A Choice June 11
Mark 10:22 But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Jesus’ last instruction on what the man must do to enter into eternal life disappoints him, makes him sorrowful. This is a cross he will not bear willingly.
At the intersection of the world and heaven, or spiritual death and spiritual life, the rich man is weighed heavily by his accumulations. He not so much chooses down as his direction as he allows his possessions to rest their weight on him. With that decision, he continues in the underworld of physical life rather than the transcendent life of heaven on earth.
He turns his back to Jesus and walks away. In so doing, the son rejects the Father.
He chooses to be a slave to this desire for certainty that all of his needs and wants will be filled. Is this our choice, as well?
You may argue that time and chance happen to us all, so we at least try to improve the probabilities of success in keeping our barns full of everything.
Like the rich man in this story, we have a choice to make. On one hand, we can strive for certainty in an uncertain world, living on the treadmill called “not enough.” On the other hand, we can accept the freedom of uncertainty.
When we know we are not in control and cannot be, the burden of attachment to things falls from around our necks like the yoke from an ox.
We give tomorrow to God and accept today in return. Thus begins eternal life in the present.
Attachment June 12
Mark 10:23 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!
Jesus summarizes the lesson just taught to the young man to be sure that the disciples have understood.
That Jesus addresses the disciples as “Children” in verse 24 is not coincidental with the lessons on children only a few verses earlier.
First, it is a reminder that we are indeed God’s children, just like the disciples. The assurance of a Father in heaven and that we are His both lifts us up and softens the second meaning.
Second, we have difficulty understanding this statement just like the disciples struggle with it. We are children in the school of unlearning, shedding misconceptions in order to receive correct understandings.
The man who came to Jesus was wealthy. Jesus did not condemn the man but embraced him with fatherly counsel, bestowed upon him the Father’s robe of wisdom. Wealth was not an issue for Jesus. Attachment to that wealth was the issue.
Wealth is a circumstance. Whether earned, stolen, or inherited, the value of these things is an arbitrary assessment. The basis for this assessment, the standard by which people value “things,” is not a firm foundation, not based on any lasting values.
With the simple request that the man give up his riches, the righteous mask is stripped away and the naked self is revealed.
The Eye of a Needle June 13
Mark 10:25 "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.”
In verse 24, Jesus had restated verse 23 to emphasize that those who trust in riches are the ones who will have difficulty entering the kingdom of God. Now He puts the statement into a brief parable.
That a camel, a beast of burden carrying worldly possessions, could fit through the eye of a needle seems an absurdly extreme picture for the difficulty of a rich man entering the kingdom.
Some commentary mentioned there was a narrow opening in the walls of Jerusalem, an alternative entrance too small to permit a mule or camel to enter. Only individual people could pass through, and not with any great amount of baggage.
Perhaps the imagery does apply to a real entrance, but even if it is only an imagined story, the lesson is clear.
The only two things you have that are yours are your spirit and your body. Both can enter the kingdom of God now, and when the body goes to rest, your spirit remains in the kingdom.
We lay down our burden - whether it is wealth or poverty, pride or guilt – and then we enter the kingdom of God. External things and thoughts of self are cast off.
All who enter are received. Each one is a child of the Father, and each one is cherished for their individual being.
Who Can Be Saved? June 14
Mark 10:26 And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”
When Jesus tells the Pharisees that divorce was never intended and that divorced persons who remarry commit adultery, the disciples said, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry” (Matt. 19:10). Mark omits this question earlier in the chapter in his telling of the divorce controversy..
The disciples’ reaction is similar here when Jesus tells them that attachment to things bars people from the kingdom. Their mercurial faith collapses into the statement, “Who then can be saved?”
A belief that they have held for a lifetime, that riches were a blessing from God, a reward for a person’s works, is destroyed by Jesus’ remarks on the rich man just interviewed. They see the destruction of man-centered salvation, but they have not yet replaced it with the construction of God centered peace.
To possess things, have them at our disposal, ix different from being attached to them. They become necessary for our peace, and this unholy attachment pulls us off balance. Their weight upon us destroys aby peace, because now we must work to support the things we own to ensure we do not lose them.
This is the work we do for conveniences, the years of work traded for that which does not satisfy (Is. 55:2).
Jesus must reel the disciples back from the opposite extreme. He must remind them of Whose they are.
Centered June 15
Mark 10:27 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
This divine conjunction, “But Jesus…,” appears often in the Gospels.
There is an event or a statement that shows a misunderstanding. But Jesus corrects the error with a clarifying statement or action.
In a world where many work to have abundant wealth and power while the great majority work to attain the bare necessities of life, the former appear to be living a blessed life and the latter are barely existing. Bigger bags and bigger barns support the idea that the rich are blessed.
Jesus models the alternative to the incorrect picture. In a world of poverty and disease (spiritual and moral as well as physical), Jesus lives the peace that passes all understanding.
Whether He is hungry or rejected or subject to other unkind elements of nature and mankind, He maintains His faith and His character. Although He accepts the gifts of food and shelter offered, He rejects the accumulation of these things. Bearing and caring for baggage is a diversion.
Jesus trusts that what He physically needs will be available. He carries only His faith and His character. These are sufficient for they are centered on God.
Leaving All June 16
Mark 10:28 Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.”
Thank you, Peter! He speaks honestly. In doing so, Peter reveals a person’s first thought to a statement from Jesus – “Me.”
Another divine conjunction, “But God…,” occurs frequently throughout the Bible. God intervenes, and difficult issues are resolved. Jesus’ answer in verse 27 could as well be translated as, “…but with God, all things are possible.”
Peter takes the actions of himself and the other disciples as proof they are ready to enter the kingdom. They have “left all” their worldly possessions and relationships. Equally important, they do not desire to increase beyond the few possessions they do have.
Indeed, they have left all. As to their following Jesus, that also is true. They still have much to unlearn and learn, however. They have left, but they have not arrived.
Perhaps the lessons of unlearning old ways of doing, speaking, and thinking take a lifetime, as do the new lessons on how to properly live in the world but not of it.
Peter and the disciples have made a good start by their commitment. Each of us who follows the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” those who recognize their poverty of spirit and need for redemption, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Peter has the kingdom of heaven. Now he needs to find himself in it and live accordingly.
All Leaving All June 17
Mark 10:29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s,…”
Jesus affirms Peter’s statement, assuring all the disciples that their sacrifices will not go unrewarded. And Jesus goes beyond the twelve to include everyone who prioritizes the kingdom of God, moving relatives and possessions one notch lower on their list of priorities.
Jesus lists all that the disciples have demoted on their priorities’ list: house, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, or land. Neither can these give the blessings of the kingdom, nor can anyone carry these into the kingdom with them.
Jesus says in Matt. 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The heart governs, and unless the heart submits to the will of the Father, has its treasure in God’s kingdom, it will lead us astray.
The time in the wilderness with Christ, whether literal or figurative, is necessary for shedding the less important in order to lay hold upon the most important. This is the time of the Israelites in the wilderness, of Paul in Arabia and Damascus, and of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days.
This is also the time of the disciples with Jesus, including those unnamed who followed Him then and on in succeeding generations. Whether in the wilderness or in Jerusalem, the Mojave desert or New York City, their old ways are being reshaped into new ways by their Teacher.
Our old ways must conform to new ways, also. This is the beginning of the newness of life.
Next day
Mark 10:22 But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Jesus’ last instruction on what the man must do to enter into eternal life disappoints him, makes him sorrowful. This is a cross he will not bear willingly.
At the intersection of the world and heaven, or spiritual death and spiritual life, the rich man is weighed heavily by his accumulations. He not so much chooses down as his direction as he allows his possessions to rest their weight on him. With that decision, he continues in the underworld of physical life rather than the transcendent life of heaven on earth.
He turns his back to Jesus and walks away. In so doing, the son rejects the Father.
He chooses to be a slave to this desire for certainty that all of his needs and wants will be filled. Is this our choice, as well?
You may argue that time and chance happen to us all, so we at least try to improve the probabilities of success in keeping our barns full of everything.
Like the rich man in this story, we have a choice to make. On one hand, we can strive for certainty in an uncertain world, living on the treadmill called “not enough.” On the other hand, we can accept the freedom of uncertainty.
When we know we are not in control and cannot be, the burden of attachment to things falls from around our necks like the yoke from an ox.
We give tomorrow to God and accept today in return. Thus begins eternal life in the present.
Attachment June 12
Mark 10:23 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!
Jesus summarizes the lesson just taught to the young man to be sure that the disciples have understood.
That Jesus addresses the disciples as “Children” in verse 24 is not coincidental with the lessons on children only a few verses earlier.
First, it is a reminder that we are indeed God’s children, just like the disciples. The assurance of a Father in heaven and that we are His both lifts us up and softens the second meaning.
Second, we have difficulty understanding this statement just like the disciples struggle with it. We are children in the school of unlearning, shedding misconceptions in order to receive correct understandings.
The man who came to Jesus was wealthy. Jesus did not condemn the man but embraced him with fatherly counsel, bestowed upon him the Father’s robe of wisdom. Wealth was not an issue for Jesus. Attachment to that wealth was the issue.
Wealth is a circumstance. Whether earned, stolen, or inherited, the value of these things is an arbitrary assessment. The basis for this assessment, the standard by which people value “things,” is not a firm foundation, not based on any lasting values.
With the simple request that the man give up his riches, the righteous mask is stripped away and the naked self is revealed.
The Eye of a Needle June 13
Mark 10:25 "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.”
In verse 24, Jesus had restated verse 23 to emphasize that those who trust in riches are the ones who will have difficulty entering the kingdom of God. Now He puts the statement into a brief parable.
That a camel, a beast of burden carrying worldly possessions, could fit through the eye of a needle seems an absurdly extreme picture for the difficulty of a rich man entering the kingdom.
Some commentary mentioned there was a narrow opening in the walls of Jerusalem, an alternative entrance too small to permit a mule or camel to enter. Only individual people could pass through, and not with any great amount of baggage.
Perhaps the imagery does apply to a real entrance, but even if it is only an imagined story, the lesson is clear.
The only two things you have that are yours are your spirit and your body. Both can enter the kingdom of God now, and when the body goes to rest, your spirit remains in the kingdom.
We lay down our burden - whether it is wealth or poverty, pride or guilt – and then we enter the kingdom of God. External things and thoughts of self are cast off.
All who enter are received. Each one is a child of the Father, and each one is cherished for their individual being.
Who Can Be Saved? June 14
Mark 10:26 And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”
When Jesus tells the Pharisees that divorce was never intended and that divorced persons who remarry commit adultery, the disciples said, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry” (Matt. 19:10). Mark omits this question earlier in the chapter in his telling of the divorce controversy..
The disciples’ reaction is similar here when Jesus tells them that attachment to things bars people from the kingdom. Their mercurial faith collapses into the statement, “Who then can be saved?”
A belief that they have held for a lifetime, that riches were a blessing from God, a reward for a person’s works, is destroyed by Jesus’ remarks on the rich man just interviewed. They see the destruction of man-centered salvation, but they have not yet replaced it with the construction of God centered peace.
To possess things, have them at our disposal, ix different from being attached to them. They become necessary for our peace, and this unholy attachment pulls us off balance. Their weight upon us destroys aby peace, because now we must work to support the things we own to ensure we do not lose them.
This is the work we do for conveniences, the years of work traded for that which does not satisfy (Is. 55:2).
Jesus must reel the disciples back from the opposite extreme. He must remind them of Whose they are.
Centered June 15
Mark 10:27 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
This divine conjunction, “But Jesus…,” appears often in the Gospels.
There is an event or a statement that shows a misunderstanding. But Jesus corrects the error with a clarifying statement or action.
In a world where many work to have abundant wealth and power while the great majority work to attain the bare necessities of life, the former appear to be living a blessed life and the latter are barely existing. Bigger bags and bigger barns support the idea that the rich are blessed.
Jesus models the alternative to the incorrect picture. In a world of poverty and disease (spiritual and moral as well as physical), Jesus lives the peace that passes all understanding.
Whether He is hungry or rejected or subject to other unkind elements of nature and mankind, He maintains His faith and His character. Although He accepts the gifts of food and shelter offered, He rejects the accumulation of these things. Bearing and caring for baggage is a diversion.
Jesus trusts that what He physically needs will be available. He carries only His faith and His character. These are sufficient for they are centered on God.
Leaving All June 16
Mark 10:28 Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.”
Thank you, Peter! He speaks honestly. In doing so, Peter reveals a person’s first thought to a statement from Jesus – “Me.”
Another divine conjunction, “But God…,” occurs frequently throughout the Bible. God intervenes, and difficult issues are resolved. Jesus’ answer in verse 27 could as well be translated as, “…but with God, all things are possible.”
Peter takes the actions of himself and the other disciples as proof they are ready to enter the kingdom. They have “left all” their worldly possessions and relationships. Equally important, they do not desire to increase beyond the few possessions they do have.
Indeed, they have left all. As to their following Jesus, that also is true. They still have much to unlearn and learn, however. They have left, but they have not arrived.
Perhaps the lessons of unlearning old ways of doing, speaking, and thinking take a lifetime, as do the new lessons on how to properly live in the world but not of it.
Peter and the disciples have made a good start by their commitment. Each of us who follows the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” those who recognize their poverty of spirit and need for redemption, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Peter has the kingdom of heaven. Now he needs to find himself in it and live accordingly.
All Leaving All June 17
Mark 10:29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s,…”
Jesus affirms Peter’s statement, assuring all the disciples that their sacrifices will not go unrewarded. And Jesus goes beyond the twelve to include everyone who prioritizes the kingdom of God, moving relatives and possessions one notch lower on their list of priorities.
Jesus lists all that the disciples have demoted on their priorities’ list: house, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, or land. Neither can these give the blessings of the kingdom, nor can anyone carry these into the kingdom with them.
Jesus says in Matt. 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The heart governs, and unless the heart submits to the will of the Father, has its treasure in God’s kingdom, it will lead us astray.
The time in the wilderness with Christ, whether literal or figurative, is necessary for shedding the less important in order to lay hold upon the most important. This is the time of the Israelites in the wilderness, of Paul in Arabia and Damascus, and of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days.
This is also the time of the disciples with Jesus, including those unnamed who followed Him then and on in succeeding generations. Whether in the wilderness or in Jerusalem, the Mojave desert or New York City, their old ways are being reshaped into new ways by their Teacher.
Our old ways must conform to new ways, also. This is the beginning of the newness of life.
Next day
