Sermon from November 18, 2007
John Grisham's novel, The Testament, tells the story of an American missionary, Rachel Lane, who servers Christ in the remote rain forest of Brazil, and Nate O'Reiley, a brilliant, besotted Washington, D.C. trail lawyer, who has to find her there and tell her she has inherited a vast amount of money. He finds her but finds her indifferent about her inheritance. He says to her at one point, “You don’t even know how much it is.”
“I haven’t asked. I went about my work today with no thought of the money. I’ll do the same tomorrow, and the next day.”
“It’s eleven billion, give or take.”
“Is that supposed to impress me?”
“It got my attention.”
“But you worship money, Nate. You’re part of a culture where everything is measured by money. It’s a religion.”
“True, but sex is pretty important too.”
“Okay, money and sex. What else?”
“Fame. Everybody wants to be a celebrity.”
“It’s a sad culture. People live in a frenzy. They work all the time to make money to buy things to impress other people. They’re measured by what they earn.”
“Am I included?”
“Are you?”
“I suppose.”
“Then you’re living without God. You’re a lonely person, Nate. I can sense it. You don’t know God.” (John Grisham, The Testament, Belfry Haldings, Inc., 1999, 232-233).
John Mark’s Gospel tells another story of faith and wealth. John Mark’s story interprets the deeper spiritual meaning of John Grisham’s story and instructs us on how to make the good ship Brandywine more seaworthy for our journey into unknown waters. So, let’s drop anchor today in the deep waters of Mark 10:17-21.
Jesus and the Rich Man
A most eager man faces Jesus in verse 17. 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?”Inherit eternal life was a Jewish way of saying, “have a share in eternal life.” However you say it, the man asked the right question. And he asked the right Man. But did the right Man give the right answer? His unexpected answer is part tease and part test.
The tease comes first in verse 18. “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good – except God alone.” In one way He seems to say, “In calling me good, are you calling me God?” In another way He seems to say, “Since God alone is good, where does that leave you?” It set him up for the test that begins in verse 19.
Jesus said, “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.’” That answer to the man’s question about eternal life raises more questions than we have time to ask, much less answer. They are our questions, not those of the man who inquired after eternal life. He never blinked, and his confident response to Jesus is as unexpected as was Jesus’ answer.
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” We are prone to greet that man’s profession of obedience with a certain skepticism. Before we dismiss him as self-righteous, we had better hear how Jesus responded to his profession of devotion to the Torah.
Verse 21: Jesus looked at him and loved him. Stranger and stranger! Jesus’ affection for the man is enough to slow us down and take the man more seriously. It will always change the way we think about someone we don’t like, if we see that person as someone Jesus Christ loves. On the other hand, His love for the man is not an invitation to sentimentality. We see that clearly as Jesus puts the man to the test.
“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.” Let’s hope that verse 22 doesn’t give the man’s final answer, but it surely gives his first answer and the reason for it. At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. People speak vainly of God’s putting people in hell. People walk away from eternal life. They create their own hell and like it. That man walked away from eternal life for the sake of money. Let us never underestimate the power of money.
Money and the Soul of Man
Mark’s story forces us to face what we really love. “One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
The man said he wanted eternal life. Jesus’ test said to the man, “Do you really want eternal life? How much is it worth to you? How badly do you want it? Eternal life is no small thing. It is not a collector’s item. Do you even know what you are asking for? Are you as superficial about eternal life as you are about the commandments of God? Is your desire for eternal life really commensurate with eternal life?”
Think about eternal life! Not just “unending days and unwearying strength,” but immortality in a state of unbroken joy and unfeigned good will, a state of solidarity within the human family and between God and man. The man was asking for something no human being in his natural state can achieve. Jesus wanted to know what that was worth to him.
George Macdonald, a 19th century writer and preacher, has given the best commentary on this verse I’ve ever read. He said, “You do not indeed sell (Christ) for 30 pieces of silver, but you are glad not to buy Him with all that you have.”
Money measures our devotion to God. Does our use of money offer any evidence that we love God more than anything else, that we love eternal life more than this life, that we love treasure in Heaven more than treasure on earth? How do we answer those questions with our money?
Mark’s story is also intentionally disturbing. You’d think Jesus would be grateful that someone cared about obeying God’s commandments and seeking eternal life. But no! He has to connect money with eternal life.
Do you think that man ever forgot his exchange with Jesus? I can’t get it out of my mind, and I wasn’t even there. Jesus’ test seems unreasonable. He can’t really mean we should sell everything we have. Are we all supposed to be beggars? How am I supposed to support my family?
We could ask a hundred other questions in protest against this most disturbing story. Every question digs our hole deeper, because every question reveals how important money is to us. It binds us daily to the cares of this world. We can’t free ourselves from its necessity, and Mark’s story seems to condemn us for needing it. Somewhere in my wrestling with this story, I found myself thinking, “The way I care about money is the way I should care about God.”
Maybe that’s the point. Jesus meant his test to disturb the rich man into rearranging his priorities. God meant the story Mark told to disturb us in the same way. It irritates us, makes us angry, even resentful. It may be the only way to shake us loose from being joined at the hip with the world’s frenzy over money and to awaken us to the true source of our happiness, which is not money but God.
Finally, Mark’s story forces us to question not the proper uses of money but the inordinate value we attach to it. Look at what happens next. Vv 23ff.: Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. I’m kind of floored myself. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
It is tempting to say that these words don’t apply to us. We’re not rich. Before you believe that, I would counsel you to talk to some of your BVBC friends, who have ministered in other parts of the world, and let them tell you how rich we are. Why do you think we have millions of illegal aliens in this country? We’re rich and don’t know it.
Just because we are rich, we are severely tempted to attach to money a value it doesn’t have. As a result it eats away at our love for God, our waning love for God ceases to have power to resist the gospel of wealth that confronts us every day of our lives.
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus made that drastic statement in order to slap us out of our narcotic fascination with money. It doesn’t have the value we attach to it, and it does have the potential to deprive us of eternal life.
The rich man in Mark’s story wanted eternal life on his own terms. He wanted to control matters that were not subject to his control. Such control is one of the delusions of wealth. The great gifts of God are never subject to our control.
A Reflection
I’m glad that Mark’s story continues. The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Who can possibly resist the seductive power of money? Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Here in this intersection of heaven and earth, which we call public worship, God can call us out of our narcotic delusions about money.
How does God do that? How does He save us from the seductive power of money? He does it first by revealing to us what kind of heavenly Father He is. One expression describes His nature well – indiscriminately generous. Jesus pointed out that he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous – Matthew 5:45.
Jesus helped us feel the generosity of God, when He said: “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” – Matthew 7:12.
Then, Christ calls us to imitate the generosity of our Father in heaven. Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect – Matthew 5:48. It is God’s nature to give, regardless of the cost to Him, regardless of the merits of those to whom He gives, and regardless of how they may respond to His gifts.
The Apostle John expressed His perfection when he turned our attention from giving a gift to a child to giving a child as a gift. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life – John 3:16.
The Church has received from her Lord that picture of the indiscriminate generosity of God. Wherever the human family has hung that picture in a place of honor, it has softened their hearts and gently taught them to imitate their Father in heaven with tenderness, kindness and generosity.
The Pastoral Center of Gravity
In September a BVBC family told me such a story and gave me permission to share it. Here’s what they said.
“Dear Pastor Bo,
“We would like to share news of a wonderful blessing, while respecting your wishes not to know the financial contributions of those who call the “good ship Brandywine” home.
“My wife and I recently increased our tithe contributions from 10% to 15%. Not even a week later we received notice of an unexpected windfall of money.
“For a while I’ve known of a distant relative’s estate, which is in the process of being divided among all her relatives according to a court order. To our surprise the expected $20,000 inheritance has become an inheritance of $89,000! God has taken our extra 5%, multiplied it, and given it back to us.
“Thank you for guiding us in how to give. We pray that our money, which in reality is not ours, but God’s, will be a blessing to others. . . . I suspect we are not the only ones who have witnessed God’s blessing after increasing our monthly giving.”
God’s generosity is like a fingerprint. It’s different every time. But over the years I’ve heard story after story like the one I just shared. I’ve experienced His generosity myself. Why should we be surprised? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for all – how will he not also along with him, graciously give us all things – Romans 8:32.
We have talked a lot about building bridges to people. Do you ever use your wealth to build those bridges to other people? I know many of you have done that. You have pledged and given to the Pillar of Fire campaign to make Phase III possible. That project is not primarily about us. Ours will be the initial sacrifices, but this new building will say welcome to thousands and thousands of people, who will come here in the next 30 years.
Many of you have also bought a block of tickets for the BVBC Christmas music at the Grand Opera House next month, so that you could take along friends. Many more of you plan to do the same for the second presentation at the Grand.
And in eternity there will be those, who welcome you into the halls of heaven and say to you, “It was because of your gift that I came to faith in Jesus Christ.” And they will rise and call you blessed. So, let’s pray and ask God to teach us to put our great wealth at the disposal of the gospel.
© Copyright
, Brandywine Valley Baptist Church. All rights reserved.
