Pentecost 21 Year B

Psalm 22:1-15 Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10:17-31


In preparation for today’s sermon, I read some other people’s thoughts about our gospel passage today. One little essay has stuck in my mind because it started with these words “The first thing to say about this text is that there’s pretty much nothing we can do but manage it.” I don’t think I warm to the idea of managing scripture, I do however understand the sentiment. We are in a season of reading some parts of Marks’ gospel that paint Jesus as someone who asks very costly things of His followers. Last week it was some uncompromising words about personal relationships, this week some very hard-nosed stuff about wealth. It’s all pretty intense and it’s only human to want to find a way, or better still have a preacher find a way, to handle it, calm it all down and smooth it out.

However, I do believe there is power in scripture. One of our other readings this morning talked about it as like a sword. It has a lively edge, a sharpness to it. It can cut straight through our nonsense and evasiveness. It can unlock new possibilities and create new life. It can be exciting, enthralling, persuasive, compelling and utterly, utterly beautiful. So somehow, this morning, we need to find a way to read this story of this young man without turning away from its sharpness, without retreating away from this picture of Jesus asking something of him, and the rest of us who, in some way, would like be Jesus’ followers.

I think Mark the author would want that from us as well. Mark, who I know I’ve described before as speedy and reckless, who wants to get to the point quickly, who hasn’t got time to mess around but wants to make absolutely sure that His audience face into the point and the reality of who Jesus really is. Mark, who starts this story with a big narrative hint of what this particular little story is all about. He starts with “as Jesus was setting out on a journey…” This could be translated “as Jesus was setting out on the way”. The way was a figure of speech used about Jesus first followers, they were followers of “the way”, a new system of relationships, values, ethics and practices. Discipleship as we would now call it.

As Jesus was setting out on the way, up runs a man who kneels before Him. Of course, of course, Mark has the man running. Both Matthew and Luke tell the same story but in Matthew’s version the man simply “comes up to Jesus” and in Luke we dive straight in “a ruler asked Jesus a question”. Up runs a man who kneels before Jesus and asks Him “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Everywhere else in Mark when a person kneels down before Jesus it is because they are about to make a request for healing, for him or herself or for someone else. I would like to suggest that this isn’t any different. Later in the story we get some details about this man, he gets fleshed out a bit. He’s a deeply religious man, someone who since his youth has kept the commandments of the Jewish law. He’s well attuned to religious practice, but he’s still dissatisfied, internally he knows there is something still missing, there’s still something out there. There’s still something he hasn’t quite got, that he perhaps thinks is his by right of birth, his inheritance, or that he thinks he hasn’t fully understood because it is a large and complicated topic, eternal life. Finding that missing something is healing, it’s internal work, soul work, the work of reflection, work about who you are in the world.

That question “what must I do?” is one, I think that often gets used at crucial moments in life, moments perhaps when we are in difficult circumstances, and we have come to the end of all the tips and tricks we’ve got up our sleeves and we are thrown into pleading. Moments when we are left not really knowing how to satisfy or please someone else or when it feels like the universe has thrown something at us and we simply don’t know what to do. It goes alongside the sentence “what else do you want from me?” It’s a sentence used in many a hospital ward or doctor’s room. It’s a sentence used in many a conversation where a relationship is breaking down. And I imagine it’s a sentence that has been used many times by many people in Israel, Palestine, now in Lebanon, in Russia and Ukraine and all those trying to find a solution to conflict. Mark, I think, has found words that perfectly capture a very common human experience. You can hear the frustration, sheer frustration, the helplessness and the desperation wrapped up in that simple question.

And Jesus sees that desperation, and out of love answers “Go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor”. Marks hits us straight between the eyes with this. The man has, after all, asked a question about something vague and obscure; eternal life, Jesus may well have answered in similar kind with a philosophical argument or a parable. But He doesn’t. He answers with the suggestion of a very specific practical action.

I would like to suggest that one of the keys, hopefully I’m not mixing my images too much if I say, the sharpness, the edge, the power for us of this passage, is in the instruction to give the money to the poor. Jesus doesn’t tell this person to simply sell all his possessions, as though the problem is that he is attached to too many things. Jesus says give the money to the poor. Simply put, be the person who knows they are in a web of relationships and do what you can, even at personal cost, to make sure there is fairness and equality in the world.

This is Mark being Mark, being on message. Of all the gospels, Mark is the one that talks that most about the Kingdom of God, or as I think I would now prefer to say, the kin-dom of God, kin as in relatives, people. This is a place, a situation created by God and those who follow God’s ways, of justice, uprightness, equity and fairness. A place of peace and joy, where everyone has everything they need to live a good life. For Mark, this kin-dom is not something we are all sort of hanging on for, is something we can create now, today and in fact, we should, as followers of Jesus, have a sense of urgency and resolve to do what is in our personal power to create justice, equity, fairness and peace in the world.

As ever, the things of the heart and soul, the internal questions, especially, I think, when we are at the point of frustration and desperation with those questions, are about our external behaviour in the world as well. What we do, how we relate to others is both an outcome of what goes on in our souls and influences our internal life.

It seems to me that being given the opportunity to deep dive into Mark’s gospel this year has been really timely. The world around us is terrifyingly full of people in power who are set on revenge and overpowering others. People set on getting one over on others, on winning at whatever cost. In the web of humanity whether close to home or far away, there are many people who are frightened, anxious and in dread because of the actions of others. The world desperately needs people who will choose a different way, who will see and understand Marks’ vision and his sense of urgency in making it come to pass. People who will understand the choice to move from talk about Kingdoms to talk about kin. People who will do what they can, sometimes at personal cost, in the places they are, to make sure there is fairness and justice, integrity and truth. People who will run towards Jesus with the questions of eternity on our lips, and with deep longings for healing, mending and peace in our hearts.