Too Much To Ask
(Mark 10: 17-31)
In 1789 John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist denomination, preached one of his more famous sermons entitled, “The Use of Money” in which he emphasized one of his most well-known mantras: Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can. He noted in his sermon that the Methodists of his day were pretty much ignoring the third part of his sermon, give all you can. He argued that the primary reason for the ineffectiveness of the Methodist movement was due to their failure to give all they could, giving out of their abundance. And that was 235 years ago. He came to the profound conclusion that “If Methodists would give all they can, then all would have enough.” Not the government, not the other churches, not the wealthy, the Methodists! I have no doubt that raised some eyebrows! His admonition for Methodists to give all they can was no pious rhetoric designed to increase contributions to the church budget. It was a plea for generosity and a plea for compassion for the poor and needy. He wasn’t against people having money, nor did he think that money was evil. What mattered most was what people did with their money. He said that money is an excellent gift of God, answering the noblest ends. In the hands of his children, it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked. For John Wesley, it was focusing upon what others did not have and how you could lovingly help them with that which you have been blessed. It was about priorities and what really mattered to God the Father.
And that’s the lesson Jesus is trying to impart to his disciples in our scripture reading for this morning. Mark tells us that as Jesus continued down the road, a man ran up, knelt before him and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to obtain eternal life?” Now right there I’m thinking that this man believed that he was living a good life, obeying the laws of Moses, and not hurting anyone, but in the back of his mind he felt that he might be missing something, or maybe he was looking for some sort of validation from Jesus. In any event, Jesus replied: Why do you call me good? No one is good except the one God. You know the commandments: Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. Don’t cheat. Honor you father and mother. I think the man was either feeling pretty good about himself or he was fishing for an attaboy when he replied: “Teacher, I’ve kept all of these things since I was a boy.” We’re told that Jesus looked at him carefully and lovingly as if to imply he appreciated what the man was saying and responded: You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. They you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. For the young man, that was too much to ask as we are told he was dismayed at Jesus’ response and went away saddened because he had many possessions.
Using this encounter as an object lesson, a teachable moment, Jesus turned to his disciples and said: It will be very hard for the wealthy to enter God’s kingdom. Jesus could tell by the looks on their faces that they were startled by what he said and told them again: Children, it’s difficult to enter God’s kingdom! It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom. They were shocked even more, and we can assume that they felt that if this man who had faithfully obeyed the laws of Moses and became wealthy that he was truly blessed by God and should have no problem entering the kingdom of heaven, causing them to ask: “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them carefully and said, It’s impossible with human beings, but not with God. All things are possible for God. Peter, who was never at a loss for words and unabashedly asked the questions others were thinking said to Jesus: “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you.” I think he’s implying that they didn’t have much to begin with, and gave up what little they had to be a disciple. We don’t have anything to give to the poor. Jesus then assured them that anyone who has left their home, their families, or farms because of him and the good news that they will receive one hundred times as much now in this life, and in the coming age, eternal life. Now, Jesus is not preaching the prosperity gospel, but what he’s telling them that if they give it their all, if they sacrifice personally for him, they will be taken care of, their needs will be met, and they shall not want in the present or in the afterlife. To underscore his point, he says: But many who are first will be last. And many who are last will be first. What he is saying is that following him will require personal sacrifice and that, as followers, they will, or we will, enter into a new family of faith which is a present reward, and will later receive eternal life, which will be the reward in the coming age.
During the time of Jesus, the resources for daily living were in a much more limited supply as is the case in much of the world today. And we seem to forget that when we are at the grocery store complaining about the price of groceries there are people going hungry not only around the world but in our very neighborhoods. Jesus’ words to the rich man indicate that in order to become one of his followers, he must abandon his excessive lifestyle and reassess what is truly important. This was a hard thing for him to hear. His wealth represented his pride of accomplishment and self-effort. Ironically, his attitude made him unable to keep the first commandment, to let nothing be more important than God. He could not meet the one requirement Jesus gave—to turn his whole heart and life over to God. The man came to Jesus wondering what he could do and he left seeing what he was unable to do. Jesus’ challenge exposed the barrier that could keep this man out of the kingdom, his love of money, wealth, status, and position. His wealth was neither a sign of faith nor partiality on God’s part.
This story shows us that we must not let anything we have, or desire keep us from following Jesus. We must remove all barriers to serving him fully. It illustrates that the person who seemingly has everything on earth can still lack what is most important, what money can’t buy: eternal life. Jesus’ kingdom reorienting words can be summarized as follows: a rich life is not a blessed life. What Jesus is saying is that in the world to come, the values of this world will be reversed. Those who seek status and importance here will have none in heaven. Those who are humble here will be great in heaven. Yeah, that can be a challenging concept to wrap our heads around considering that the corrupt conditions of our society encourage confusion in the values we hold. We are bombarded constantly with messages that tells us how to be important and how to feel good, and Jesus’ teaching about outward focused service to others seems alien. But those who have humbly served others are most qualified to be great in heaven.
So, what does this mean to us in the almost two thousand years since Jesus spoke lovingly to the rich man, or in the 235 years since John Wesley preached his sermon on the importance of giving all you can? Well, in our world today, at least here at Community United Methodist Church, what we want when our parishioners give their money to the church is that they are more interested in what their money does than anything else. People give to support dreams and visions, and they get more excited about mission and ministry than they do about bookkeeping. Now, that’s not to say that a line-item budget is not important, it is. We need a budget to operate under so we can keep the doors open and the lights on so that we can continue to be the church that God needs in this community and beyond. We have Spirit-led goals to be reached, programs to be carried out, ministries to be offered, missions to be fulfilled, people to be served, and lives to be transformed. And because service to the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters is the driving mission of this church, we have the stories to tell that validate what we must do to obtain eternal life in addition to leading a Christ-like life. Believing in our church’s mission should be the number one reason that you give. So, earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can if that’s not too much to ask.
Let us pray.
Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise. Yes, gracious and loving God, take our lives and use us to do thy work and thy will. Make us channels of your peace as we do all we can with what we have to make your creation and all who call it home a place where all can live in peace and harmony, wanting for nothing. Move us by your Spirit to get actively involved in the ministries of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ as we endeavor to lead the Christ-like lives you would have us lead. Let Christian charity begin with us because doing all we can in Jesus’ name is not too much to ask. This we ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.–John Wesley
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