1. Jesus and the rich man

Last Sunday we began reading the chapter 10 of the Gospel according to Mark. The first theme of the chapter was about marriage and divorced, or relationship between man and woman.
We learned from the Bible that the act of marriage, including sexual relation, is given to humans by God primary as blessing. However it sometimes pushed humans to sin and became a curse.
Today’s lecturing portion concerning Jesus teachings on wealth might give a similar conclusion. It means humans risk twisting God’s blessings and making them elements of sinful conducts.

Money and man-woman relationship are two of the most important factors for humans because both of them may make us to enter in sinner life. Now please pay attention to the structure of Mark’s writing about those subjects. He placed between two themes a passage about blessing for children ;- People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.(Mark 10:13-16)

We can think that Mark intended to suggest us to conduct like little children facing those two issues. Because little children are indifferent to sex and money. We will reflect on how little children are free from those concerns.
Mark opens todays’ reading part this way ;- As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?"(Mark 10:17)

The episode is generally called “The Rich Young Man” (see Mark 10:22 “he had great wealth” and Matthew 19:20 “the young man said")

So we find him rich and young. That lucky person came to Jesus to know what he must do in order to inherit eternal life and Jesus responded to him rather in cool way ;- “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.(Mark 10:18)

Because Jesus gat insight into his mind. The man had been trying to enter into eternal life through respectful acts by observing commandments, in other word through human efforts. Nonetheless he did not seek God, “the only good one”, which was the very problem.

Jesus continues conversation to see inside his thinking more profoundly ;- You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’"(Mark 10:19)

The man answered this way ;- “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy."(Mark 10:20)

And Jesus’ response was completely unexpected to him ;- Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."(Mark 10:21)

The five instructions contained in the verse above reveal life style of the young man till that time. “Sell everything you have and give to the poor” tells us that he had been using his wealth for himself, not for neighbors. Even if he did charitable acts it was only to reach at eternal life. He observed Mosaic commandments as obligation in exchange of his salvation, not by rejoicing in the faith. Therefore Jesus suggested him to give up his wealth for others and told him “then come, follow me” , the alternative which must lead him to authentic happiness. But the man relied too much on his materially rich life to accept Jesus’ invitation ;- At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.(Mark10:22)

2. Understanding of the church

To reflect further on the episode we will see historical understanding of the teachings by the church. To the beginning, Jesus’ first disciples took them literally and tried to respect word for word what Jesus had said. Acts tell us how they lived after the Ascension ;- There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.(Acts 4:34-35)

But, as the time goes by, the commune was to see fissures because disagreements concerning daily distribution of foods occurred (see Acts 6). Some of members commenced complaining about insufficient quantities. It was inevitable consequence. Because necessities of all members of the communion depended on the wealth offered by rich believers. They made money by selling their estates which had been resources of financial income. If no member of the commune earns money such a common life must collapses. It was not at all convincing that Jesus suggested that way of living. The early church should misinterpreted Jesus’ teachings.

Then the church adopted another social structure. It means that Christians were separated into two social statuses, the clergy and the laity. The former concentrated on rites and theology without taking economic activities and the latter remained in secular life during weekdays by participating to rites only on Sunday. They financed with donations preaching activities of the church and clergies’ necessities. Clergy men are kept under celibacy because they must “give up” all things related to earthy life. Catholic church is one of the most well-known model. That But I don’t think Jesus aimed at such a double structure for human societies.

In contrast Protestant church, which stood up as reformer of Catholic church, took Jesus’ teachings as a sort of parables. They considered money to be God’s gift as blessing and thought humans must received it with joy and profound gratefulness. Yet money must not be an object of humans’ attachment and they must be spiritually independent of it. Besides Protestant church encouraged to use surplus of one’s wealth for social welfare.

For example, John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodist church said “Earn all you can, give all you can, save all you can.* ” Indeed we can use it as good thing following God’s will. However there is always the risk for humans becoming greed, or sinner. So much so we are compelled to offer the tithe to emancipate us from such evil, Mammon. However if we consider the tithe to be simple obligation we might not be able to feel spiritual joy. On the contrary when we think that 9 ninth of our earning, the rest of the tithe, is God’s blessing gift the act of offering becomes source of thankfulness and joy.

3. Not the issue of money but that of life

The story does not end here. Jesus gives a lesson concerning the matter to his disciples ;-Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"Imark 10:23)

If it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God can it be easy for the poor ? The answer is No ;- But Jesus said again “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!(Mark 10:24)

Jesus says that whether being poor or giving up our possessions the eternal life would not be given systematically. The following verse implies the fact ;- Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!” (Mark 10:28)

Jesus did not appreciate Peter’s words. Let us see Matthew’s writing about the same scene ;- Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” (Matthew 19:27)

“What then will there be for us?” reveals that Peter did no give up all but traded. He left his job and family to follow Jesus, because he thought the would have better things. And after the Cross of Jesus he gat back to Galilee and became again fisherman. (see John 21:1-3)

It is almost impossible for ordinary humans to leave all of what they have without expecting reward. In that sense, Peter was the same as the rich young man.

Then why Jesus told the young man to “sell everything you have and give to the poor” ? Jesus intended to teach him that we can not enter the kingdom of God by accumulating “good acts.” Instead we must seek God, the unique good one, who is the fount of our life leading to eternal life. The young man should have recognize that.

If the man answered “Even though I can not leave all I always aspire to follow you” Jesus might have accepted him. Please see another instrastive case of the same theme, the episode of Zacchaeus ;- Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."(Luke 19:8)

Thought he was not ready to leave all his answer pleased Jesus. ;- Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. (Luke 19:9)

Now it is clear that the point of the lesson is not about material wealth or money but of our way of living. If we seek the kingdom of God by counting on our efforts we fail. The salvation is not what we gain but should be given through the mercy of God. We must receive it expressing our gratitude.
Therefore Jesus said this ;- I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."(Mark 10:15)

Because little children posses no material wealth and are physically and socially powerless by themselves. What they can do is only to live by trusting in others’ care. And Jesus says that God will totally take care of us ;- Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."(Mark 10:27)

The young man failed because he relied on his earthy wealth and capability. And when he recognized his mistake then left away. However is he have remained in the faith that God is almighty, as Jesus said, he could have entered in the kingdom of God. But we must understand that God’s mercy will be accorded to us only thanks to the Cross of Jesus, who died for our sake. With his death our ego-centrical entity was destroyed. Only The Cross made us “little children” and saved.

Today’s invocation verses are Proverbs 30:7-9 ;- 7 “Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die:Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD ?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

I find it one of the best advices concerning our attitude toward money. Mr.Ichikawa Kiichi, a Japanese theologian, wrote this in one of his books:

– Money is God’s gift. It should be good. And we must spend it by keeping in our mind that it is given by God. We must take responsibility to the way in which we use it and worship God. Christians, acknowledging that responsibility, can be willing to use their wealth for social welfare and to take care of the poor and the weak. In contrast, in an atheistic society, for example in Japan, wealth is considered to be gain of human skills and efforts and the rich spent it as they want without concerning difficulties of neighbors. Some make luxurious houses constructed and others enjoy lavish foods, for example. Lacking any sense of fellowship they ignore miserable conditions of other humans. Therefore we, to follow Jesus, need wisdom of how to spend money to make the world better.–

And the required wisdom is shown in those verses of Proverbs, ” give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.” That is the very lesson of today’s lecture.
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* John Wesley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley
Quotes http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/151350.John_Wesley