What Do You Lack?

Text: “Mark 10:21 “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’”

I have to admit that I was this old, as they say, when I noticed the irony in this passage. It’s hidden there in plain sight. Let’s take a minute to go through it slowly and really let it sink in.

Point #1: This rich young man was lacking something. His zeal for inheriting eternal life seems to be genuine. Jesus doesn’t question his sincerity, for example. He doesn’t even dispute the man’s surprising claim that he had kept the commandments from his youth. Instead, Jesus tells him: “You lack one thing….” There is one thing standing between you and inheriting eternal life. Point #1 is that this man is lacking something.

Point #2: He finds it by getting rid of what he has. “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will [inherit eternal life].” Do you see the irony? He lacked something because of what he had. Call it irony, call it a riddle, but the question remains: what, exactly, do you lack by having things? The answer to this riddle is ‘love’. His money— and even his desire to earn eternal life for himself!— was an obstacle to loving people around him like God commands.

This is far from the only place in the four Gospels that Jesus talks about what you and I need to give up in order to receive the Kingdom of God. Jesus isn’t coming to you like a merchant trying to bargain with you and get the best price from you that He can, asking how much you’re willing to pay for what He’s offering you. He’s challenging you with the question: What are you allowing to take precedence over inheriting eternal life? What are you holding as more important in your life than Him?

That is the great warning in our three readings today. Our epistle reading warns: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12), It seems like a safe bet to assume that you are here because you desire to inherit eternal life. The question seems necessary: What do you still lack? What is it, in your life, that stands in the way of loving others like God commands you to? Is it the love of your possessions— like it was for the rich young man in our text? What He’s saying is that He is trying to give you the gift of eternal life but you’re not willing to accept it because your hands are too full of other things— things that are, ultimately, worthless.

For the rich young man in our text it was his wealth and his self-righteousness. One of the broad, wide paths to destruction that the devil lays before you is the false impression that you are, by nature, deserving of heaven. You see that all around you, don’t you, among the confirmed atheists in our culture? They rail against the very idea of God because of the suggestion that He would dare to punish them. In the process, they remain willfully ignorant, for example, of how self-centered they are. In fact, the more they try to pile up good works in order to prove God to be unjust in judging them, the more they prove Him to be perfectly justified.

The same is true for you and me, however. Keep in mind that it’s good works that are more likely to lead you down this particular broad, wide path to destruction. No one ever thought themselves worthy of glory on account of their promiscuous lust. No one ever trusted in a murderous heart to save them. But the praiseworthy love of a mother for her children might lead to destruction if she does not love Christ more.

What is it that you lack? What is it that you need to go and sell so that you can follow Christ into eternal life?

Repent. Go and sell whatever it is that is more precious to you than God and put your trust in Christ.

Christ lacked nothing. Not just in the sense that He possessed all the riches of heaven, that all of creation belongs to Him, but in the greater sense: He emptied himself completely, taking the form of a servant, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death upon a cross (Philippians 2:7-8) . For the three years of His ministry, He, Himself, had no place to lay His head until He was laid in a borrowed tomb.

But, even more importantly, He— who was truly righteous— took your sin upon Himself so that He could suffer and die for you on the cross. “For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that, in him, we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

There on the cross He fulfilled the prophetic words of His mother: “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Luke 1:51-53).

As Spurgeon wrote,

The Lord Jesus Christ, of whom I now speak, is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did he not choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did he not buy you with his own blood? He cannot endure that you should think you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that he could not stop in heaven without you; he would sooner die than that you should perish; he stripped himself to nakedness that he might clothe you with beauty; he bowed his face to shame and spitting that he might lift you up to honor and glory, and he cannot endure that you should love the world, and the things of the world. His love is strong as death towards you.... [H]e loves you so much that he cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and him.

(Spurgeon, Rev. C. H. “A Jealous God.” http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/sermons/0502.htm)

The grace that he purchased for you on the cross at such a dear price is given to you in baptism. It is given to you through the simple act of eating and drinking— given to you in, with, and under bread and wine. It is delivered to you through the words of absolution. These are more precious gifts than anything in this world.

Here’s what I consider to be the most beautiful part. These things that you would hold on to more dearly than God’s gifts— the things that He would have you sell and give to the poor— in Christ, you receive them back, but sanctified. As Martin Luther put it: “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.”

What is it that is most precious to you? Is it your wealth? Not only has Christ suffered and died for your greed, by redeeming you, “[He has] made [you His] partner in this happy matter of giving gifts by granting to me a greater share of earthly possessions. [He] sowed in [you] the seed of [His] grace so it may grow to become a harvest of kindness toward others. [He has] committed to [you] great wealth in earthly possessions so [you] have the means to do good to [your] fellow servants” (Gerhard, Johann. “Meditations on Divine Mercy.”).

“9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

What is it that is most precious to you? Is it the generosity and charity that you have selfishly stacked up to prove how righteous you are? Not only has Christ suffered and died for your self-righteousness, as His redeemed child, He promises that even the simplest act of love for those around you will be praised before His throne on the Last Day.

There is a tradition that this young man that Mark describes is actually Mark, himself. The other place in Mark’s gospel that some think he’s describing himself is the young man in the garden of Gethsemane who ran from the soldiers, ending up running away naked in his effort to get away from the soldiers who had him by the robes. If it’s true, it’s a nice picture. By following Jesus, he was stripped of the wealth that he held so dear. But he found so much more. He found the only true God and source of peace for all eternity.

To paraphrase our text, “Jesus, looking at you, loved you, and says to you, “Repent. Get rid of whatever you fear, love, and trust in—that will only lead to your destruction—and come follow me.” Go and sell whatever is most precious to you and give it away. And, in Christ, you will receive even more.