Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 10th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 17–22:
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 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.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
The Gospel we just heard begins as a man ran up and knelt before [Jesus] and asked him, (Mark 10:17) “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” This question is a form of a very basic question that every human being asks. He was really asking the question, “What must I do to ensure my future?”
Every baby enters this world with the belief that he or she is the centre of the universe. And, for a short time, the world does seem to cater to every little whim the baby has. The slightest squawk from the baby and someone … usually Mum … scrambles to care for every desire. For a brief moment in time, as infants, we all believed that we were the most important person in the universe. We thought we were the sum total of why the universe is even here.
But then we grow up. We learn that other people have rights. We learn to share. We learn to take our turn. We learn to stand in line. We learn that not only are we not the most important person in the universe, but we are not even the most important person in our own house. We begin to learn that there are rules that govern the way we should live. ….
It doesn’t take long to figure out that some rules will help us get ahead. The right education will help get a better job. The right investments will produce a wealthier portfolio. The right friends will open up new opportunities. And so it goes on.
At some point in time, we begin to wonder if there isn’t some sort of rule that will get us ahead indefinitely … some technique that will give us some guarantee that we will win … that we will come out on top. We begin a search for the key to happiness, health, wealth, wisdom, and so forth… There are plenty of people who want to help us, there are thousands of authors in the “self-help” section of Amazon.com who would be more than happy to share the key to success with you for $32.95 plus postage.
The fact that there are so many books in the self-help section indicates that no one really has the secret to success. But even if there was help for you in a book, or a seminar, or some other program, it would not be enough.
When asked back in 1913, John D. Rockefeller, who owned about 3% of the entire US economy, or $500 Billion in today’s terms, how much is enough, He replied, “Just a little bit more.” A simple answer that clearly reflects the desires of our inborn sinful nature. We are always on the lookout for that magic formula that will give us an advantage … a magic formula that will give us just a little bit more.
The man who came to Jesus seemed to want a little bit more. He wanted a little bit more assurance of his salvation. He had done everything that he could think of to guarantee his eternal life, but he wasn’t really sure. Did he have all the bases covered? Was there one more technique that would give him confidence? Would one more bit of wisdom from the Teacher steer him to life eternal? Maybe Jesus had that one ploy that would ensure his salvation forever. So he asked Jesus a question that demonstrated that he didn’t have a clue. He asked Jesus, (Mark 10:17) “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Now, Carol and I and many of you have been heirs of one or more wills, and I can guarantee you that it was nothing in our case that we did that made us heirs of a will. We were heirs of a will because someone else wrote us into the will. We had nothing to do with it. When the man came to Jesus and talked about doingsomething to inherit something, he showed a basic lack of understanding about God’s plan for the salvation of the human race.
Mark tells us that Jesus showed love for this man. And He did it by showing him the reality of his situation. There is nothing the man could do to earn salvation.
Jesus began by reminding the man that only God is good enough to provide salvation. Jesus said to him, (Mark 10:18) “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone”. At this point the man should have stopped to think, “If only God is good and I am not God, then I cannot be good.” Then Jesus reviewed the commandments that deal with loving the neighbour. He said, (Mark 10:19) “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour your father and mother.’ ”
At this point the man did not realise that he did not love his neighbour as he loved himself. He did notunderstand that he could not possibly do anything to earn salvation. Instead, he said to [Jesus], (Mark 10:20)“Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” He may well have been a disciplined, devout, Jewish man who did all in his power to keep the law; but in saying this, he demonstrated his total lack of understanding about the nature of humankind. He had deluded himself into thinking that through his own efforts, he had kept these commandments perfectly.
It is at this point that the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to remind us that Jesus loved this man. The Greek word is ēgapēsen, a verb form of the word agápi, that selfless form of giving love. Jesus loved him enough to tell him the truth about his condition. (Mark 10:21) “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.’” Jesus set up a condition that forced this man to realise that he loved his wealth more than he loved God. How did the man respond? (Mark 10:22) “Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions”. The man’s possessions were literally more important to him than his own salvation. This man’s possessions were his god.
How are we to respond? Jesus has spoken and it begs the question of us. Is there anything that Jesus would ask of us that would cause us to be disheartened and walk away sorrowful? What gods are important to us? Financial security? Family? Friends? Happiness? Getting our own way? Our reputation among our peers?
Dr Martin Luther’s favourite hymn was “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” In fact, you will hear it in just about every Lutheran Church during ‘Reformation celebrations’. In verse 4 of that hymn we sing, “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though these all be gone, our victory has been won.” …. Is this really the case? Could we really surrender our life, goods, fame, child, or spouse? -
Our Gospel tells us that Jesus loved this man with agápi love. Agápi love gives people what they need, and that often means that it does not give people what they want. Jesus told this man what he needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear. This man needed to learn the hopelessness of his situation. He needed to learn that he could not save himself. He needed to understand that he needed a saviour outside of himself. That is how Jesus showed His love to this man … even if it meant that the man would walk away sorrowful.
Jesus loves us the same way. He sends the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin. The Holy Spirit comes to us through the proclamation of the Word of God in order to shine the searing light of the law into our hearts. He shows our true nature to us. He takes us to the depths of pure terror as He shows us the future we have earned for ourselves. He shows us the true hopelessness of our good works.
It is only after we begin to understand that hopelessness of our own works that the Holy Spirit points to the one who actually did surrender everything … Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son.
He surrendered His throne at God the Father’s right hand and took up our human flesh. Even as a human being, He lived in poverty. Even though He is the author of the law, He lived under the law.
Jesus surrendered everything. He even surrendered His life, and when He died, He did not even own the clothes on His back. (Mark 15:24) “They crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take”.
Jesus surrendered Himself so that you and I would inherit eternal life. It is not what I do that inherits eternal life. It is what Jesus has already done. We inherit eternal life because Jesus made us heirs in His last will and testament by the promise of His word and the seal of His blood on the cross.
Jesus Christ Himself demonstrated the inheritance that He offers to all people by rising from the dead. In His resurrection, we have the promise that He will raise all the dead and give eternal life to all who believe in Him.
Jesus has named an executor to His estate, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works through the Gospel to deliver the inheritance of eternal life. The Holy Spirit also works through the Gospel to establish the faith that receives the inheritance of eternal life.
Through that faith we constantly receive the forgiveness of our sins, and God declares us holy in his eyes. We stop asking the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Instead, the Holy Spirit uses us to point to Jesus and declare “Look what God has done to give me eternal life.”
We who believe already have our inheritance of eternal life. But when the time comes for us to leave this life, we will experience our inheritance more fully as members of the Church Triumphant in heaven. There, in heaven, we shall leave our sins behind and live under Jesus in His kingdom. There, we shall wait with Jesus for the Last Day when Jesus will raise our bodies to immortality, and we shall once again be complete in body and spirit and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment