How hard it is...

Amos 5:6-7;10-15  Hate evil and love good

Hebrews 4: 12-16 The word of God cuts more finely than a double-edged sword

Mark 10.17-31 Give everything  you own to the poor, and follow me

 

‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God;

for God all things are possible.’

(Mark 10.27).

 

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‘The word of God’, the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, ‘is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’. (Hebrews 4.12)

 

That is some description.

 

Anyone who thinks the Bible or Christian belief and practice is undemanding or ‘easy come; easy go’ is in for a shock.

 

And those of us who already profess the Christian faith and consider ourselves disciples of Christ are pressed further, into considering what our faith really means to us, and what the demands of that faith are.

 

This is what the man in today’s gospel, who had many possessions, found out to his cost.

 

Or, perhaps better put, he was not prepared to pay the cost of following Jesus which, in his case, was to sell all he had and give the money to the poor.

 

People have speculated if that is a general instruction to us all – to sell up and give it all away – or a particular one to him.

 

That hardly matters: Jesus’ call to ‘come, follow me’ always calls for some form of renunciation: material, emotional, economic.

 

To follow him the fishermen put down their nets.

 

To follow him Matthew, the tax collector, walks away from his sharp practices and creaming off tax income for himself.

 

To follow him Mary Magdalene lets go of her physical needing Jesus.

 

To follow him Zacchaeus makes restitution of his financial misdealing.

 

This rich man with many possessions is told that to follow Jesus he must sell all those possessions and give the proceeds to the poor.

 

The gospel poses the question: to follow him what do you have to let of of?

 

It will be something you have to give up to make way for taking on the way of Jesus Christ more deeply.

 

Following Jesus means for each of us that we don’t just say put, stuck in a rut of our own self-satisfaction, pride or comfort.

 

We can’t.

 

Not when the word of God is ‘is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow… able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’

 

Discipleship begins with decision; a movement of the heart.

 

‘Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?’ Will you, or won’t you?

 

If you will, then life will change.

 

It’s telling that Jesus was on a journey at the beginning of this passage, for he is always on the move.

 

That translates today into the fact that being a disciple of Christ is not a static experience: the disciple will change, will experience metanoia, which is often translated as ‘repentance’, or ‘changing’, or ‘turning around’.

 

The Greek word metanoia joins two words: meta, ‘to go beyond’, noia, from ‘nous’, meaning ‘mind’.

 

In other words, it is when we go beyond our present mind - changing our thoughts, our habits, our compulsions, our preoccupations - that we are ready truly to be a disciple.

 

We go beyond our present state of mind to see things through the eyes of Christ.

 

And just as Jesus calls disciples in the Gospels in different ways so your call to discipleship will look different from mine; we’re all different people with different sins and shortcomings, but we are all people who Jesus ‘looks at and loves’, just as he did that rich man.

 

And that man who comes to Jesus is so nearly there.

 

Just observe.

 

He comes to Jesus when Jesus is on the move, it implies he’s ready to join the journey, go where Jesus goes, literally and figuratively.

 

He runs up to Jesus; he is eager.

 

He kneels down at Jesus’ feet; this is deepest act of respect to give to anyone.

 

He asks Jesus, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

 

So nearly there.

 

What the rich man was demonstrating was that he was a great observer of the Law of Moses: something the Pharisees did assiduously.[1]

 

But Jesus didn’t say, ‘well, you’ve come to the right man, it sounds great what you’re already doing, keeping the commandments and all that. And thanks for calling me Good.’

 

Instead Jesus does and says something that, ‘is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow… able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’.

 

First, Jesus looks at the man, and loves him.

 

And then, precisely because he ‘looks at him and loved him’, Jesus can’t leave him stuck where he is, being very rich, possessed by his possessions, feeling great about the commandments, and going through the motions of righteousness.

 

He needs to be challenged.

 

Here it is again:

 

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Mark 10.21,22)

 

The gospel reading last Sunday ended with Jesus describing how the kingdom of God is to be lived by those who are utterly dependent on love and grace, as you can see in a person who always accepts of the love of others – the child being the exemplar of that way of being.

 

‘How hard it is…’ we might say, just like the disciples did.

 

And that’s exactly what Jesus says too, ‘Children’ - that’s what he calls them – ‘children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!’ (Mark 10.24b)

 

Hang on, we might say, doesn’t Jesus welcome everyone, unconditionally?

 

He certainly welcomes unconditionally those who ‘get grace’, as we heard last week; but adults, and those possessed by possessions, he welcomes conditionally: the condition being, ‘are you ready to let go?’

 

Letting go of what possesses us like habits and things - be that money, possessions, overbearing clinging to other people, our pride, self-satisfaction – letting go of those things is not a deprivation but a completion.

 

The logic of the Kingdom, the logic of the Cross, is that when you give away, then you receive; when you are last, then you are first; when you have nothing, you have everything; when you die to self-obsession, you are born to eternal life.

 

If you’re ready to that then eternal life, life in Christ, life in the Kingdom, is yours.

 

If you are not ready to that, then you will, like the rich man, find yourself shocked, and go away grieving.

 

And those who don’t come near to Jesus or do not go away grieving probably weren’t sincerely seeking him in the first place: yet still he looks at them and loves them…

 

‘How hard it is…’

 

Well, yes, taking up the cross and following Jesus is, but it is the way to the fullness of eternal life.

 

As Jesus says: ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’ (Mark 10.27).

 

 

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[1] NB This is not a derogatory remark about Pharisees, but a point that Torah observance was fundamental to the Pharisaic tradition.