Blessings Beyond Things

We pick up this week right after last week’s discussion about divorce with a conversation about wealth. We are continuing along with these difficult sayings of Jesus. They’re difficult because they require a different way of thinking. To help us understand that different way of thinking we need to focus in on this rich man and what all is likely going on in the background that isn’t explicitly being said because for Jesus and this man and the original audience it was likely implied becuase it was common knowledge then. Because if we don’t understand their way of thinking then it becomes harder for us to understand just how different it really is.

It became a common understanding that if you were rich and had many possessions then you were considered blessed by God and if you were poor or if you were blind or had some kind of ailment then you or your parents had offended God. We see this come from God to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7 where the iniquity of the parents is passed on to the third and the fourth generation. Which is why in John’s gospel, John 9:2, we see the disciples ask who sinned, the blind man who was born that way or his parents.

It’s interesting how people have selective memories isn’t it? Because we see Jeremiah 31:29-30 reverse this idea that children should pay for the sins of their parents. So if people aren’t automatically considered sinners becuase they are poor or blind etc, it would stand to reason that those who are rich and powerful aren’t automatically considered blessed. So I’m not sure exactly why this passage from Jeremiah didn’t take traction other than people may have taken priority of Moses’ teaching over Jeremiah.

I actually had this very conversation with someone a number of years ago. This young woman came to chat with me and she was convinced that her drugs, alcohol and loose living was the direct result of her mothers’ poor health. It was her hope that by coming to church, having faith, and being involved in the ministries of the church, as well as leaving that other life behind, God might forgive her of her sins and bring her mom back to health. She felt that not only was God punishing her and her mom but that God would turn around that judgement and bless them if she repented from her ways. It took a lot of conversations and sharing of scripture before I could even begin to help her see a different way of seeing God. I still don’t know if she ever changed her view of God as punishing and rewarding.

It was not so much this punishing side but the rewarding side of God that we see specifically today. This man is rich and has many possessions. He has kept the commandments since his youth. He was probably an incense holder in the synagogue as a boy, and attended Torah lessons every chance he had and answered all the questions the teacher posed. He was prepared it seems to have Jesus pronounce him an inheritor of eternal life after he told Jesus he’s already done all those things. His keeping of the commands and his wealth, in his mind has set him up for complete success and affirmation by Jesus. I would think the same thing too. Jesus says you need to do all these things and he affirms he already has. He must be feeling pretty good.

This man isn’t just proud of himself, but even Jesus cares deeply for this man. Jesus looks at him and loves him. The word love here has been understood to mean that he embraced the man in some way, not that Jesus just loved him in his heart. Jesus was so moved by this man’s faith that he was moved to hug this man. Not too differently from his embracing of the children last week. The problem occurs when Jesus creates that different way of thinking we talked about at the beginning. The blessing this man has is from God and not from his wealth. His wealth shouldn’t be a stumbling block and his wealth is something he should be generous with. In fact we see passages in the Bible where we are called to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, outcast, and alien. Jesus is calling this man to live by more than just a part of the law and live into the whole law. And to understand that wealth doesn’t put you automatically into the blessed category.

The possessions this man has becomes a stumbling block. Which Jesus warned against earlier in Mark’s gospel. We should not be a stumbling block to ourselves or another another. And wealth and possessions should not take the place or the focus of relationship with God. When we have lots of stuff then we tend to focus on that stuff and those things, and we have a greater chance of being distracted from the needs of others. Wealth is just as unhealthy as an actual idol from ancient Israel. When we put things ahead of God, and those things create a distance or a gap between us and God then they are not good for us. The greater the gap the harder it is to get back. Which is why I think that Jesus talks about the camel going through the eye of the needle. The more distractions and possessions we have the harder it can (not will, but can) be to have God as our focus and center.

Now that everything seems too hard to do everyone is about to give up including the disciples. I wish Mark hadn’t said that the rich man walked away because his initial question about what HE has to do to inherit eternal life is about to be answered fully. We finally get the answer. Once we realize that wealth, power, and our own doing can’t make that happen just as a camel cannot go through the eye of a sewing needle, then we have our answer. We can’t but God can. We need to stop focusing on US and focus on God. We need to stop trying to do and we need to let God take charge. We need to be like the children Jesus blesses from last week’s story. Reliant upon someone besides ourselves. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t follow Jesus’ example of caring for and helping the world. It helps that we know that possibility comes through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

For me the last part of the story today is all good news. Except for the part where it says we’ll suffer persecutions. But perhaps suffering helps us understand we are on the right path. When we give up those possessions and stumbling blocks in our lives. It may cause suffering, and the way we live might be ridiculed by others but that is the price of faith in God. The other price is having these hundredfold gifts in return. I see that hundredfold blessing not as prosperity, not as a total reversal of what Jesus just said to the rich man, but as this. Look around in church at one another. We are brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, children and grandchildren to each other. We are all called children by the same God of all. We are connected by the one who gave himself up for our sake. This is the gift of a family of faith. Connected across generations, personalities, cultures, race, gender, and everything else. No matter how different we are we are all connected in our faith. This right here is greater than any possession, gift, or thing this world could offer. I would not give it up for anything else. Thank you God for making this possible. Amen.