Upside-Down Kingdom 4

Get a couple of volunteers- have one of them hold a single item, but steadily add stuff to the other until they start dropping stuff OR make them juggle a few items.

Dive straight into the text- offer very little intro

The New Revised Standard Version 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; 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.

This is one of my favorite passages in the New Testament because of both its simplicity and the powerful nature of Jesus teaching, though we don’t always pick up on all of it. There are a number of pieces to this passage that have often gone by without us fully paying attention to what is going on and I think they are important to understanding the overall point to the passage. The story itself starts with a man running up to Jesus and asking a question that we’re all good with. At some point or another there’s a chance we’ve wrestled with this exact question- what is required of me? He asks “What must I do to inherit eternal life? Good question- and, perfect person to ask it of. Jesus has been traveling around the region teaching about the kingdom of God and its eternal significance. But Jesus’ initial reaction doesn’t, at least on its surface, seem to engage the man’s very good question. Instead, he asks “why do you call me good?” And then issues a declarative “no one is good but God alone.” Well- thats awkward? What do we do with this?

I think there are a couple of ways to understand why Jesus says this, and you can decide what you think. One- some have tried to suggest that this is an subtle way of Jesus declaring his heavenly origin and divine nature. While you can draw that conclusion, Jesus has been averse to doing so throughout Marks gospel. Just think of each of the times Jesus disciples declare that they believe he is the Christ- the reaction each time is Jesus demanding their silence on the issue. Additionally, the expectations of the messiah by the disciples and most everyone else wasn’t of a divine sacrifice but an earthly warrior- and this guy isn’t asking either earthly warrior or divine sacrifice questions- he’s asking a very personal religious morality question- “what must ‘I’ do?” He isn’t concerned about an earthly kingdom and he isn’t looking for someone else to handle his ticket in. He is, however, deeply concerned about his responsibility in relation to his place in God’s kingdom. Another way to understand this passage to see Jesus response, and this is the option I’ll suggest this morning, is that Jesus is not making a statement about himself at all, but is in fact answering this man’s question before they ever get started. Jesus responds by highlighting humanity’s inability to match God’s goodness. Only God is perfectly “good.” For a person worried about how their actions can build their own “goodness,” this response makes tons of sense. Jesus’ dismissive response to the mans question continues. “you know the commandments.” “You already know the answer to your question- why are you asking me.” And then Jesus starts listing the commandments… at least kind of.

He names of some of the commands- interestingly only those that deal with relationships between people- Jesus doesn’t list any of the ones that deal with the relationship between humanity and God directly. Nothing about no other gods or honoring God at all- just “murdering, no adultery, no stealing, no lying, don’t defraud people, honor your parents.” And I say “kind of” because one of these is not like the others- can you find it? “Do not defraud” isn’t “one of the ten.” Some have suggested that this is Jesus test of the guy- does he know the commandments. Shouldn’t that be the moment when the man goes “uh, Jesus, you got one wrong,” and Jesus responds, “ahh, you got me- I was just seeing if you’d catch it. Ok I’ll answer your question now.” I don’t buy it. I find it unlikely Jesus doesn’t know the commandments and I find it unlikely that this man doesn’t know them. It would have been ground into his mind from birth. Explicit instruction against defrauding others is found throughout the law and the prophets if not directly in the decalogue. No, I think the inclusion of that phrase, which does address a very specific type of theft, right? Defrauding in its plainest language is taking for yourself by cheating others- that can be by not paying a fair wage or withholding promised payment, passing off an inferior product as better than it really is, gaining wealth by cheating others in any form. It wasn’t but a few weeks ago we studied James’ stern warning against amassing wealth while forcing one’s employees to live in poverty- it was clearly an important enough issue to Jesus that it was ingrained into those who took up his teaching after his departure.

And, importantly, if we are to take this man at his word, and I think we are- Jesus certainly seems to- he’s able to claim that hes treated all those around him in a holy way- he has lived his life inside the protection of the law and can claim with confidence that he hasn’t gained his wealth by depriving others in any way- he’s been honest and fair in all his relationships with other people. He’s even listened to Jesus closely enough to respond “teacher” instead of “good teacher” in his second response. He wants this desperately.

The text says Jesus looked at him and loved him. He doesn’t look at him and call him a liar and then explain all the ways the man has transgressed the very laws he claims to have kept since his childhood. He responds to the mans plight with compassion- here stands before him a man who desperately wants to be a decent human being, to live appropriately towards others, to treat others in a manner in line with what God has called him to. So Jesus responds again, and this time Jesus turns towards the first commandments regarding God’s primary place in the life of God’s children and the command against giving other things the priority God deserves. Jesus says, ok, one more thing- that wealth you’ve dedicated your life to. Give it up. Lay down that idol. So the man walks away. I dare say most of us would have done the same. The instruction to sell off all he owns is the last thing he expected and he can’t even respond- he just walks away.

The disciples suffer the same shock this man does as well.

The New Revised Standard Version The Rich Man

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.”

Wait- if the rich guy can’t get in, what hope is there for us?” Its important to remember that wealth was often understood as a sign of divine blessing. The way Job and Jobs friends view God hasn’t gone away- Good people get good things and bad people get bad things. When Jesus followers see a blind man, they turn to Jesus and ask “who sinned? this guy or his parents.” The man Jesus has just shocked into retreat in all likelihood viewed his wealth as a gift from God because of his goodness, not an idol that endangered his relationship with God. Jesus disciples give voice to this understanding of the world- if the people good enough to be blessed by God with such wealth can’t stroll through the gates, what hope to any of us have?” The disciples are described as perplexed and greatly astounded because what Jesus is saying- both to the man and now to them. They are just as shocked as he is because this doesn’t not line up with how they understand God and the world. And I’ll add quickly here that at some point or another you may have been told that there was a notoriously small gate at in the Jerusalem wall that was nicknamed “the eye of the needle” gate- a gate so small that a camel would have to crawl through on its knees to enter. I hate to bust bubbles, but there is no archaeological evidence for this, nor are there any writings from antiquity that would confirm it. It appears that the idea was fabricated in the 1800’s and has stuck. I’ll say with certainty that Jesus statement has nothing to do with something we can accomplish with difficulty and everything to do with something only God can do.

And then Peter does Peter things and essentially says, “but we’re good, right, because we did that stuff?” still not fully grasping that Jesus has placed “Eternal life” squarely in the hands of God and not something that can simply be earned by people

The New Revised Standard Version The Rich Man

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.”

“Great Peter, and I’m glad y’all are with me, but this isn’t just about y’all.” How often have power and place come up in the last few weeks, how many times throughout the entire gospel of Mark? Its almost like understanding God’s inversion of cultural standards is an important thing to understand from Jesus teaching. As Jesus moves towards the giving of life, his repeated emphasis on what we as people are also willing to sacrifice for the sake of the good news should not be missed and cannot be understated. Jesus could easily say “I’m giving everything. What are you up for parting with?” Thats great that you’re not a murderer- but also not that difficult. Congrats for not being thief and a cheat, but how much value do you place on what you have and the power and prestige that it brings? Do you care more about it than the kingdom of God? If you’ve got to drop one of them, which is it going to be?

If you are wondering what your idols are, start by asking yourself the question “what could Jesus have asked of me that would cause me to walk away?” And, perhaps for the first time, actually be honest with yourself. I’d be willing to be that for most of us the answer comes back to what we have. When we recognize that in God’s upside-down kingdom our cultural standards that we cling to are meaningless, or often dead wrong, we do a better job of properly assessing ourselves and our oft-misplaced values. If I can recognize this in myself, I’m betting you can as well. It seems relatively clear from Jesus teaching here that it is only when properly assess all the aspects of our life that we can fully follow God.

The good news in this passage is that our salvation and liberation, our place in the kingdom of God is Gods work and not ours, and that God is willing to give everything to make sure we understand that. However, that doesn’t make our actions in the world meaningless. Its also clear that how we live towards those around us and the priorities we place on the various aspects of our life aren’t meaningless. The say something about Gods real place in our lives and serve, if nothing else, as a quality benchmark for self assessment. Do we care enough to give everything or is there something we care about more?