Mark 10:17-22 — Poor Rich Man

Mark 10:17-22
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”

And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Comments:

Jesus responded to the young man’s question by first making the point that he was not just a "good teacher." It is important for us to understand that he can’t be. He claimed to be God so either he is God or he is not a good teacher. But the young man's question was how he could inherit eternal life and the answer is found in how he looks at Jesus—to him Jesus must be more than a good teacher. Jesus listed several of the ten commandments (#7, 6, 8, 9, 5) and the man said that he had kept all those from his youth (still addressing Jesus as "Teacher"). It is interesting that Jesus did not dispute the man's claim. 

v.21 Jesus looking at him, loved him. And that love required Jesus to say what the rich young man needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear. He challenged the man in regards to his love for God, and issued a wonderful invitation to “come, follow me.” The young man wanted to be saved but he wanted his vast possessions even more. Jesus was focusing the issue upon the first commandment—that we should love God and have no other gods before him. In the affluence of Western culture, because it does not often cost people much to follow Jesus like it does believers in more hostile environments, we are rarely forced to make the cut and dried decisions about our ultimate loyalties like this rich young man faced. Would he give up all he had...possessions, position, prestige, and power to follow the itinerant Rabbi from Galilee?

 

We don't know what the end was for this young man that Jesus loved but know that for the moment he was saddened because he loved his great possessions. I wonder if later he was sad that he hadn’t followed Jesus while he had the chance.

Is there something in our lives that we would value more than following Jesus… something that would make us go away sorrowful? Sometimes in our wealth, we don't recognize our poverty. When what we possess actually possesses and imprisons us, we tend to miss the great opportunities that God's love offers. Nothing on earth is worth what Jesus offers!

I have expanded on this idea from the parallel passage in Matthew 19:16-23, in a post on another blog entitled, A Dangerous Question and an Affective Invitation.