11) The Trap (Mark 10:17-27)

Chap 1: The Dance (Trinity) (Mark 1:9-11): Do you expect others to dance around you?
Chap 2: The Gospel, The Call (Mark 1:14-20): Is your gospel good news or good advice?
Chap 3: The Healing (Mark 2:1-5): Are your sins against God or people (Ps 51:4)?
Chap 4: The Rest (Mark 2:23-3:6): Are you trying to rest in your efforts for significance?
Chap 5: The Power (Mark 4:35-41): Do you enjoy goodness and calm in a storm?
Chap 6: The Waiting (Mark 5:21-43): Do you have peace when God delays?
Chap 7: The Stain (Mark 7:1-23): Do you feel unclean, insignificant?
Chap 8: The Approach (Mark 7:24-37): Do you know you’re a dog, yet loved?
Chap 9: The Turn (Mark 8:27-9:1): What’s your identity based on?
Chap 10: The Mountain (Mark 9:2-29): What if you are filled with doubt?

Quotes: "The heart of the gospel is the cross, and the cross is all about giving up power, pouring out resources, and serving." (124)

"When Christianity is in a place of power and wealth for a long period, the radical message of sin and grace and the cross can become muted or even lost. Then Christianity starts to transmute into a nice, safe religion, one that's for respectable people who try to be good." (124)

"Anyone who counts on what they are doing to get eternal life will find that, in spite of everything they've accomplished, there's an emptiness, an insecurity, a doubt." (129)

"It's one thing to have God as a boss, an example, a mentor; but if you want God to be your Savior, you have to replace what you're already looking to as a savior. Everybody's got something. What is it for you?" (132)

"Christians ... know that their Christianity is impossible, a miracle--there's nothing natural about it, it flies in the face of all one's merits. Everybody has to recognize that we have been resting our hopes on some form of personal merit. And it's our personal merit, our moral worth, that keeps us from understanding the cross." (133)

Intro: In the account of the rich young ruler who couldn't follow Jesus because of his wealth (Mark 10:17-27), Jesus lamented at the difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:23). He uttered a famous hard saying: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:25), which "shocked" the disciples (Mark 10:24,26), and they asked, "Who then can be saved?"

The disciples came from a culture that did not see wealth as evil, but rather as the reward for moral behavior. The was the worldview of Job's friends. They assumed that material prosperity (or poverty) meant you were living a good life and God was pleased (or displeased). But Jesus' response shows he doesn't subscribe to these simplistic views--neither is great wealth necessarily exploitative, nor is it always a sign of virtue and God's favor.

This man was morally upright (Mark 10:19,20), and that he became rich ethically. Still Jesus lamented at the difficulty of the rich to enter God's kingdom (Mark 10:23,25). By this Jesus didn't mean that it's a sin to be rich, or that the rich are bad, and the poor are good. Nor was Jesus warning caution about wealth and greed. No. Jesus was saying that there is something radically wrong with all of us--but money has particular power to blind us to it. Money can deceive us of our true spiritual state that we need a gracious, miraculous intervention from God to see it. It's impossible without a miracle, without grace.

What was Lacking in this "Good" Moral Ethical Young Man?

The young man thought he was pretty good, yet he felt that something was lacking, that he was missing something? Why? If you depend on what you're doing to be right with God, how can you know how good or how much is good enough? Jesus questioned his use of the word "good" (Mark 10:18), addressed the need for ethics and morality (Mark 10:19), and then said, "One thing you lack" (Mark 10:21). It meant that if you just repent of doing bad things, all it will do is make you a religious person. But if you want eternal life, intimacy with God, you have to also repent of how you use your good things. How do we use our good things?

• We may turn material wealth into a spiritual treasure to deal with that inner sense of poverty.
• We may try to turn physical beauty into spiritual beauty to deal with that inner sense of deformity.
• We may use our good things to feel superior to others.
• We may point to our good things (achievements, attainments) as our merit before God: "Look at how good I've been. Now you owe me a good wife, a good life."

The young man went away "sad" or grieved (Mark 10:22). This same Greek word was used to apply to Jesus at Gethsemane where he was grieved in deep distress. Why? He was about to experience the ultimate dislocation, the ultimate disorientation. He was about to lose the joy of his life, the core of his identity--his Father, his spiritual center, his very self. To this man, money was his center, his identity, his very self. He was about to lose himself--to lose what little sense he had of having covered the stain of inconsequentiality.

This young man's problem is not his financial worth; it's his moral worth. It's his sense that he doesn't need the grace of God. He has depended on his moral goodness and his money to "save himself." What happens to him is analogous to another encounter with a teacher of the law (Mark 12:28-34).

What's Your Attitude Toward Money? (How do you Know that Money isn't just Money to You?)

"For every one time Jesus warns about building our lives on sex and romance, he warns 10 times about money. Money has always been one of the most common saviors." (135) What's the evidence that money is more important to you than you care to admit?

• You can't give large amounts of it away.
• You get scared if you might have less than you're accustomed to having.
• You see people who are doing better than you, even if you might have worked harder or might be a better person, and it gets under your skin.

Money is then no longer a tool; it's the scorecard. It's your essence, your identity. Though money is not intrinsically evil, it has some incredible power to keep you from God.

Jesus wasn't despising him for his sick attachment to his money. Rather, "Jesus looked at him and loved him" (Mark 10:21). Did Jesus love him for his leadership potential? Not likely.

Jesus identified with him. They might be close to the same age. Jesus is far richer than this man can imagine. Jesus has lived in the incomprehensible glory, wealth, love and joy of the Trinity from all eternity. He has already left that wealth behind him, becoming poor for our sakes (2 Cor 8:9). And Jesus is going into a poverty deeper than anyone has ever known. Jesus is the ultimate Rich Young Ruler who has given away the ultimate wealth to get you. Can you give away yours to get Jesus?

If we understand that Jesus is the true Rich Young Ruler, it will change our attitude toward money. You won't try to figure out how much you have to give away; you'll try to figure out how much you can give away. The real standard for how generous you will be is the cross. Only the cross can drain money of its importance for you. Human status becomes just human status. Approval becomes just approval.

Jesus says, "My power is always moving away from people who love power and money. My power is always moving toward people who are giving it away, as I did."

Question: Does it move you to think of what Jesus did for you?

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