How to live a wealthy life

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loved you with his very life. Amen.

I was talking with Ashley the other day about this passage and I caught myself saying something unexpected. I said to her, “You know, Jesus sure does talk a lot about money.” And Ashley was like, “That makes sense. Money is an important part of people’s lives.” And you know, Jesus does talk a lot about money. Apart from salvation, his work on earth, it is the topic he addresses most frequently in the New Testament.

But when I give sermons on the topic of money, no one is ever excited to hear about it. It’s usually met with discomfort or groans, the ‘great, not this again.” There has never been a joyful sound made about a sermon on money. To be fair, being the good Lutherans that we are, there aren’t a lot of sounds anyway.

Nonetheless, Jesus talks about money today, so we’re going to talk about money today. My goal for today is that you would shift your values from less of money to more on Jesus, because, spoiler alert, the rich young man in the story, is you.

This story about the rich young man is a familiar story to us. The rich young man comes up to Jesus and asks a seemingly innocent question. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” This is something Jesus talks about a lot. Right? He spend a lot of time talking about salvation, about what Jesus is going to do to save mankind. From in John’s gospel when Jesus teaches Nicodemus the famous words, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” To here in Mark, where Jesus talks about how he must go to Jerusalem to die and rise again.

And this seems like a genuine question, not a trap by a pharisee. WE see this because of what mark includes, “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said...” Here is a rich man who trusts in Jesus to given salvation, who asks a genuine question about salvation, and who Jesus gives a genuine and tough answer too. Jesus tells him, “you lack one thing, sell everything you have and give to the poor., and follow me.” This answer saddened the man, who left Jesus. We aren’t told what he does. And we don’t here from him again.

There are a few important theological things here in this passage. First, Jesus casually slipping in that he’s God. Right? Why do you call me good? No one is God but God alone.” Hint hint hint. Jesus is God.

But the question the rich young man asks to start off the passage, “Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?” That, that is an interesting question. Let’s take a look at it. First, how do you inherit something? Like, just in general, not necessarily salvation. How do you inherit something? Generally someone dies and leaves it to you. Like, if you inherit the family farm, grandpa died and left the property to you in his will, and you inherited it. What did you have to do to inherit it? Nothing. Just be part of the family.

So what could the man do to inherit something? Nothing. The question just doesn’t hold up. But Jesus just kind of ignores that part and he asks about what the man has done. If you want to earn eternal life, Jesus is very clear, you have to be perfect. So he asks the man about. Again, after declaring that no one is good but God alone. He asks about it and tells the man to sell everything he has and give to the poor.

Why?

Because there is danger in having money. There is danger in having wealth. A danger of self sufficiency. Wealth can lead to the question, “What must I do to inherit.” Not having possessions forces a deeper trust in God to provide and care for you, as you cannot rely on yourself, your wealth, whatever it is.

And the problem for us, as I said earlier, is we are the rich young man.

Here’’s what I mean. When we look at our particular lives, we can say, “i’m not wealthy” I’m not part of the 1%. I don’t have a yacht or 7 vacation homes. Like, most of us live pay check to pay check. So when we read this passage it’s easy for us to dismiss it, as we don’t see ourselves as wealthy, so obviously then, this passage doesn’t meant the same for us.

Well… about that. After some research I learned something startling. If you are at poverty level in the United States, like the legal official poverty level for whatever your family size is, you make more money than 93% of people on planet earth. Again, at poverty level, you make more than the vast majority of those who live on earth. And honestly, it’s probably even more. I hear estimates of poverty in the USA is more than what 97% of people make globally.

The purpose of me sharing this information isn’t to make you feel bad about the blessings that God has given to us, by placing us in this nation at this time, and blessing us with the wealth that he has given us. No. My point in sharing this information with you is to warn you of the danger of wealth, the danger of the rich young man, the danger of thinking that this passage isn’t about us because it is. To mix in a different parable, you are the servant who has been given ten talents. How does your life reflect what God has given to you.

And here’s the danger: The blessings God have given to us causes you to loose sight on the source of the blessings, on God, and then we stop relying on God, or seeing God’s hand in what you have, or to say it a different way, trying to inherit salvation, trusting in yourself, instead of in Christ.

Jesus says to the rich man, “sell everything you have and follow me.” Stop trusting in your stuff to provide for you, I will provide for you. I will care for you. I alone can save you. Follow me.

So it is with us. Jesus comes to us to tell us to stop trusting in our stuff and to follow Jesus. While the things we have may fade, Jesus does not. More than that Jesus has given us a way to inherit eternal life.

First, we had to become part of the family. A stranger doesn’t inherit, but a child does. So Jesus created a means for us to become a child. In Baptism, Jesus adopted us to makes us family members, to put us in the will to receive the inheritance. We are all now children of the same heavenly father. Children of God.

And then someone had to die. God had to die. So Jesus did. He went and died so we could receive an inheritance, his inheritance, the gift of life in God’s presence eternally. Jesus died in your place to give you his life. A life that will experience the joys of paradise, the joys of living where God provides for all needs. A place where you will see God with your eyes, worship God with your mouths, and never lack anything for God himself provides it.

Jesus does spend a lot of time talking about money because money is important to our lives, and we need be prudent in how we use the blessings of money that God has given to us. However, and more importantly, we trust that money doesn’t save us, that our salvation is found in Christ alone. In Jesus, our brother, our God, who gives us his inheritance. Amen.