18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'[d]"
20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is[e] to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
Many times when we read this story about the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10:17-31 we are told that everyone should learn to share, to give, not to count possessions as important.
But what if material wealth isn’t the thing you don’t want to give up? Every person in the world has a vice or addiction or attachment that means more to them than it should. Perhaps it is your baseball card collection from when you were young. Maybe it is your mother’s fine china, handed down through four generations. Perhaps it’s those fudge pops that your wife keeps buying even though you can eat four in one night. Perhaps it is alcohol, drugs or you watch too much television.
There is nothing wrong with enjoying what God has given to us. We would be miserable people if we did not take time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. When we work hard all our lives, we deserve the chance to take the weekend and go to the beach or somewhere nice every once in awhile.
All of you sitting in the pews today know what your vice is. Some of us only have one, while others will have more. The young man in the story loved his material wealth. Look at this story, it conveys how much he loved what he had. The young man runs to Jesus, kneels before him and calls him Good teacher a sign of utmost respect. Jesus tells him, why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. But the man is not to be dissuaded by Jesus’ admonishment. Still, he replies, Teacher! What is it I lack?” the man was so sure that he didn’t have enough. Right there is the first sign of how the material possessions had taken over his thinking.
But Jesus looked at the man, he saw him and he loved him for who he was. In Matthew, Jesus replies, “If you want to be perfect, go sell all of your possessions give them to the poor and then come, follow me.” In Mark, Jesus says there is one thing you lack, in response to this man’s desire to own. But each version does say that when the man heard this, he was saddened for he had many possessions.
This was the same man who had just run forward, an undignified thing to do back then. If this man was as wealthy and important as the story tells us he is, he never should have been hurrying. Important people always walked as if the world waited for them. So here is a man who is so eager to learn and to follow the way of the Lord that he forgets his dignity. Then even after Jesus admonishes him he is still not dissuaded and continues to question. But as soon as he hears what it is that he must do, he turns away. Someone who had followed all of the commandments his entire life could not follow this one thing Jesus asked of him.
If you asked Jesus what you lack, if you asked him how to be made perfect, what would his response be to you? And would you be able to give up what holds you back from eternal life? There is something we all hold tight and don’t want to let go. For some it is wealth and for others it is something completely different.
If you have your bibles, please turn to Exodus. Exodus is where God calls his people. He calls them out of the land of Egypt and slavery to come and worship Him. Many think that God called them out of Egypt to give them the land of milk and honey, but it says he wanted them to be able to worship. Exodus 3:11-12 it says, But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
The Israelites were never able to fully worship the Lord until they had wandered in the desert for 40 years. When they first got to Mount Sinai they were so busy complaining and making a golden calf to worship that they never truly worshiped God. Instead, they spent the next forty years learning how to get rid of their excess baggage so they may do what God had originally intended – entering the Promised Land and worshipping God.
Think about when you start planning a two week vacation. The first thing we want to do is pack a ton of clothing. Then we add the extra stuff that we don’t dare leave without just in case. By the time we are done packing we have twice as much as we really need. But if our trip turned from a two week vacation to 40 years in the desert, it wouldn’t be long before we started to get rid of extras to make our load lighter and our way easier.
We do the same thing in our hearts. We carry around excess baggage that prevents us from getting to the places we should be as quickly as we could. That is why the Holy Spirit is always working on us, helping us to refine and reform our lives. She helps shape us into people that can walk in the desert efficiently, without the vices that would prevent us from entering the Promised Land. Because isn’t that what we all want to eventually do? Enter the Promised Land?
But just as the rich young man could not enter heaven until he gave up his wealth, we cannot enter heaven until we give up that excess baggage we carry around with us. Those things that weigh us down, hardening our hearts to God’s truth, and preventing us from living the life Jesus has called us to. It was the same for the Israelites. They held onto the past and did not want to let go so that they could embrace the future with the Lord.
They complained all the time! I would not have wanted to be Moses because he constantly had to put out fires. They complained about food and water so God provided bread from heaven and quail and dew. Then they complained about not having exotic food. Then, when Moses finally got them to the Mount Sinai and he was gone for only a few days they created a golden calf to worship rather than trust in the Lord.
It was no wonder that the Lord led them in circles in the desert for so long. They needed every bit of that time to learn and to grow. So it took them forty years of wandering to get their hearts in the right place. It took forty long years for them to rid themselves of excess baggage. They needed to learn to depend fully upon God for all things and no longer worry about tomorrow.
How long will it take you?
Jesus tells us in Mark 10: 24 that it is hard to enter the Kingdom of God. We are a sinful people full of pride, envy and other sinful ways. Jesus has called us to be Christians, people that consider the Lord before they act or speak. Jesus has called us to be his people just as the Lord once called the Israelites to be his people. Are we going to take as long as they did to understand the gift of salvation, the gift of deliverance we have been given?
The Lord calls us. He calls us to worship Him. To love others. To give of ourselves. Before we can do any of that, we need to get rid of the sinfulness inside of us. We need to let go of what holds us back from entering the Promised Land. We need to open our hearts to the working of the Holy Spirit so that we may become better people, not perfect or good for that is God alone, but better.
When we worship the Lord, something changes inside of us for we have opened ourselves up. We have made ourselves vulnerable and as hard as that is to do, the blessings we are given by God for doing it, are abundant. But first we must ask ourselves what would Jesus say we must give up, what is it we lack? And then, we must not turn away from Him as the rich young ruler did. We need to be willing to work on our hearts, our minds and bodies. We are called to be the people of Christ. The only way we can be those people is when we give ourselves up to the Lord, so that no longer is it our vice that has taken over our minds and hearts but it is the Lord that has taken us over.
It is the Lord that keeps us going, not some material possession. It is the Lord that is the way, the truth, and the life. It is the Lord that is the bread of life. Let us take into our hearts and minds, all that is our God, Father, son and Spirit. Let the Lord take you over and let go of everything else so you too may enter the Promised Land - the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.
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