Mark 10:17-31

Where is this relationship going?

Introduction
Good morning everyone this week we are back looking at Marks GOSPEL and in particular were looking at chapter 10 versus 17-31. Now the passage in front of us today breaks up into two clear scenes. Scene one is where Jesus and a rich guy meet, and the second scene is where Jesus talks to his Disciples and in particular Peter gets a mention, which is not uncommon for him.

Trick
But before I get started, I realize that it is school holidays, and when there are kids involved in a talk, the golden rule apparently is have a visual.
So here it is… not very exciting is it?
Not particularly visual either is it?
So to spice things up a bit, I need some audience participation. What I need is everyone to grab out their keys, like this… ok everybody needs to have their keys up in the air. Right now they need to go into the bag like this.
Everyone put their keys in, in they go, and I’m going to do a trick at the end!

Scene 1
Now scene 1 today starts in verse 17 with “Jesus started on his way”.
So Jesus is in Judea and he is heading up towards Jerusalem, and just after the end of the section we had read earlier, Jesus tells us why he is heading to Jerusalem. verses 32-34 read,
“they were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. again he took the 12 aside and told them what was going to happen to him. we are going up to Jerusalem, he said, and the son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of law. they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who’ll mock him, and spit on him, flog him and kill him. three days later he will rise.”

This was the third time in marks gospel Jesus told his disciples what is going to happen to him. Jesus tells them clearly that the Messiah will be crucified. Their leader and teacher will be handed over to die.

But while Jesus sets out on his way, in V17 a man runs up to Jesus and falls on his knees in front of him.

This is quite a display really isn’t it?
It’s the sought of thing people do in front of kings or deities isn’t it?

But rather than seeing Jesus as a king or a deity, this man calls Jesus ‘good teacher’. Which is the only time in the Gospels, (or anywhere in the Bible for that matter), that those two words are put together. And this man asks this teacher this question, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’.

So this guy has done the two most important things anyone can do in life. Firstly, he sought out and came to Jesus, and then he did the second thing, he asked the most important question you can ever ask life, the question you need to ask, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’.

Can you answer that question?
Truthfully, do you know for certain the answer? Maybe you should do something about that?

Now Jesus answer to this question is a little cryptic isn’t it?
It is a bit of surprise, when we were expecting something a bit more direct.

It is kind of surprising given last week in verses 13-16, where children came to Jesus and he tells them that the kingdom of God belongs to them. And then in V32 of this chapter he tells us about the cross, he tells why his going die, but in this scene he doesn’t say anything like that. And you have to ask yourself the question why?

It’s because Jesus has already answered the question about ‘how you get eternal life’, but it appears that this rich guy thinks there might be another option!

So Jesus answers the man, ‘why do you call me good?’
It seems Jesus sees right through this guys big display, and then goes on to state like a good orthodox Jew.
‘no one is good but God alone’, or another way of saying that is, ‘there is no one good, except the one God’,
Like the shema of Deuteronomy 6:4, ‘Hear o Israel the Lord is God, the Lord is one.’ It seems like Jesus wants to test out this Jews orthodoxy. And so next he tests him on the commandments.

Next Jesus asks him, ‘you know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud (which is likely another way of saying covet!), honour your father and mother.’

And what do you notice about those commandments?
What stands out about them?
It seems to me what stands out is not because of what is included, but because of what’s missing!

Jesus asks him what is essentially commandments 5 through 10. SO what is missing is commandments 1-4. Jesus summarised the law elsewhere in the Gospels in two commandments, which were?

Firstly, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and Secondly, Love your neighbour as yourself.

The Commandments Jesus spoke to this man on this day are all about how you relate to your neighbour.

And so Jesus question is kind of strange and a little astonishing. But not half as astonishing as the guys response, he says to his new teacher, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy’.

Anyone here game to do that? Never stolen, lied and always honoured their parents? Not Likely!

But this guy says to Jesus, ‘I have loved my neighbour’, but it’s almost like Jesus is setting up this guy for a fall, because then the teacher has a question with a sting in the tale for his new student.

V21 ‘Jesus looked at him’. Now the language here of ‘Jesus looks’ is through this whole story, and it happens again in scene two with the Disciples. When Jesus looks it’s not just looking generally, it seems to have notion of ‘perception’ attached to it.

Jesus looks, not just at the person, but into the person, Jesus is looking not at the exterior of the person, but into their heart, into the depths of their being.

And strangely the passage tells us Jesus response is that he loved this rich man, but he sees the idolatry in his heart and says ‘one thing you lack’, ‘go and sell everything you have, give to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven, then come and follow me.’

so Jesus starts with the commandments, to love your neighbour, and the man responds, ‘I love my neighbour’.

Jesus has circled around and now he strikes at the heart of the issue, and he says you lack one thing (and the one thing is what found in the first four commandments). You shall love God above all others!

The first four commandments are, ‘you shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make an idol and worship it, you shall not misuse the name of Lord your God, and you shall keep the Sabbath day, (which is an expression of your relationship with God).’

Jesus is clearly telling this guy he doesn’t love the Lord your God with all his heart. He has another lover and it is his mistress or idol of his money. He worships his money he serves it by investing his time and his money and his energies, he talks about when he walks, he talks about when he lies down, he thinks about when he sleeps, and he wakes in the middle of the night to check how Wall St is trading!

And Jesus solution for him is simple, get rid of the idol, give the money to the poor they need it, and then follow Jesus. Give what is the worlds to the world and follow the king of the kingdom of God.

Let me spell it out, Jesus answer to this guys question is repentance, trust and obedience. Turning from his worldliness, trusting in Jesus the saviour and then following him no matter what the cost.

This guy needed to have treasure not on the on earth, where the moth will destroy but in heaven where the market cannot speculate on it!

In so many ways this guy has the outward appearance of a right relationship with God, he knows Orthodoxy he knows there is only one God, he knows what the commands are, and he tries to love his brother. But there is no heart to his religion, on the inside he does not love the Lord his God with all his heart, the truth is he loves his money.

It was afoot in each camp, he wanted a bet each way, he wants all the outward trappings of being a nice person and being religious, but he does not want to pay the price and personal costs to follow Jesus. You shall have no other gods before me. God will not tolerate and idol.

Jesus perceived into this guys heart and he saw through the external façade and saw into what’s really going on and inside and he saw the idol that he worships. And this should be a warning to all of us, that Jesus is no fool, he knows the hearts of men, and he will judge the hearts of men.

Brothers and sisters do not have an Idol. And if you’re being honest with yourself, if there is an idol that is stopping you from following Jesus like this man, get rid of it or it will consume you.

So the story moves on In verse 22, and, ‘at this the man’s face fell. He went away sad’, (Literally shocked and disappointed), ‘because he had great wealth’.
But that is not a surprise to us because back in Mark4;19 Jesus had warned us about the seed planted in the ground where the deceitfulness of wealth choked it and made it unfruitful. And now we have seen it in person.

This man got the person right, he came to Jesus, this man got the question right he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life’ , but he got the response totally wrong and he went back to his old way of life.

Don’t make the same mistake!
brothers and sisters, do not be someone who hears the word and does not do what it says!

This man had all the appearances of being a religious man and he turned out to be nothing more than a rank pagan who worshipped an idol. Do not make the same mistake.

Yeh Great! But what about the Bag, Relax, we’ll get to it, we’ll get to it!!
Scene 2
Well now we get to V23 and this second scene starts and Jesus again looks around, and this time he is surveying the scenery, and is perceiving the people and their response. He is looking to see whether they also, will be like this man. And he seems to perceive the disciples question, and says, ‘how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’

And the disciples in response are amazed and his words have staggered them. I mean if the rich guy was shocked the Disciples are absolutely flabbergasted by all this
(which is fair enough at one level, because the disciples like us have not got to the end of the gospel story yet either!).
But you can imagine them thinking, ‘this rich guy didn’t even make it and he kept the last commandments, what chance do we have?’.

And Jesus responds to their amazement, by calling them ‘children’.
Now this is evocative for us as we read Marx GOSPEL in two ways. Firstly it reminds us of how it was used back in the beginning of chapter 10 in verses 13-16, where people are bringing ‘children’ to Jesus and he says, ‘the kingdom of God belongs to ones such as these!’. The answer to, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life’, is to accept the gift like a child. So when Jesus calls the Apostle’s ‘children’, it is a word of comfort to them, a word of comfort that they are the ones who will inherit the kingdom of God, not like the rich guy who turns out to be a pagan worshipper of money.

But secondly, the term ‘children’ is also important because in Jesus time, being a child wasn’t exactly a commendation of your mental faculties. Children are people who need instruction, who lack knowledge. They are not old enough and responsible enough, to care for themselves, and it seems to me these apostles of Jesus are still children in their understanding of what discipleship for them looks like. In this next section Jesus is going to explain to them the debths of what discipleship calls them to, because at the moment they are children in regards to following Jesus.

And then Jesus tells them, well we know what he tells them, but is this part of the story, this expression, a metaphor, a saying, some sought of limerick, or a riddle?
Whatever it is, it is quite clearly filled with irony and we are supposed to see the humour in this, the image he uses is ridiculous. Jesus says, ‘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 a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’

And a lot of people try to explain this one away by various interpretations, usually the rich people who try to say it is a metaphor or a spiritual reality, as opposed to the poor guy who goes ‘stuff the metaphor and give me the money!’.
It’s supposed to be funny, and it supposed to be hyperbole, but it’s supposed to be clear, that rich men love their money more than God.

Now as I said usually rich men at this point try to come up with an explanation, as to how a camel could fit through the eye needle, just to make themselves feel better about keeping their money and their chances of getting into heaven.

I heard one preacher suggest; using a bit of nouse and that if you are going to give it a try, you’d better start with the tail! - Like threading the needle!
Another preacher suggested a second option; just go brute force,
Grease the camel up and push real hard!!

Quite plainly Jesus is taking the Mickey here, the Mickey out of rich people in their own stupidity, their stupidity in Idolatry.

Whatever Idol you have, that gets in the way of following Jesus wholeheartedly, cut it out and throw it away. Give back to the world what belongs to the world and you follow Jesus.

Now we live in a Western society, so to be truthful money probably is a problem for us all. We are people who have lots of money, when was the last time anyone here went without a meal, for any other reason than laziness or they forgot their wallet?

we are the wealthy and it is problem for us; because we live as part of a secular culture that says this world is all there is, so buy whatever you want and use it, please the body, because that is all that life is.

But as Christians our wealth is neither financial nor material but it is real and kept safe for us with God, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Here’s a diagnostic question, how much did it bother you that the stock market took a bath this week. Maybe you need to ask yourself why it bothers you so much?

Jesus may be using hyperbolae in his language but what he is saying, he means, and what he says you should do.


Now Your Idol may not be material wealth, up in the mountains were not the wealthiest people in Sydney. But we could just well be the most comfortable people in Sydney. I never met so many people that live one suburb from where they grew up! You Idol may not be material wealth, but it could well be your comfort, (I mean there are good reasons of family near by, and good ‘christian’ schools for the kids!) but are you prepared to give up your idol of comfort to come and follow Jesus?

V26 we read, ‘the disciples were even more amazed and they said to each other, who then can be saved?’.

Which is the same question the rich ruler just asked Jesus, and in V27, ‘Jesus looked at them’, (looking again in this way of perceiving what was really in their hearts), ‘Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God’.


In V32 Jesus goes on to explain how it is possible we are his children, it is because Jesus went to the Cross and paid the penalty (that terrible penalty) of sin by handing himself over to the pagans and cruel men, to pay yours and mine penalty towards God. And he did it to set us free, that we may be sure of a heavenly hope, but obedient in response to his call now that we would pick up our cross and follow him.

And as our story continues in V28 Peter responds. (Now so far in this gospel when Peter speaks up first it hasn’t gone well for him). But this time Peter answers rightly and says, ‘we have left everything to follow you’. And Peter means what he says, but he just does not know how deep this rabbit hole called discipleship will take him, because Peter like his saviour in the end will give up his life

And V29 Jesus says, ‘I tell you the truth, no one who has left home, brothers and sisters, mother and father, children or fields, for me and the gospel will fail to receive 100 times as much of these things in this age and in eternal life.’ This is the real stuff of life.
Jesus isn’t all about suffering, he is saying give up the shadow of what is good, to grab what is truly good, but he has warned that following him will result in persecutions in this age. If the Lord has suffered in this age which one of you is above your master? following Jesus will mean suffering. But it is a suffering that ends in glory just like his did.

There’s a real contrast here in these two scenes between the rich guy, and the Disciples. The rich guy can’t even give up material wealth to follow Jesus. That is the easiest thing in the world to give up, Following Jesus can cost relationships and that is the real challenge that disciples of Jesus face.

I was at a regional conference recently and talking to a guy who is a retired minister now, and has been a minister for the last 50s. And he was saying he met up the other day with high school friends who were Christian Brothers. And at their lunch in the city, they had such a wonderful time of Christian fellowship, as they shared together, and he said that he then realized that on the way home, he felt a bit resentful,
because it dawned on him that because he was in Christian ministry for the last 50 years he had missed out on spending good time with his friends in Sydney, it had cost him time in these relationships he loved so much. Now he is okay with it, because he knows he did it for the gospel and Christ. He knows it was the right thing, but it cost him personally to follow Jesus. And this is only a small area but a real and personal cost, how much more the missionary?

People often look at this passage and pronounce Jesus language as metaphorical, but you do have to ask yourself the question, If you haven’t given up money, and you haven’t had to give up brothers, or sisters, mothers, or fathers or children or fields, if you haven’t chosen to make yourself uncomfortable for the Gospel and Jesus, the question you need to ask yourself is am I’m really following him at all?

Well what are you going to do with the rest of your life?

Throughout this passage Jesus has perceived the hearts of men, the hearts of the rich and the hearts of the disciples, he knows what’s going on!
And you know what Jesus is perceiving your heart now.
What are you going to do in response, are you going to go back to your life, or are you going to follow him no matter the cost?

Jesus said that many who are first will be last, and the last shall be first. The external pretences in this life count for nothing, it’s the hearts of men that God is interested.

Learn the lesson from this passage, a rich ruler came to Jesus and he should have repented from his own old life and followed Jesus. Leave behind the idols of this world for this world. You follow Jesus.

My mate who I used to ride motorcycles with had a tshirt that said, ‘ride it like you stole it!’. Maybe we should have Tshirts that say, ‘live as Aliens and Stangers’.

Now I kept my magic trick for the back of the end of the service.

Now originally the trick was to be I was going to make every-ones keys disappear!
Impressive, not really , I wasn’t going to use any spectacular means, but make them disappear by just walking out the door with them, and then selling what ever they belong to and giving the money to the poor. Not only would it have been biblical, it would have been funny!

But instead of annoying everyone, I thought maybe just one person, so I’ll just pick out one set of keys at random.

Now realizing some people mightn’t find this funny, I thought why not just one key?

So here we go?

How would that feel?

People we need to live like it doesn’t belong to us – Aliens and Strangers in this world, it is a challenge for every person here, myself included.
Jesus and the treasure we have in him needs to be our sustenance in the life and sharing the gospel is our goal, even if it is uncomfortable!

So here’s the deal, you can have your keys back at the end of the service, but before you do, you need to write one thing on your bit of paper the one main thing that is stopping you right now, from following Jesus Whole heartedly that you are going to give to God, and no longer serve, and put in the bag and then follow Jesus. No more false dawns with this idol, give back to the world what belongs to it and you follow Jesus

The son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of law they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him and spit on him flogged him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.