Father in Heaven, please use your Word to empower me, to give me vision for who I am in Christ and for what I am able to do because the Holy Spirit is at work in and through me.
Read MARK 10:17–31
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Rich and the Kingdom of God
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?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’[a]”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “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.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is[b] to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Footnotes
- Mark 10:19 Exodus 20:12-16; Deut. 5:16-20
- Mark 10:24 Some manuscripts is for those who trust in riches
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise; / thou mine inheritance now and always. / Thou and thou only, the first in my heart, / Ruler of heaven, my treasure thou art.’1
Think Further
We have just read that we can only enter God’s kingdom as people without wealth or status, as people acknowledging that we are dependent entirely upon the Father. Now Mark inserts immediately the account of a young man whose identity was completely bound up in his own status and wealth. Here was a good person, someone who had spent his whole life earnestly striving to follow God in the only way his culture taught him, by sincere adherence to the Law. Jesus ‘looked at him and loved him’ (v. 21), showing that he believed him, accepting the genuineness of his devotion. However, this young man’s wealth and status stood between him and true discipleship. He turned away from Jesus and, in so doing, oriented himself yet again to the values which would finally fail him. I have often wondered if he later found God through Jesus, as so many did, and turned from all that held him back.
Those of us who think we are not important or wealthy must not dismiss this story, falling into the grave error of thinking it does not concern us. We are all called to radical sacrifice. We can all be held back from true discipleship by those things which matter too much to us: work, leisure, reputation, community activities, academic prestige, job promotion, prized possessions, consumer goods. Not all of us are called to relinquish all these things, but we must surrender whatever stands between us and following Jesus. We must never forget that the whole point of this story was finding the path to eternal life. As Jesus said at another time, there is no value or merit in gaining all the world has to offer and, in the process, losing all that finally matters.2
Apply
Jesus is Lord of all we are and all we own. May nothing encumber us as we follow him on the path to eternal life.
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, thank you for the gift of salvation that is mine through faith in Jesus. Please continue your work in me so that I will learn to follow him more closely, putting aside anything that would keep me from him.
Last Updated on November 12, 2024 by kingstar
