Jesus and the Rich Man

Jesus and the Rich Man

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

October 14, 2012; 20 Pentecost, Proper 23, Year B

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Mark 10:17-31)  As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.'" He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." 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.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." They were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."

Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age--houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."

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It’s a question of challenge that only an arrogant, privileged person would ask:  “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  In Middle Eastern culture, his question is either an insult or a word of condescension.  In an “Honor Culture,” honorable persons never complement other honorable persons.  To complement someone is to accuse them of rising above their proper level.  For this man to say, “Good teacher,” to Jesus is to challenge Jesus, implying that the rabbi from Nazareth has claimed an inappropriate status above his station.

Jesus repudiates the complement.  “Why do you call me good?  No one is good but God alone.”  That is the correct, proper response to such a challenge. 

Jesus challenges the man right back.  “You know the commandments?” and Jesus lists a handful that have to do with our relationships with one another.  The man maintains his presumption of status.  “Rabbi, I have kept all of these from my youth.”

He’s pretty sure of himself, isn’t he?  You don’t get the feeling he’s expecting any real earth shaking wisdom from this iterant teacher, after all, he’s kept all of the commandments.  Maybe he’ll learn an interesting tip from this new rabbi.  More likely he’ll earn a congratulatory complement from the little beginner.  This privileged man of status visiting Jesus is like a great artist visiting a beginner’s class.  Show me your work little fellows, and I’ll speak nicely to you.  Tell me teacher, if you will, what I, a rather perfect person, must do to inherit eternal life.

But the man has exposed himself.  His statement is audacious.  He claims to be righteous according to the law, according to the Torah.  He has not sinned, he claims.  Yet the Talmud, the authoritative interpretation of the Torah, says only three men of history ever kept the entire law – Abraham, Moses, and Aaron.  This man would presume to place himself in their company?[i]  Jesus knows he has a hypocrite before him.  An arrogant, defensive hypocrite.

Yet, the text next says, “Jesus looking at him, loved him…”  Jesus loves us at worst:  our blind and arrogant worst.  I find that very comforting.

“You lack one thing,” Jesus begins.  Now Jesus will speak like the word of God, as Hebrews says, “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.”  “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.”

It is an incredible, awful and wonderful invitation.

By talking about his wealth, Jesus has exposed his other hypocrisy.  During Jesus’ day, the only Jews who were rich were those who fully cooperated with the occupying Romans as collaborators, exploiting the conquered land and people.  “Change sides,” Jesus says.  Give the money back to the poor peasants you’ve oppressed.  The money and privilege will never make you truly happy.  You’ll always be afraid – over-compensating for your guilt with claims of self-righteousness, defensive of your position and wealth, subject to the whims of the market or of the Romans.  Your money is worthless.  It’s got you so defensive that you are pretending you are perfect.  Give it up. 

You want salvation?  Give away that worthless stuff that you are so dependent upon, and be free:  “Come, follow me.”  Be in a real community, doing things that really bring life.

You’ve done the money thing, and what’s it left you with but an arrogant, defensive fake self.  Your money is like cotton candy.  It looks so good.  It tastes so good for a second.  But it doesn’t sustain, and it doesn’t leave you healthy.

“Come, follow me.”  You’ll have real life.  We’ll heal lepers and feed multitudes.  We’ll make friends with drunken and gluttons.  We’ll tell wonderful stories and party like it’s 1999.  We’ll show the crazy man in the cemetery so much fearlessness that he’ll get happy.  We’ll sabotage the money changers and shut down the Temple for a day.  We’ll see the deaf hear and the lame walk and the blind see.  We’ll bless little children, and we’ll give people their lives back.  You can have all that.  For nothing.  Just get rid of that junk you’ve become dependent upon and “come, follow me.” 

He’s the only person in the gospel who turned Jesus down.  Such is the power of stuff.  The power of money and wealth.

Now I know that this story can easily make us feel guilty.  Especially those of us who are rich, and I count myself among the rich.  Barbara Brown Taylor says, “God could care less for our guilt.  The one thing guilt is good for is to move us to change.  If it does not do that, then it is a sorry substitute for new life.  ‘I can’t do what you’re asking me God, but I sure do feel bad about it.  Will you settle for that?’” [ii]

If you feel some guilt because you are wealthy like this presumptuous man, then do something about it.  We’ve got some good examples in the gospels. 

Joseph of Arimathea is a rich man, a man of power and privilege.  He uses his influence to claim the body of an executed capital criminal and he buries Jesus in his own tomb.[iii] 

Nicodemus is a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews.  He is so protective of his reputation that he first comes to Jesus at night, and he doesn’t seem to get it when Jesus tells him that he must be “born anew, born again, born from above.”[iv]  But when the chips are down as the authorities plot to arrest Jesus, Nicodemus defends him to them,[v]  and at the last, Nicodemus helps Joseph prepare the body for burial, bringing the expensive embalming spices.[vi]  Zacchaeus was a tax collector who was so moved by Jesus’ attentions that he made restitution for his ill-gotten gains and gave away half his wealth.[vii] 

“As far as Jesus is concerned, money is like nuclear power,” says Barbara Brown Taylor.  “It may be able to do a lot of good in the world, but only within strongly built and carefully regulated corridors.  Most of us do not know how to handle it.  We get contaminated by its power, and we contaminate others by wielding it carelessly ourselves – by wanting it too desperately or using it too manipulatively or believing in it too fiercely or defending it too cruelly.  Every now and then someone manages to use it well, but the odds of that are about as good as they are of pressing a camel through a microchip.”[viii]

We all have the challenge of living with our money – our lack of it or our abundance. 

In some way we are all victims of our own way of life.  Whatever it is that we cling to for our worth, and for our sense of worthiness.  Is it money?  Is it the need to be right?  The man in today’s story was haunted by both of those needs.  What do we think we have to have in order to be okay, in order to be worthy, in order to be happy?  Let it go.

The gospel says, we need only an open hand.  A hand open to receive life as it is given to us, to receive love and worth from God who loves us infinitely, and to trust the future as a gift from God.  The gospel tells us to give up and to give away anything else that we believe we are dependent upon for our security. 

That seems pretty impossible though.  I mean we’ve got bills and responsibilities and expectations to meet.  It seems like it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for me to change my patterns of dependence and compulsion.

You want salvation?  Jesus says, Give up that worthless stuff that you are so dependent upon, and come, follow me.

“For mortals, it is impossible.  But not for God; for God, all things are possible.”

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[i] Paul McCracken, Sunday’s Lectionary Text, October 14, 20 Pentecost, published online with the Jerusalem Institute for Biblical Exploration

[ii] Barbara Brown Taylor, Bread of Angels, Cowley, Boston, 1997, p. 111

[iii] John 19:38f

[iv] all three translations work; John 3:3

[v] John 7:50f

[vi] John 19:39f

[vii] Luke 19:1f

[viii] Barbara Brown Taylor, The Preaching Life, Cowley, Boston, 1993, p. 124