From the Daily Lectionary for Thursday in the Fifth Week after the Epiphany
Mark 10:17-31
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them 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 someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
When I was in the throes of addiction to alcohol, seven and a half years ago, I had become a universe unto myself, isolated, only seeking desperately my own peace of mind, medicating my anxiety, languishing apart from the world around me. In recovery I discovered that we are meant for the care of others, that our lives are intimately contingent to our fellow pilgrims on this journey called life. That realization came amid feelings of profound gratitude, and a new found freedom, a new life.
We are an addictive culture. Aside from substance abuse, which is pervasive in our society, we are also addicted to other things that serve our illusions of self-sufficiency. We are addicted to wealth and the power that comes with wealth. We are addicted to consumption, to the so-called good life. Our personal lives are foremost in our concern. We revere the individual, the so-called “self-made man.” Our culture teaches us to serve ourselves first. At its heart addiction is idolatry of self.
We will not find God within ourselves. We will only find God in community bearing the attitude of serving the other first, and giving ourselves to the care of others. The rich man in our passage is a “good man;” he has followed the rules, but he has come to terms with the fact that his life is empty, a mid-life crisis, perhaps: “Good teacher, what must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus tells him to abandon his religion of self-sufficiency, to give himself over to the cause of loving his neighbor first. And we are told that he went away grieving. A human tragedy.
Perhaps some things never change. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one rich to enter the kingdom of God,” Jesus tells his disciples. “Then who can be saved?” they ask. Jesus answers that nothing is impossible with God, which is to say that we, who are made in God’s image, are endowed with the capacity to love. Love demands that we live beyond ourselves, beyond our illusions of self-sufficiency; that we live for the good of the other. That is the description of “eternal life.” Eternal life is not about the hereafter; it is about living our lives in gratitude and freedom, rejoicing in the good of the whole. Living in a universe beyond ourselves, rich with possibility. It is about meaning and purpose, and exulting in a life lived for the truth.
I found out what love means some seven years ago because my life mattered to others. At the heart of our faith is the call to show others that their lives matter. And in love’s alchemy there is enough joy for all of us.
A Prayer of Thanksgiving (BCP p. 836)
Accept, O God, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
