THE ONE WHO ASKS THIS, LOVE YOU!

(Preached on Sunday, October 15, 2006)

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, AYou lack one thing go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.@                                        -Mark 10:21

 

A seminary profession named Stanley Hauerwas has a novel idea about how churches should receive new members.  A teacher of Christian ethics at Duke University, he has written about the church=s need for honesty and has called us to tell the truth as a Acommunity of character.@

To this end, he has a modest proposal.  Whenever people join the church, Hauerwas thinks they should stand and answer four questions:

1. Who is your Lord and Savior?  Response: AJesus Christ.@

2. Do you trust in him and seek to be his disciple? AI do.@

3. Will you be a faithful member of this congregation?  The answer: AI will.@  Finally, one last question.

4.  What is your annual income?

You heard me correctly.  When people join the church, Dr. Hauerwas thinks they ought to name their Lord and Savior and tell fellow church members how much money they make.  It is obvious Hauerwas does not serve as a pastor of a congregation.  His idea just wouldn=t work, especially in the American church.  Most of us believe salary figures are more sacred than prayer, and would quickly tell an inquisitive minister to snoop around somewhere else.  What=s more, parish experience tempers the questions a minister asks of church members.  Most pastors quickly learn how to dance around the issue of money without ever naming it.

 

So it is that most clergy tend to avoid this story about Jesus and the rich man.  We don=t like to talk about money in the church and this story seems to be all about money.

But that is not what grabbed me this time around when I was reading this story this week.  The money issues are there and I don=t think they should be rationalized away.

But what jumped out at me, is the phrase Mark uses, and Mark alone in his telling of the story: AJesus, looking at him, loved him...@

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has compassion for the crowds, pity for the lame, blessings for the children, and plenty of frustration with his disciples; but this is the only person in Mark for whom it is explicitly said, AJesus loved him.@

 

Jesus says what he says to him out of love.  This is not the gooey, mushy, indescribable, wonderful sense of affection for someone we romanticize. This is honest, heart-felt, tough love, that pulls no punches and tells the one loved the truth for their own benefit.

Aristotle, in some of his thought on education, said that only a friend can teach you really important things in life.  Why?  Because, he said, only a friend knows how to hurt you in the right way!

 

The man came to Jesus with a sincere request.  He wanted to know how to inherit eternal life.  He was looking for the path in life that meant something for the long haul, that wasn=t just filled with temporary pleasures or momentary successes or fleeting achievements.  He wanted to know what he must do to experience the most meaningful life available to any human being.

He already had all the money, and things, he needed.  He had been able to keep the commandments and had lived the life of a good, religious man.  But he knew deep in his heart that something was missing, that having all those possessions, having all his needs met and secured, having done all the right things, had not quite brought him that sense of lasting peace, of the pleasure and smile of a loving God.  What more must he do?

 

Jesus looks at him and sees the one thing that is keeping him from knowing the fullness of the life he seeks.  Jesus looks at him and sees the one thing that keeps him from knowing that peace and love from God for which his heart years.  Jesus looks at him and sees the one thing he needs to do and he loves him enough to tell him straight out what that is.  It is this man=s wealth, but not because wealth is inherently evil.  This story does not condemn rich people.  It does not condemn possessions.  This was not an evil man, the story tells us he was a good man, who kept the commandments, and Jesus looked at him and loved him.  Then Jesus simply makes it quite clear that the only reason he can claim to have kept the Law all his life is because he could afford to hire people to perform Aunclean@ work for him.  Only those who could avoid slaughtering animals, preparing food, delivering babies, tending the sick, preparing the dead for burial, and other ordinary yet necessary human practices, could claim to have maintained the ritual purity required by the Law.  By asking the man to give away his money and possessions Jesus was asking him to give up his ability to keep the Law!  Jesus has asked him to give up the one way to achieve salvation that he knows in favor of something entirely new.  In order to achieve eternal life, Jesus is saying, he must relinquish his focus on achieving it.  He must become a very different person.