Mark 10:17-27
Asking the Wrong Question

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?" Jesus said to him, "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; Honor 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 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.

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!" 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! 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."

New Revised Standard Version

There are many relevant issues to consider in this teaching of Christ, and I have heard many of them expounded before, but the one that sticks with me the most has to do with the nature of the rich man's question.

To start, I believe this man was as sincere as he knew how to be in his approach of Jesus. We know of many wealthy and powerful men whose purpose for interacting with him was to damage his credibility and compromise his appeal to the masses. This man, however, fell on his knees at the feet of Jesus, with the same kind of urgency we see in passages about people who want to be healed. He honored Jesus with his posture, his salutation, and his commitment to achieving what Jesus had promised in life everlasting.

But notice how Jesus immediately chips away at this man's image of how heaven works. "Why do you call me good", Jesus asked, not because Jesus was not good, but because the man presented the concept as if goodness were in the grasp of any person. Just a couple of lines later, we see that this man honestly believed that he, too, was a good man, as measured by his devotion to keeping the Law. No, Jesus replies, there is no goodness except in God. We cannot achieve it, and we cannot measure up to it without making compromises and excuses for ourselves. Only God is good.

Jesus must have read the earnestness on the man's face. The scripture said Jesus loved him, using the word agapao, meaning the divine love that wants the best for others, and the best was to confront this man's self-sufficiency. I don't believe that the man loved his possessions so much that he couldn't bear to sell them. Instead, I believe this man was convinced that he himself could provide all he needed, achieve all he needed, and even earn eternal life. No, Jesus said. Let go of everything you have that gives you guarantees about the days to come, so that you can put your faith wholly in God.

The rich man was distraught, thinking that he had made it so far in his path towards righteousness, just to be given a bizarre command. The disciples were stunned, wondering why such a good and earnest man wouldn't be immediately praised as a model Christian. If this man cannot achieve righteousness, who can?

And that was the flaw in the man's question: "What must I do, what actions must I take, to receive eternal life?" The answer from Jesus is that nothing we can do, no matter how good, will gain for us eternal life. Only what God does can give us that.

The converse of that idea is true as well. There is nothing we can do that is so inept and misguided that we can thwart the Love of God. God does not need us. Jesus went so far at his Palm Sunday entrance to Jerusalem to explain that God could make the rocks sing for joy in announcing the Plan that was to be fulfilled that week, if that's what it took. All our best intentions, our skills, our dedication, our earnestness are nothing compared to what God can do. When God uses us, it isn't because God needs us, but because we need for God to make us into better children of God.

Does God need you to ask that neighbor to come to church on Sunday? No, because if you don't ask, God has millions of other ways to present that idea to your neighbor. Instead, you need to see that neighbor with the same kind of love that God has for him.

Does God need you to help those children with activities in their mid-week classes? Or is it that you need to see the love of God through the eyes of those children?

Does God need your weekly tithe to pay the electrical bill at the church? Or is it you that needs a regular reminder that all your wealth truly belongs to God?

Surely God knows that your talent and experience as _fill_in_the_blank_ are heralded by everyone that knows you, and that you could be just what the church needs to take it to the next level! Be prepared for the same shock as the rich young man experienced, because those kinds of human offers provide no opening in which God can work.

You have nothing God needs. And all God wants from you is your self.