even our very last cent. This was also true for the rich man in our Gospel lesson…and Jesus knew it.
When the Lord invited him to shed his shackles of wealth and become a disciple, it was an appeal to let go of the liabilities that enchained his heart, to surrender the stuff that was straining his spirit, to stop struggling and start trusting…that “with God, all things are possible.”
We are in awe when we sense that the God of all creation cares this much for the people of this planet. We are in awe to think that even knowing our thoughts and actions, still Jesus forgives and loves us. We are in awe when the Spirit helps us let go of life’s shackles and let God make us servants of the Gospel. Thanks be to God. Amen.