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When We Lack Love, We Lack Life



A sermon on Mark 10:17-31


[for an audio recording of this sermon, click here. Image by Nawal Escape from Pixabay].


The topic for next Wednesday’s Bible study on skills for scriptural study is going to be looking at the various literary genres in the Bible.

So, I suppose, I have literary analysis on my mind, and it inspired me with a little activity to start out my sermon today: I want you all to help me to design a character.

Specifically, I want us to identify the qualities of a character who would be likely to reject Jesus’s invitation to follow him. 

Let’s start with the general attitude toward discipleship:

Would you say – for a character who is going to say “no” to Jesus – this should be A) a character who values learning and following a teacher, or B) someone who tends to be more independent and suspicious of authority?

OK, next. Let’s talk about their moral code:

Would this person be A) deeply committed to keeping God’s law, or B) more likely someone who has a flexible relationship with morality, you know being too moral can be kind of inconvenient at times. Which sounds more in character?

This one might be a bit harder: what about their attitude to religion?

Are they bought into the whole God is real, we should seek to understand and follow God’s plan (that’s option A), or B) meh. What is truth?... or at least they’re pretty cynical about organized religion having anything to teach us about God?

Alright. Last question: what kind of emotional response does this character inspire?

Is this A) someone who is going to inspire warmth, and affection, and the desire to see them succeed? Or, B) Are we going to assume that the kind of person who will turn their back on an open-armed welcome from Jesus, is not going to be the most sympathetic of characters?

We have some expectations, right?

About the kind of person who could stand in front of Jesus…

this miracle of God-with-us,

whom crowds travel miles and hours into the wilderness to hear,

whom the sick and struggling reach out to just touch the fringe of his robe to be healed,

whom numerous people have just dropped their professions, and their families, and their entire lives to follow…

A person who can stand in front of Jesus, hear Jesus say to them, “you. I want you follow me…”

And say, “No… I’m good. I think I’ll stick with what I already have.”

It’s not that we cannot imagine anyone saying no to Jesus. (Clearly that happened.) We just expect them to be someone who is predisposed to reject the invitation…

Because they are independent, or rebellious, or irreligious, or cynical…

And we certainly don’t expect them to engender reactions of compassion and love.

But, as it happens, our gospel story today, as I learned from the SALT commentary this week, is “the only (instance) in which Jesus explicitly calls someone to follow him and gets turned down.”[1]

And when we look at the character of the man who says “no” to Jesus, he’s just not what we expect.

He’s not independent and unwilling to be taught!

Far from it, he approaches Jesus, addressing him as “Good Teacher,” asking for instruction, even kneeling at his feet in a position of supplication and need.

And moral ambivalence is not the barrier either.

Jesus rattles off six of the ten commandments, and the man doesn’t blink. “I have kept all these since my youth,” he says, and Jesus apparently accepts this as true.

Which means he seems to have just the RIGHT amount of religious devotion.

Enough to be committed to keeping God’s law, but not so much that he is invested in the pharisaical system and sees Jesus as a threat. He clearly wants what Jesus has to offer.

And then there’s the detail that breaks my heart a little bit:

“Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”

Of course, Jesus loves everyone. But this line feels intentional. We can feel the tug on Jesus’s heart when he sees this man, kneeling at his feet, urgently pleading with Jesus for answers because he knows he is missing something.

In fact… on most days, this man is what I aspire to be!

Open, and eager, and humble, and faithful.

Which means that he is not a character whom I can easily dismiss. He’s not a foil, written into the narrative as a cautionary tale.

He’s more complicated than that. More relatable.

He could be me.

He could be any of us.

I think that is Jesus’s point in his hyperbolic parable on camels passing through the eye of a needle.

He’s telling his followers to reject the easy, dismissive interpretation that writes off the man’s rejection of Jesus’s invitation to discipleship as just his personal character flaw.

His character is actually pretty exceptional.

He’s not the stereotype of moral depravity or even of self-righteous, false religiosity.

He is sincere, and faithful, and obedient, and moral and he WANTS Jesus to teach him.

And that’s not enough.

That’s why the disciples ask, “then who can be saved?”

Because they are suddenly worried they don’t fall into that category.

But, of course, that is not Jesus’s agenda. He doesn’t want to make his followers anxious, or motivate them to try to somehow do more to earn God’s favor, because the whole point is that it doesn’t work that way.

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

Which is… reassuring.