Sermon on Mark 10:17-31

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

Can we just acknowledge from the beginning that this is an uncomfortable story?

It’s uncomfortable because talking about money is a bit taboo in the dominant culture in the US.

It’s uncomfortable because we’re all at different places with our finances and our relationships with money.

It’s uncomfortable because in this story Jesus is framing the world in a whole new way.

Listen to all the ways people’s expectations are turned upside down in this story:

1. First, the man expects to figure out a way he can gain eternal life, and he’s disappointed with the answer.

2. Second, the disciples expect that rich people are more blessed by God, but Jesus says it’s pretty much impossible for rich people to enter the Reign of God.

3. Finally, even we, the readers, might expect Jesus to scold the man for not following instructions, but instead, Jesus loves him.

And all of the confused people in this story have good reason to be confused and even disappointed:

1. Jesus’ instructions here are tough. Selling everything you own, giving away the money, and coming back to follow Jesus is a huge ask.

2. And Jesus saying that rich people will have a hard time being a part of the Reign of God goes against the way the disciples viewed the world.

Despite the book of Job, which describes terrible things happening to a good person for no reason we mortals can understand, many of the stories in the First Testament make it seem like getting more offspring, status, and stuff is how God blesses people when God’s happy with them.

a.  Abraham was hugely wealthy.

b. Ruth married rich Boaz.

c.  David and Solomon were rich, powerful, successful kings.

d. Esther used her powerful status as queen to save her people.

So, despite Jesus’ teaching here, it can seem like God rewards people with money and status.

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It can be easy to feel like God rewards people with wealth, power and status today, too.

Everywhere we look, we see wealthy, glamorous celebrities on our screens and magazines and billboards.

We read about billionaires launching rockets into space.

We can find catchy idioms in our heads: things like “pull yourself up by your bootstraps, “God helps those who help themselves,” or even see “#blessed” attached to photos of an extravagant vacation.

There is an understanding in the dominant US culture that those with a “good, Protestant work ethic” succeed and are blessed by God, and those who are poor are lazy, foolish with their money, and unworthy of better living conditions and opportunities unless they “earn” them.

Then, there are prosperity preachers who would have us believe that the more we donate to the cause of their private jets and mansions, the more we can “name and claim” expensive things for ourselves. They would have us treat God like a vending machine, dispensing the so-called “blessings” of fame and fortune like they were loaves and fishes.

It’s attractive. It makes us feel like we have control over our lives. If we have resources, it makes us feel like we’ve earned them. If we lack resources, it makes us feel like if we just hustle a little harder, we could be blessed, too.

It’s a hard worldview to get out of.

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But Jesus shows his disciples and us a different perspective on the world.

Instead of a world where the richer people are the more blessed by God they are, Jesus says, “many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Jesus is establishing that the Reign of God is a reversal of the status quo. Indeed, a reversal of many things.

The man comes to Jesus hoping to find something he can do to gain eternal life.

But instead of gaining, he finds that he has to lose the baggage that is literally and figuratively weighing him down.

The man has been striving to be obedient to God’s commandments his whole life, and from the many riches he’s acquired, it may seem like that’s paying off. But Jesus tells him that his many possessions are actually causing him to miss something.

It doesn’t seem like it’s just the having of possessions that’s the problem. Jesus doesn’t just tell the man to get rid of them or to burn them, but to sell them and give the money to the poor.

This reversal of who owns what gives us a clue into why the man’s possessions are a problem. It’s not simply the having of them that’s the problem; it’s also that the possessions are cutting him off from his neighbor.

By telling him to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor, Jesus is inviting him into relationship with his neighbor. It’s akin to the passage in Acts 2, where it describes the way the community of the early church would “sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” By releasing his possessions and entering into life with his neighbors as he followed Jesus, the man would enter into the Reign of God. This is a great reversal: the man who has everything will only get what truly matters by giving it all away.

And the disciples witness this worldview reversal—it’s not as apparent in this story as some others, but the disciples expect Jesus, the Messiah, to be a triumphant warrior-king who will kick out the Romans and restore the wealth, status, and freedom of the Jewish people.

But the beginning of this story reminds us that Jesus and the disciples are on their way to Jerusalem, where Jesus will not kick out the Romans, but be executed by them.

The way of Jesus, the way of the cross, the way of the Reign of God, is not about status, wealth, or power. It is about dying—putting love for others above even one’s own life. Not in a way that glorifies suffering, but as the expected outcome of living in a way that reverses the status quo, like Jesus did.

The cross is all about reversal: Jesus the Messiah is most powerful in his absolute weakness and humiliation. Being a part of the Reign of God involves allowing that reversal of expectations to settle in your bones. It’s a mystery we can never fully grasp, even as we learn to understand the world through it.

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This whole story is about that mystery.

It’s an uncomfortable story, and through that discomfort, we discover some things about God, about ourselves, and about the world we live in.

We discover that, despite Jesus’ hard ask of this man, Jesus looked at him and loved him. This isn’t a story about judgment. Our salvation is not gained by what we do, but what Jesus has already done for us. Jesus says that things that are impossible for mortals are possible for God.

And still, this story doesn’t let us off the hook that easily. Following Jesus isn’t just about getting a ticket into heaven someday after we die. It’s about living in the Reign of God now. And that means gaining that upside down worldview this story shows us.

Living in the Reign of God means loosening the grasp we have on our possessions so that we can grasp the hands of our neighbors.

It means loosening our grasp on whatever holds us back from loving our neighbors in a status-quo-defying way.

It means looking into the eyes of our Messiah, who loves us and who gave up everything for us, and doing our best to follow in his footsteps, even as we know that we are entirely dependent on God to pick us up when we fail.

So, rest secure in the love of your Savior. And then let this uncomfortable story work on you, turn your worldview upside down, and invite you into the Reign of God, where “many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”