I was raised by a single mom from the time I was three years old until I was about nine years old. Back then we lived in a small trailer in Los Angeles. My mom was on welfare. I remember at one time having a teenage runaway living with us, and he would baby-sit me at night while my mom worked. We bought our groceries with food stamps, and recycled our bottles and cans to make ends meet. Although it wasn’t poverty in the same sense that the rest of the world faces poverty, I have vivid memories of cars that didn’t run, meals of macaroni and cheese, and wondering if how we were going to make it.
Then my mom married my adopted dad, and things started to change. We bought a nicer trailer in Gardena, still in the Los Angeles area, but in a nicer area. Both my mom and adoptive dad worked outside the home, so the need for food stamps and welfare checks ended. Then my adoptive dad’s mother died and he received a sizeable inheritance. My parents bought their first home in a suburb of Los Angeles, and we went from being close to the poverty level to being middle class. From that point on, I don’t remember ever having clothes with holes in them, dinners of macaroni and cheese, or cars that wouldn’t start. Our story wasn’t a rags to riches story, but it was a classic story of American upward mobility, coming from the trailer parks of Los Angeles to the middle class suburbs.
But I’ve come to realize as an adult that my experience during those childhood years wasn’t genuine poverty. Genuine poverty is where there’s no hope that anything will ever change. Genuine poverty is having no place to sleep, no prospects for the next meal, and no hope that things will change.
Even the poorest people in America are considered well off from a global perspective. When we see the poverty in places like North Korea and Sudan in Africa we realize that even the poorest in our culture have opportunities that other people only dream about. I don’t want to minimize how difficult it is for people in our culture living in poverty, because I know it’s hard, and many never break the cycle of poverty in their lives. But as Americans we live in the richest economy in the history of the human race.
Now I share all this because today we’re going to look at what Jesus says to a very wealthy young man. And our tendency is to think of wealthy people as people who make a lot more money than we do. We simply don’t consider ourselves to be rich or affluent, because there’s always someone else who has a lot more. Even multimillionaire Ted Turner, at the height of his financial success, admitted that he felt like a loser because Bill Gates had so much more money than Ted had.
But I believe Jesus’ words to the wealthy young man apply to each and every one of us in this room. If you know how to read and write, you’re among the world’s elite. If you own a Bible or have ever paid to have your hair cut, you’re among the world’s most affluent people. Now I’m not saying this to make us feel guilty. People don’t decide where they’re born, and most of us just happened to be born in an affluent society where we have incredible opportunities. So I’m not here to throw a guilt trip on us. But I do want to give us a reality check, so we realize that the words we look at today aren’t just for the people we see on TV at Oscar night or read about in People magazine, but they’re for us, each of us.
We’ve been in a series through the New Testament book of Mark called Following Jesus in the Real World. Today we’re going to look at Jesus’ encounter with a very wealthy young man.
1. The Priority of The Call (Mark 10:17-22)
Let’s look at this encounter between Jesus and this wealthy young man in vv. 17-22. This man appears as Jesus is making his way toward Jerusalem. Out of nowhere this guy appears, enthusiastically running to Jesus, respectfully kneeling down in front of Jesus. This young man is the most promising recruit we’ve seen in Mark’s story so far. If Jesus had held a draft to find potential followers, this guy would’ve been a first round draft pick. Luke’s gospel tells us that he was not only wealthy, but he was also a leader in the community. Up to this point, Jesus’ recruits have been from the lower levels of society, fishermen like Peter and Andrew, government workers like Levi. Yet here’s a guy with some clout, someone with position and title, and a lot of money to boot.
And Mark gives us no reason to doubt this young man’s sincerity. He doesn’t come to trick Jesus, but he’s on a spiritual quest to make ensure that his relationship with God is all that it should be. Perhaps his wealth and prominence have left him empty, with a gnawing feeling that something’s missing in his life. This young man certainly wouldn’t be the first to reach the top of the ladder of success and say, "Is this all there is?"
He calls Jesus "good teacher," perhaps expecting Jesus to return the favor and call him good, or at least good enough. But Jesus deflects his compliment, focusing attention on the goodness of God. Human goodness is relative, so the only person rightfully called good is God himself. Now had this young man recognized that Jesus was God in human form, Jesus probably would’ve accepted the title, but since he treats Jesus as a rabbi, Jesus redirects the man’s attention to God.
His question about inheriting eternal life shows us that his spiritual quest has been a quest for certainty. His life on this earth is certainly secure and comfortable. But how can he be sure that his condition in the life to come will be secure? He comes to Jesus for assurance that he’ll be accepted by God after death, that he’ll live forever in the presence of God.
Jesus perceives that the man is well educated in the Jewish Scriptures, so he says, "You know the commandments." Jesus lists the last five of the ten commandments. Commandment six: Don’t murder people. Commandment seven: Don’t commit adultery. Commandment eight: Don’t steal from people. Commandment nine: Don’t give false testimony. Commandment ten was don’t covet, but Jesus focuses on not defrauding people. Finally commandment five: Honor your parents.
The man says that he’s been careful to observe these commands since he was a boy. The word translated "kept" in v. 20 is the Greek word for "guard," and in this context it means careful observance of the commandments, meticulously guarding his life so he doesn’t violate them. And Mark gives us no reason to doubt this man’s testimony, that he has scrupulously kept the Jewish commandments as best as he understood them.
Now obviously this man wasn’t present to hear Jesus’ sermon on the mount, when Jesus interpreted some of these commandments as being more far reaching than literally obedience. In his sermon on the mount, Jesus said not murdering isn’t enough to keep the sixth commandment; we must also refrain from angry outbursts and verbal put downs. Jesus also said refraining cheating on your spouse wasn’t enough to keep the seventh commandment; we must also guard our eyes and our hearts from lust. But I think Jesus gives this guy the benefit of the doubt, that he hadn’t heard Jesus’ teaching on this topic. Jesus doesn’t doubt that this young man has tried to scrupulously keep these commands in his life on a literal level.
Verse 21 pictures Jesus as pausing to look intently on this guy, sizing him up, probing his heart, and Mark tells us that Jesus loved him. Jesus felt affection and sincere appreciation for this young man. What better recruit for Jesus could there be? He was wealthy, he was a respected leader, and he had integrity. Jesus doesn’t see hypocrisy; he sees a young man on a spiritual quest.
So Jesus invites him to become a follower, but the prerequisite Jesus gives the man is amazing. Jesus tells him to liquidate all his assets--homes, stocks, businesses, bank accounts--and give the money away to the poor. Then this man will be ready to become a follower of Jesus, to live as a Christian.
Can you picture the enthusiasm in the man’s face draining as Jesus’ words sink in? Can you see his face falling, his smile turning to a frown, and him walking away in sadness? Jesus identified the one thing that held the man back, the one thing that he wasn’t willing to give up: his wealth. Although this man he’d careful to observe the last five commandments, he’s neglected the first commandment: no other gods. In this man’s life, his wealth had become his god, his idol, more important than ensuring his eternal life.
Here we find our first principle. The call to follow Jesus as disciples takes priority over everything else in life.
Becoming a Christian is like when scientists go through a paradigm shift. A paradigm shift is where people in a group go through such a major shift in their way of looking at things, that everything they thought they knew must be reevaluated. When scientists shifted from viewing the universe as earth centered to viewing it as sun centered, that shift changed everything. Everything they thought they knew about the planets and the stars had to be revised in light of that new way of looking at the universe. Many old theories that used to make sense became obsolete, and new theories had to take their place.
Becoming a follower of Jesus Christ is no less radical, because it changes the way we look at everything. When we hear the call to follow Jesus, we must revise everything that we thought we knew and we thought was important in light of Jesus. Jesus becomes the ordering center of our lives, changing how we define success, our attitudes toward money, our attitudes toward relationships, people, the world, everything.
Now on the one hand, Jesus words to this rich young man were unique to this one situation. This is the only time we see Jesus demand that a potential follower first liquidate all his assets before becoming a Christian. And many of us breath a silent sigh of relief, because voluntary poverty seems like an awfully stiff prerequisite to becoming a Christian. And this radical step was only necessary because his wealth was his god, it held the center place of his heart. Jesus knew that so long as he retained his wealth that God could never hold the center place of affections. But who’s to say that the same radical surgery isn’t needed in some of our lives? A scary question to ask. But since this is the only time Jesus gives this requirement to a person, this requirement seems unique to this particular person in this specific situation.
But on the other hand, Jesus’ command for the man to use his wealth to gain treasures in heaven isn’t unique. In Matthew 6, Jesus commands all Christians,
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasures is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).That command isn’t unique to a specific situation, but it’s universal to all Christians. So although Jesus doesn’t require all of us to liquidate our assets, he does expect all of us to view our assets as the raw materials for investing ourselves in God’s work. He expects us to use those materials to make a difference in the lives of people. We do that through our giving in church, our support of missionaries, and by sharing what we have with people in need.
When the call to follow Jesus Christ comes to a person, that call must take priority over everything else in order for the person to respond to the call. That’s why so many people walk away, just as this promising young recruit did.
2. Obstacles to Responding (Mark 10:23-27)
That brings us to a conversation between Jesus and his disciples after the young man walked away in vv. 23-27. You need to know that back in Jesus’ day, most people believed that wealth was a sure sign of God’s favor. But Jesus goes against this common opinion, by saying that its extremely difficult for wealthy people to enter God’s kingdom.
Now "entering God’s kingdom" is another way of describing eternal life. It pictures a person as placing him or herself under God’s reign, living as a subject of God’s kingship. A person can enter into our nation one of three ways: They can sneak in illegally, they can get some kind of temporary visa, or they can pledge their allegiance to our country and become a citizen. Entering God’s kingdom is describing a person who pledges their allegiance to God’s kingdom. It’s a person who becomes a citizen of God’s government.
People back then believed that rich people were closer to God’s kingdom than poor people, so for Jesus to say that wealthy people have an especially hard time entering the kingdom would’ve blown them away. Jesus is saying that the very thing people thought was an advantage was in fact a liability.
So Jesus reminds them of how hard it is for anyone, rich or poor, to enter God’s kingdom. When he calls them children in v. 24, Jesus is alluding back a few verses, back to v. 15, when he said, "Anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Wealthy people were at the top of the social ladder, children were at the bottom. The people who seemed to have the most going for them were at a disadvantage, while those at the bottom were the most open to God’s kingdom. By calling his disciples children, Jesus is acknowledging that they’ve entered God’s kingdom by receiving it as little children.
This leads to Jesus’ famous saying about it being harder for a wealthy person to become a Christian than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Christians down through the ages have tried to make this saying sound less impossible either by making the camel smaller and the needle bigger (Garland, Mark). Some people claim Jesus really said it’s harder to thread a rope through the eye of a needle. The Greek word for "rope" is almost identical to the Greek word for "camel," so some people say Jesus really meant "rope." Thus they make it really hard, rather than impossible.
Other people claim that Jesus is alluding to a gate in the wall into Jerusalem called the needle gate. According to this view, for a camel to enter the city through the needle gate back in Jesus’ day the camel had to get down on its knees. Thus the point would be that a rich person can become a Christian if he or she is humble. The only problem with this explanation is there’s no evidence that there was a needle gate in the city wall in Jesus’ day (Garland, Evans, Witherington). This story goes back to the middle ages, roughly one thousand years after Jesus said this. I wonder if it goes back to a bunch of rich people in the middle ages who didn’t like the implications of Jesus’ words here.
We can’t get away from the implication of this saying that it’s impossible for wealthy people to be saved. This totally turns the disciples’ worldview upside down. If people who have the advantage of wealth can’t enter God’s kingdom, who then can be saved? And Jesus admits that it is impossible, that there is absolutely no possibility for a wealthy person to become a Christian. And remember, this describes all of us, each and every one of us who live in the most affluent economy in the history of the human race.
But of course things that are impossible to us are possible to God. Jesus’ point is that we can’t save ourselves. The prospect of doing something that enables us to enter God’s kingdom, to be saved, to receive eternal life is an impossible prospect. Every conversion is a miracle, every single one.
Here we find our second principle. The more we have the bigger our obstacles are in following Jesus.
Throughout our world it’s always the poorest who are the most receptive to the message of Jesus Christ. That’s because they have less weighing them down, they’re less in love with life on this earth than many of us are. They haven’t created an illusion of control in their lives like many of us have. They see their need for God clearer than the person who’s life is filled with affluence.
Maybe you remember the story of the Franklin expedition to the Arctic in 1845 (Garland 408). It was a well publicized failure because the explorers packed all the wrong things. The things they brought with them were more suitable for a country club than for the frigid arctic conditions. The explorers brought a huge library, an organ, china place settings, cut-glass wine goblets, and sterling silver flatware. But they didn’t bring enough coal for their steam engines. Search parties eventually found the bodies of the Franklin expedition, all dressed in the finest clothing money could buy, but dead nonetheless. It’s hard to imagine them saying in the moments before they froze to death, "I wish I’d brought more china."
When our lives are filled with wealth and affluence, we burden our lives with things that won’t be worth anything in God’s kingdom. After all, gold is only paving material for the streets in heaven, according to the book of Revelation. Yet the elusive power of our things to control our hearts and our affections is seductive. We hold on to our things with white knuckle desperation, looking for someone who will tell us that we can be controlled by our material things and still follow Jesus.
That’s why its so hard; it takes a miracle. It takes a miracle for us to see our wealth as belonging to God, and not to us. It takes a miracle for us to divest our hearts, so we’re not entangled by our homes, our portfolios, our education, our cars, our motorcycles. It’s impossible for us to do ourselves. But God specializes in threading camels through needles, in doing miracles to bring people through obstacles into God’s kingdom.
And all I can say is, "Thank God he did that miracle with me."
3. The Sacrifices of Following Christ (Mark 10:28-31)
This dialog leads Peter to step forward in vv. 28-31. Peter seems to be saying, "We did what the wealthy young man didn’t do." Jesus says that no one who’s left families or economic well being behind to follow Jesus will fail to receive one hundred fold in this present life.
Now this isn’t a recipe for increasing your income by one hundred fold. This isn’t a formula. And notice that the promise includes receiving persecutions as well. Persecutions are circumstances of suffering and difficulty that come on us because we follow Jesus. Persecutions are what the church Mark was writing his story for were experiencing at the hands of the Roman authorities.
But in addition to receiving a hundred fold what a person loses in this life, those who follow Jesus are promised eternal life in the age to come. Eternal life isn’t just living forever, but it’s being in the presence of God forever. All human beings will live forever in the afterlife, the question is where each person will be. So here’s the answer to the wealthy man’s question. Eternal life is found in following Jesus. The wealthy young man came to the right person with the right question and received the right answer, but made the wrong decision.
Jesus seems to be saying that becoming a Christian will sometimes cost us things in our lives. Some people who become Christians lose their families. Think about the Christian from a Muslim family in Pakistan. When his parents find out they throw him out and disown him from the family. People who become Christians in some nations have their children taken away from them. Their spouses divorce them. This happens with regularity throughout the rest of the world.
I have a friend who’s parents disowned him when he became a Christian. His parents moved without a forwarding address, and he hasn’t heard from them in seven years. They said, "You choose. Becoming a Christian or being a part of this family."
And certainly some people lose their livelihood when they come to faith in Jesus Christ. In some societies, a Christian business owner goes out of business because the rest of the community won’t buy from him anymore because of his faith. A Christian is passed over for promotions because his boss knows that he won’t lie and deceive. To become a Christian in some nations is a guarantee of lifelong poverty and hardship.
How do we receive back a hundred fold in this present life? Well look again at the list of what we might lose in v. 29: homes, brothers, sister, mother, father, children, fields. Then look again the list of what we might receive in v. 30: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields. The one loss from v. 29 isn’t repeated in v. 30 is father, which I think gives us the clue to what Jesus is talking about.
I think the receiving hundredfold is describing what we receive when we become Christians by being part of the Christian community. When we leave things behind to follow Jesus, we not only receive eternal life, but we also become part of a community. We become part of the Christian church worldwide, filled with men and women who are joined to us through our faith in Jesus Christ. None of the people in the Christian community becomes our father, because God is our Father through our faith in Jesus Christ. But we find mothers and sisters, brothers and children. We find other Christians who will fill the void in our lives of what we lost when we came to faith in Jesus Christ.
You remember that friend of mine who’s parents disowned him when he became a Christian. He went on to become a missionary to a tribal group in another country. Most of the people in the tribe were already Christians, and when my friend arrived, the tribe wanted to adopt my friend into their tribe. They had an adoption ceremony, as my friend was welcomed into a tribal group of Christians from another language and culture. That was an incredibly significant day for my friend, as what he lost in this life was replaced a hundred fold.
Jesus’ point here seems to be this. Following Jesus Christ is worth any sacrifice we make.
If you objectively compare what you lose when you follow Jesus to what you gain, the gains outweigh the losses. Yes we might lose some things that are precious to us, things that seem irreplaceable in our world today. We might even lose a family member who disowns us because of our faith in Jesus Christ. We might lose wealth and possessions because Jesus calls us to invest our resources in his work. We might not rise to our economic potential in this life; we might have to settle for living in a smaller home or a more modest income.
But what following Jesus brings into our lives is worth it. He brings us into a community with other followers of Jesus. We become bonded together to other Christians in a way that transcends even our biological family at times. We use our resources to make a difference for eternity in people’s lives. And we receive eternal life, the guarantee of living forever in God’s presence.
As Jesus says earlier in Mark, what would be the value of gaining everything we can in this world, but losing everything in the next world because we haven’t entered God’s kingdom?
Conclusion
Only God can thread camels through needles. Only God can break us out of our illusion of security and self-sufficiency to help us see our need for Jesus. When that call comes to is, it must take priority over everything else in our lives, and the more we have, the bigger our obstacles, but responding to that call is worth any sacrifice we might make.
