One More Thing

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17-22 ESV). Our reading today contains one of the saddest verses in the Bible. The rich young ruler has it all, or at least almost all. He has wealth, youth, power, yet he feels an inner emptiness. He knows he is lacking something. Jesus acknowledges the truth of that feeling. He says, “You lack one thing.” Unfortunately the solution for the young man is too great for him to accept. Mark recalls for us: Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. How tragic that his possessions kept him from eternal life. Naturally we ask if the same admonition applies to us. Are we supposed to sell all our possessions and give the money to the poor? The answer is not necessarily. The answer to our need is not in what we do, but what Jesus has already done. Nicodemus wasn’t told to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor.” Nor was Levi; nor the woman at the well. Jesus sees in the rich young ruler a potential for discipleship that is being impeded by the love of wealth, so he says, in effect: “If your wealth causes you to sin, get rid of it!” The difference between the doing of good works and the resting in the provision of God is often subtle. In this case it had much more to do with the young man’s inability to believe he could be okay without his possessions. I suppose I am learning that principle more so in these past few months than ever before. You may recall that we sold our home in Tennessee almost a year ago. When we moved we anticipated a brief time before moving into our home in Texas. Through a series of unavoidable circumstances we are yet to be in that home. So, most of our “stuff” is still in storage in Smyrna, Tennessee. We have a bit of a joke around the house now. Anytime we need to do something and we don’t have the exact tool to do it with, we now have a new “curse word.” We just simply say, “Smyrna!” I am reminded that while it might be easier to do things with my “stuff,” it certainly is not necessary to get the job done. In fact, it has been helpful to learn reliance on others. So Jesus teaches us that our reliance is not centered in anything or anyone but him and his work of grace. After all, that is the one more thing we need!