Upside Down 10-13-24
Upside Down
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Mark 10:17-31
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
Seek the Lord and live, or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire, and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it. Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground! They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate. Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
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.”
Prayer – Lord, we are gathered here in our church because you have called each of us to follow you. We want to walk your way, but sometimes walking with you is difficult. Some of the difficulty concerns who we are—human beings who have wants and desires, who accumulate out of fear of scarcity. We want vengeance against those who wrong us; you command us to forgive. We look after our self-interests; you tell us to love one another.
Still, here we are. Even though you sometimes say things that shake us to the core of our being and make us uncomfortable, turning everything we want and think upside down. Even though much about you still confuses and baffles us, you keep teaching us, loving us, and saying to us, “Follow me.” Stay with us, Lord so that we might stay on this upside down path with you. Amen.
So, we are on the road with Jesus. And he takes us on not just any road. We know where this road shall end and the price that Jesus will pay for his walking direction. While walking down the road, in this Sunday’s gospel, a man questions Jesus about a big, grand, complicated subject, “eternal life.” Who is this man? We don’t know. All we are told is that he is “rich,” as if knowing his economic status is all we need to know about him. It’s impressive that a rich (therefore powerful) man “knelt before him.” Powerful and wealthy, though this man may be, he seems respectful of Jesus. He addresses Jesus as a “good teacher.”
A successful, rich man comes to Jesus and asks him a theological question, “I’ve always been a very spiritual person, and I enjoy religious debate. What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus saw him, and most importantly loved him even though he had never seen him before this moment. Here comes a complicated theological lecture. “What do we really mean by that phrase, ‘eternal life?’ Let’s attempt a biblical definition. This may take a while.”
Jesus, the “good teacher,” surprises the rich man, not by directly answering his big question about “eternal life” but rather by inviting the man to give up his “great possessions” and “come, follow me.” The rich man has come to the “good teacher” with a great, big, but rather theoretical and distant theological idea—“eternal life.” The man’s question about a theological idea leads Jesus to worldly concerns about material possessions. Then, into a vocational encounter, a discipleship invitation, “Follow me.” Jesus is inviting someone to be his disciple.
No, Jesus says that man already knows the answer to this question, an answer known by everyone there since childhood—obeying God’s commandments. Sometimes, we already know the answer to a question; it’s just that the answer is complicated, so we don’t like it! Our problem is not that we lack sufficient information or haven’t taken the time to find the answer; our challenge is that we already know and are looking for a way around what we know because Jesus has a way of turning lots of things upside down.
The inquiring rich man admits to Jesus that he not only knows the answer but has actually lived the answer, obeying all the commandments since he was a kid. He has been good at being very good.
And maybe to knock him off his high horse that Jesus says he lacks one thing. He must go, sell everything he has, give to the poor, and then “follow me.” The man wants to have a theological discussion with Jesus about the big, conflicted, intellectually troubling topic of “eternal life.” Let’s bat around some ideas, play with some competing concepts, and have a frank and open discussion of “eternal life.”
Jesus responds, not with ideas and concepts but with active verbs and commands: Go. Sell. Give. Follow. The way toward “eternal life,” the path to start living eternal life now? Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t ask him to believe that he is the Messiah, affirm a particular creed or biblical authority, or feel something in his heart. It’s go, sell, give, follow. Talk about turning a conversation upside down!
Down through the ages, people have wondered why Jesus commanded the man to divest from his earthly possessions. Did Jesus suspect the man was greedy? Was Jesus trying to set the bar so high that the man would be knocked down from his smugness? Who knows?
All we know is that the man did not go, sell, give, or follow. He slumped down, got depressed, and walked away. Jesus continued to love him even though he is the only person who ever chose not to follow. Meanwhile, Jesus exclaims to his disciples, “It’s tough to save the rich.”
This is the only place in the Gospels where someone is invited to be a disciple, to come “follow me” and refuse. Whatever his reason, the rich man could not imagine his life without all his stuff. He could not imagine this “good teacher” knew what he was teaching. He could not imagine Jesus addressing him, telling him the truth about himself and the way to eternal life. He couldn’t imagine any way toward the life he wanted other than the path of possessions. Jesus’ request turned his entire belief system about eternal life, wealth – upside down.
Sad. And yet, here’s what I want you to notice. Though this is the end of the excellent teacher’s instruction of this rich man, it is not the end of Jesus’s teaching of his disciples. The lecture continues as they walk down the road. And they follow. They are busy doing what the rich man refused to do.
Say what you will about the limitations of the twelve disciples they follow. They keep listening, and Jesus keeps talking. I expect the rich man had many advantages and privileges that the fisher folk disciples did not have. He seems to fancy himself as an intellectual, somebody who has the time to sit around and have deep discussions of subjects like “eternal life.” But he does not go, sell, give, and follow. At least the disciples do that.
Jesus marvels that the salvation of the rich is a challenging task. It’s as tough as it is to shove a fully loaded camel through the eye of a needle! Mark says, “They were shocked even more and said to each other, “Then who can be saved?” Seems that their beliefs on salvation was being turned upside down as well.
The teacher replies, “It’s impossible with human beings, but not with God. All things are possible for God.”
Then, it is as if one of his disciples, Peter, gets the point of the lecture; the light goes on, and Peter exclaims, “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you.” And Jesus, the resourceful teacher, exclaims, “Got it!”
A rich, well-fixed person is invited to become a disciple of Jesus. The man walks away. But Peter and his fellow disciples have not. They have stayed throughout the semester. They listened. Indeed, they did not understand everything that the teacher taught. There have been many moments when they were confused, shocked, and uncertain of his meaning. And yet, they have paid high tuition, leaving everything, and they have followed.
And so have you. Maybe you haven’t understood everything Jesus has said to you over the years; perhaps you have doubts about the faith and have not left everything to follow Jesus. But you have followed. Here you are, still listening to Jesus.
And let’s be honest, most of us here are “rich” by the world’s standards of material success. Most people don’t come close to having as much stuff as most of us have accumulated. We may not think of ourselves as “rich,” but we have more than enough. And despite all the excellent reasons Jesus gives you to walk away, you haven’t. Here, you are walking a perilous, risky, sometimes confusing, demanding, life-giving way that most folks don’t want to walk. You’re not waiting until all the data comes in until you have resolved all your doubts and reservations. You walk with Jesus now. “Eternal life”—another term for being with God—begins now. Anytime you dare to walk with Jesus, even if he takes you places you’re not sure you want to go, that’s eternal life.
And so as we reflect on our passage this morning my question for me, my question for you is “who can be saved?” In our passage this morning we get some mixed messages – the first message is that all things, including eternal life, are provided through and by God – all things are possible. The second message is that in order to have eternal life one must turn their back on family, wealth/accumulation, give to those less fortunate and follow Jesus all the way to the cross.
Many in our Christian faith and churches have historically said, eternal life is only awarded to those who choose, elect, decide to give up everything that they are and have and follow Jesus. So, is our salvation up to us and our decision to follow only? OR, does God somehow provide eternal life based on God’s love and grace and mercy only and is not somehow dependent on our choices and actions?
For me, that is the tension and perhaps the lesson for us in our passage today. And I’m going to leave you with one more question – which of those choices may turn us upside down? May God bless each of us as we consider the grace of being turned upside down – thanks be to God – amen.