Becoming Dispossessed.

Mark 10: 17-30

As he 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.

This is a wonderful gospel passage but the wonderful part of it is often overlooked because of the immediate discomfort it creates as we survey all of our material possessions and ask ourselves if Jesus really meant that we have to sell everything we have in order to follow him. We can certainly understand that it’s easy to get too caught up in our possessions and end up in a never ending cycle of attainment and maintenance that completely distracts us from the Kingdom life. So we wonder if we have become too attached and too focused on our material possessions. It’s a good exercise to discern how attached we are to what material goods we do have and how focused we are on what we don’t have. However, don’t let this very good exercise overshadow another deeply important and wonderful truth in this gospel.

The first clue we have that Jesus is trying to get something planted in the hearts of his disciples is where, after the rich man explained that he had followed all the prescribed rules since he was a boy, it says, ‘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.’

Jesus looked the man and loved him. Within that look and that love was an invitation much deeper than a simple invitation to sell all his material possessions. Far more than material possessions were hindering the man from moving from a law based spirituality to a life based spirituality. Why would this man run up and ask Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life if he already knew he had kept the Jewish commandments all his life and had been taught that this is what would grant him eternal life? Was he really looking for the key to eternal life or was he actually looking for approval from Jesus for his faithfulness to the law? Maybe he hoped Jesus would say something like, “Look at this man. Here is what you all should be striving for. Obviously, God loves him because he is wealthy and not only is he wealthy but he is excellent at following the law. What a guy!”

Instead, Jesus told him he was lacking one thing. Was this ‘one thing’ simply the action of selling all the man owned? Perhaps not. Perhaps the one thing lacking was actually letting go of all he depended upon to justify him and all the things he did to try to merit eternal life. The man went away shocked. He failed to look at the love in Jesus’ eyes and he didn’t allow himself to experience the true freedom of grace. All he could hear was “sell all”.  He was jarred to the core of his being because all Jews assumed that wealth indicated God’s approval. If he was looking for approbation, recognition or a pat on the back, he didn’t get it. Jesus didn’t say to him, “You’re great! You’ve done everything you need to do. I wish everybody was like you.” The rich man completely missed what was in the eyes of Jesus, which was what he really needed: Jesus’ unconditional love and grace. Had he looked into Jesus’ eyes and seen the love there, had he understood that he was being called to leave behind the uselessness of self justification in order to receive the free gift of grace, he would have done everything possible to follow Jesus.

Jesus then comments to his disciples how difficult it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Was Jesus really speaking about life after death or was he speaking about becoming intimately engaged with the Kingdom of God in the present moment? In Luke 17: 20, 21, Jesus was asked when the Kingdom of God was coming and in his reply he ended with,  ‘...in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’ An alternative word for ‘among’ is ‘within’. The kingdom of God is within you.

The disciples as well as the rich man were looking for information about the afterlife and how it was possible to earn eternal salvation. What Jesus was trying to get through to them was, “I am the kingdom of God and I am here. When you look into my eyes, fall in love with me and allow me to love you, you will have the kingdom of God within you. It will be all you need. It will be all you want. I am eternal life personified.”

The big question is, what is stopping all of us from living in the grace of Christ, finding all we need in him and being fully engaged in the here and now Kingdom of God? Do we seek the eyes of Jesus in every moment or are we so concerned with keeping the proper rules and keeping a tally of everything we do for the Lord that we miss experiencing Kingdom grace right now, right where we are?

To the rich man, wealth was a sign of God’s approval. What signs do we look for to indicate that we are acceptable to God? It could be that we are caught up in material possessions but I’m not sure that people today believe that being wealthy automatically means we have God’s approval. We would do well to ponder on what other things we think indicate that God is pleased with our efforts. Could it be that having a successful ministry means God is on our side? Might we be placing an enormous amount of personal justification on the behavior or spiritual conformity of our children or on the number of children we have? Every time we experience God’s blessing, do we immediately recall all the rosaries or prayers we have recited or how often we attend daily Mass? When we experience any kind of hardship, is there a temptation to blame ourselves for our spiritual failings, sure that God failed us because we failed him? Do we place a lot of importance on how much we know about the church, faith and scripture and feel that the more we know, the safer we will be from committing offenses against God? There’s nothing wrong with any of these things – including wealth. It’s our dependence on them to justify us that causes the problem. Even voluntary poverty can become a source of pride and self-justification. All these things become unhealthy when they become our possessions and, in maintaining our possession of them, they separate us from complete and utter dependence on the love of Christ to justify us and take us home. They become obstacles to grace.

The spiritual journey is a life long process of having our fingers pried off false security. No one is exempt. The call to let go of all that we hold onto is not a call coming from the heart of a forbidding God. It is a call from the heart of the Beloved:

“Please…look into my eyes. See the love there? That love says that I will be the total source of your spiritual validation that will get you through the gate to the Kingdom. I am the one who can navigate you through the eye of the needle.”

 I know it can be a shock. I know it’s hard to grasp but it’s true. The best way to come to him is to let go of every single one those self-justifying “possessions” and, like the children Jesus cherishes, come with nothing.The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican parallels this week's Gospel. The Publican confessed he had nothing...and went away justified.

It is only Christ's grace that will carry you into the Kingdom.