Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Mark 10:17-27
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  October 17, 2021

Have you ever heard of a man named Lee Atwater? In the estimation of many people, he was the man most responsible for electing George Bush president in 1988. Back then he was 39 years old and on top of the world. Then out of nowhere he developed a massive brain tumor. He was treated and instead of getting better, he got worse. Shortly before he died, Life magazine published an article in which he evaluated his life in light of his terminal illness: “I acquired more wealth, power and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with a friend? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime.” (Life magazine, February 1991) As I read that quote 30 some years later, it strikes me that Lee Atwater was not a man that anyone would say had misguided priorities. But priorities are all out of line today. We are all busy working to make money and survive, not imagining the despair that will settle in, not just if we fail, but, even more tragically, the despair that settles in even when we get to the top. It took a tumor to make Lee Atwater stop and think about it. What would it take for you to consider your priorities and actually make the changes necessary to put them in line? 

This morning in the  gospel of Mark we encounter a wealthy young man who approaches Jesus and looks, for all the world like his priorities are perfectly in line. He asks: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” It is hard not to root for this guy. He has his life put-together, he’s well-respected, and he wants to honor God. You can even see his humility in how he knelt before Jesus. Seems like all his priorities are in good order, right?

But Jesus responds to this pious question in a surprising way: “Why do you call me good?” he answered. “No one is good except one—God.” Jesus was not denying his divinity. Jesus knows this man’s heart and he was getting the man to realize that no one is really good before God. Jesus continues by pointing to God’s standards. 19 “You know the commandments. ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.” To be good in God’s eyes requires that you keep his commands. But when we look at the commandments honestly, who can say they are good? “You shall not murder.” Jesus says even insulting or hating someone makes you guilty of breaking this command in your heart. “You shall not commit adultery.” Jesus said, even looking at a person lustfully breaks this commandment. Who can say they are actually good and have perfectly kept any of these commandments? That’s why the apostle John can write, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) 

But something else catches my eye in this list of commandments. Does anything stick out to you?  “You shall not defraud” stands out to me, because this isn’t one of the ten commandments and all the others are. This may reflect what Jesus knows is particularly missing in this man’s attempt to fulfill all the commandments. In some outward and pharisaic sense, yes, this young man may say that he has met the terms of the Mosaic law. But Jesus knows that this man has accumulated his great wealth while many have gone hungry and poor around him. This word for “defraud” has the sense of “deprive” or “withhold” in financial contexts. (Deuteronomy 24:14, Leviticus 16:1-6, etc.)  The same prohibition occurs in Sirach 4:1 (Septuagint) which warns “do not defraud (apostereseis) the life of the poor.” He also warns that “bread is life for the poor when they are destitute; he who withholds (aposteron) it is a person of blood…(Sirach 34:26-27).” Some of this man’s wealth probably had its source in creating deprivation for the poor, “defrauding” in the sense of amassing material possessions without care for those in need. Keep this in mind as we continue:

The young man responds in self-deception: “Teacher,” he declared, “I have kept all these since I was a boy.” He was deceiving himself. He probably had kept every commandment in an outward sense–no murdering, no stealing, no adultery, he’d stolen anything, and he was a good son, at least his parents always told him that. As it turns out, he figured he was already going to heaven, what he was really looking for from Jesus was just some confirmation that he was indeed on the right track. Maybe just one or two things he could do to make himself even more appealing to God. 

And Jesus recognizes this and sort of plays into his mindset: “Jesus looked at him, loved him, (remember that) and said to him, “One thing you lack. (Ah, here comes the little tip to help this otherwise exemplary young man…and then BAM!) Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he looked sad and went away grieving, because he had great wealth. Jesus shatters self-delusion. Jesus could see that this man’s self-worth, self-esteem, his highest priorities, were rooted in his wealth and status, and not in the mercy of a forgiving God and Jesus loved him enough to expose that. Jesus knew that this man couldn’t even keep the first commandment: “You shall have no other Gods.” How much less the other 9? 

The young man went away sad and grieving because he realized that he belonged to his money, more than it belonged to him. He grieved because he realized, try as he might, he couldn’t give up his earthly treasure even for the priority he knew was wiser: eternal treasure in heaven. He grieved because he was too weak to let go of his idol. 

This is truly a story for us to ponder. I’m sure most of us would say that we are not rich. Yet by the standards of 90% of the people in the world, the poorest person in our congregation is wealthy. We’re more like this young man than we would like to admit.” Jesus knows that and just so we wouldn’t miss it, Jesus gives us the moral of the story: Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches 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.” In other words, it is impossible. Which leads to the disciples’ very logical question: “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For people, it is impossible, but not for God, because all things are possible for God.” Here is the good news of the gospel: Even rich people can be saved if they will give up their trust in their riches. But the hard part is, they cannot do this themselves. They need to be in the Word, to have the Holy Spirit pry the shackles off their throats so that they are free in Christ to serve him and love others with their money. That’s what Jesus’ command to give to the poor is about, it’s not just about charity. It was a command to let go of earthly treasure and find treasure in God. 

Now, I will not downplay that Jesus always spoke strongly about the need to take care of the poor, the orphans, the widows. The poor, whom he usually characterizes as victimized or vulnerable, not those who simply refuse to work. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that those who would not work should not eat. And in Psalm 34:21 and many other places in the Old Testament, God says that those who despise righteousness justly deserve desolation. So there is such a thing in the Scriptures as the “undeserving poor” in a material sense. But this does not excuse us from amassing wealth and assuming every poor person is a degenerate. In Matthew 25 Jesus speaks famous words about how whatever we do for the poor we do for him, and when we withhold or deprive “defraud” those in need we also spur Christ. This is part of the way that the rich young ruler had grown numb in sin. Is this perhaps a way that we also are blind to misguided priority in our own lives? 

Going deeper, God tells us to love him and love our neighbor, so our failure to love others in any way is only a reflection that we have an issue with loving God, that we too cannot even keep the 1st commandment, just like the rich young man. We are unable, by nature, to let go of our selfish need to amass wealth for ourselves. We are so atomized in our focus on ourselves, own families, our own congregation, even, to the point of neglecting those in need. We need to hear this loving question of Jesus today. Jesus doesn’t tell you to give everything away, but what is the “One thing you lack”? What would he say to you about your priorities? About the way you trust in your money?  

I’m not sure what he’d say to you. (I have an idea what he might say to me.) But I do know one thing: He looks at you with love. Did you catch that Mark writes: Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said “One thing you lack…” Jesus loved this young man and he loves you and me too, as selfish and self-serving as we may be, Jesus loves us. He who was rich became poor so that through his poverty, we might become rich(2 Cor. 8:9). Rich, not in earthly treasure but in eternal riches. Christ left his heavenly treasure behind and came to be poor and despised on earth. He laid his life down upon the cross to forgive every sin and he lives to proclaim us innocent. He has made us poor spiritual orphans into children of the king. Children who have so much treasure in heaven, that we are happy to give away earthly treasure to those who need it. 

Jesus said this in Luke 16:9 “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” Lee Atwater would have given any amount of money for just a bit more time, for just another evening with a friend. How can you use the time and money you have to reach more people with God’s grace, so that you can spend an infinite amount of evenings with them in heaven? It may seem impossible to step out of the rat race, to shrug off the competition and comparison of middle-class America, to use our money to God’s glory. But remember this promise: “For people, it is impossible, but not for God, because all things are possible for God.” By God’s grace we look forward to heaven and, by that same grace, we are enabled to prioritize his kingdom on earth.

Amen.