Mark 10:17-22-- Stuff

As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" And he said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.

An anonymous man shows great respect to Jesus by kneeling before him and calling him “Good teacher.”  He is clearly one who is sincere in wanting to honor Jesus and respectfully listen to his teaching.  Jesus responds to the man without much respect—disagreeing with him being called “Good” saying that such a title belongs only to God. Perhaps Jesus thought that the man was trying to "butter him up" to give him a fair answer to his question.

But the question the man asks is sincere, and comes to the point—although it was much disagreed with by many scholars of his day—“how does one gain eternal life?”  As seen in the following discussion, this matter, “eternal life” could also be called “having treasure in heaven,” or “entering the kingdom of God” or “being saved.”  They are all talking about the same thing: gaining the promises and blessings of God after this age or life is over.  

And this man sincerely wanted to know how to gain it.  Jesus response is the obvious one, one that all teachers would approve of, and that the man would have heard many times: “Obey the commandments.” Jesus gives a brief rundown of five of the ten commandments, plus one additional, “do not defraud” (found in Leviticus 19:13).  What Jesus seems to be saying is: “You know what the traditional teaching is.  Why do you bother to come up and ask me?”  Again, it could be that Jesus answered this way because he didn't think the young man was sincere in asking.

Then the man pleads with the Lord, indicating that he had always heard this teaching, and obeyed it, but he felt that Jesus must indicate that there was something more.  Jesus then changed his attitude toward the man and had compassion on him, because he seemed sincere in seeking God, not just the answers one receives from the local preacher.  So Jesus responded with a fuller answer, that the every day preacher did not say:  Jesus gave the man two additional commands that are not in the Law of Moses—Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and become a disciple of Jesus.  

To give to the poor is a command in Moses, even to the sacrifice of one’s own good (Deuteronomy 15:4-11).  But to sell one’s possessions to give to the poor is not found anywhere in the Law—it is an additional command given by Jesus.  Note, that Jesus is giving this command as a requirement for salvation.  Jesus is not saying, “Just believe in me and you will be saved.”  Nor is he offering an easy way to salvation.  Rather, Jesus is speaking of sacrificing one’s own life in order to gain the next age—the same teaching he gave when he spoke of carrying the cross (Mark 8:35ff.).  This requirement is not just for this young man, but for all disciples, as Jesus gives the same command to disciples in Luke 12:33. 

The man was more than willing to follow Jesus, it seemed, but to sell his possessions was difficult, for he had many possessions.  We do not know what his final decision was: to sell his possessions, and so to follow Jesus and gain eternal life, or to retain his possessions and hope that the local preacher was right in their idea of salvation.

In our day, possessions are easy to come by.  We are taught to be consumers at a young age, and surrounding ourselves with possessions is a comfort. In the United States, even if we are poor, there are many who take pity on us and shower us with toys and gifts.  We are as neurotic about our possessions as we are about sweets. If we don't have them, then we are stressed, in psychological agony.  And even if we don't have many physical possessions, we might collect digital music or videos... we are addicted to obtaining. We are all rich young rulers, where even the homeless collect useless possessions as if their lives depended on them.

Yet possessions are not just something we have, they are something that possess us.  The more stuff we have, the more time we have to take to care for them, or process them.  And that time could be used for people, or for growing ourselves, or for any number of things.  The collection of possessions is the least positive of our activities, but between shopping, gathering, organizing, cleaning, re-organizing, recycling, giving away and throwing away, we spend too much of our lives messing with things.

It would be best if we limited the amount of stuff we get.  But Jesus' solution is simple: just give it away.  Give it to people who might need it-- thrift stores, pawn shops, charities-- and if you gain any benefit from it, give it to the poor, don't keep it for yourself.  If you get a tax deduction from it, take the money you save and give it to charity.  This allows our stuff to be a benefit, instead of a hoard.  And what we have is loaned to God, and so is a benefit for our relationship with Him.  We love others and we love God, instead of loving our own comfort.

And this is something we don't do just once.  We are possession magnets, most of us.  Collecting is easier than saying "no" to ourselves.  We should be regularly giving and giving and giving to those in need, not keeping for ourselves.  This is one way in which we learn to be lovers, expanding the kingdom of God instead of our own.

Mark 10:13-16-- Jesus Loves the Little Outcasts

And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, "Permit the children to come to me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all." And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

Children, in the world of the first century (indeed, throughout most of the cultures and history of the world) were unimportant, a bother.  They were the lowest part of society and they were usually ignored, especially by men.  The disciples were indicating that Jesus was too important to be bothered with about the needs of children.  Jesus was quite upset at the disciple’s refusal, for he had already taught them that the one who welcomes, or offers hospitality, to a child is welcoming Jesus himself.  (Mark 9: 37) Thus, the disciples were rejecting Jesus by indicating that he was too important to see children!  

Jesus explains to them that children are important because they are so humble.  The humble state of a child should be a point of connection between the child and the disciple.  For this reason Jesus called the disciples names that would be given children, like “little ones”.  Jesus is saying that for one to enter the kingdom of God—gain salvation—they must be humble like a child (Matthew 18:3-4).  They need to be lowly, and part of that lowliness is welcoming those who are lowly.  Thus, the disciples, by turning the children away, were doing the very opposite of what they needed to do to enter God’s kingdom!  Jesus, on the other hand, put his hands on every one of the children and blessed them all.  Mark, again, is emphasizing that it is the “weaker” brother who is to be cared for, as he has since 9:33.

We need to welcome the outliers to our church, Jesus already taught us.  But more than this, if we do not become humble, become weak, become insignificant like those outliers, those children, then we cannot enter God's kingdom.  

This is a tough call from Jesus.  We would like to think that it is enough for us to remain with the station we have, to be comfortably middle class, to know where we stand in our society.  Jesus says, however, that if we are going to be a part of God's great second chance at life, we need to be distinctly uncomfortable with this one.  We need to not know our proper station, not be sure if we are doing things right, to be told what to do and to be forced to listen. 

The kingdom of God is only for those who don't fit.

Mark 10:1-12-- Divorce and Love

Getting up, He went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them. Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. And He answered and said to them, "What did Moses command you?” They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away." But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again. And He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery."

As far as moral practice goes, this is one of the toughest teachings of Jesus.  Jesus traveled to Judea, in southern Israel, closer to the heart of Judaism.  In the days of Jesus, there was a debate between Jewish scholars what the original intention of Moses was in his divorce command.  Some of the Jewish teachers held that divorce should only be given for the sake of adultery.  Another group held that a divorce could be given for any reason, according to Moses’ law, because Moses did not make any limitations for causes of divorce.  The Pharisees came to Jesus and asked him to give an opinion in this debate.  In Mark, Jesus gives an extreme position.  He said that Moses was wrong to allow them to divorce at all!  Jesus points out that before the law of divorce under Moses, God created marriage, causing two people to be one entity, or a new family.  Jesus then reasons that since God had created the unity, then that union is indivisible.  Therefore, Jesus says, a human does not have the right to divide what God had put together.  Jesus says, then, that divorce is always breaking God’s intention of union.  Jesus explains this matter further with the disciples, speaking not only of divorce, but also of remarriage.  Divorce, Jesus says, usually is followed by marriage to another person.  But the handing of a piece of paper to another does not dissolve the commitment of unity between a man and a woman.  Therefore, Jesus says, that remarriage after divorce is the same as adultery.  To have sex with one who has already been married is adultery.  Since the marriage is unbroken by the piece of paper, any remarriage is therefore adultery, because the original couple is still married.  This passage in Mark is connected to a set of teachings about how to treat “weaker” believers.  The message seems to be that divorce is one of those situations which would cause destruction to a “little one” in Jesus.  Matthew agrees in Matthew 5:32.

            There are a number of implications here, that are not openly discussed: a. Are partners equal in marriage?  In the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day, women could not give men divorce papers—but Jesus said that this was possible, (which, in Gentile culture, they could) although it was leading to adultery.  Also Jesus indicated that a man who cheated on his wife was committing adultery, even though many Jewish teachers held that only a woman could commit adultery, not a man.  Jesus holds both partners equally responsible to their commitment to marriage.  b. What about if your partner commits adultery first?  Jesus does not answer that question here, but he does in Matthew 19.  Adultery breaks the marriage, so the contract of unity is no longer binding.  Although if an adulterous spouse repents, the follower of Jesus must forgive them and take them back (Luke 17:3-4), if the adultery continues, then the believer is free to walk away from the marriage and get remarried.  c. What about marriages between pagans—are they joined by God?  Jesus does not mention this issue, but Paul seems to think of this as a separate issue from what Jesus spoke about.  (I Corinthians 7:12-16).  Paul seems to say there that two unbelievers who are married do not have a commitment of union before God.  However, Paul says, in order to bring one’s spouse to the Lord, the marriage must be committed to.  But if the unbeliever wants to dissolve the marriage, then the marriage may be dissolved, and the believer may remarry.

One final note is that Jesus, as he does with all his teaching on the law, is simply applying the rule of love to marriage and divorce.  Almost all marriages in Jesus' day were initiated by men, and the women had to suffer through terrible consequences, possibly including exclusion from society, homelessness, separation from their children and more.  Jesus is not so much trying to create a new law to replace the old one, but trying to bring mercy to a heartless discussion.

It is so easy to look at this or that command in the Bible and to say, "Well, it's what the Bible says.  We just need to obey it."  It is interesting that Jesus never did this.  He always put mercy and care into his discussions of the hardest of laws.  

Jesus often would make a law more strict... but sometimes love is very strict, very tough.  If I was a person who hurt others because of my drinking, I might think that it was harsh to stop drinking, but that is what love would require of me.  If I was a person whose porn habit was hurting my wife, it might seem strict to give up my porn, but that's what love would require.  Love is just as often strict as it is freeing.

Let us remain under the discipline of love, doing whatever mercy and compassion requires, no matter how difficult.