Alluring Riches

Today I'm in Mark 10.17.  The Rich Young Man is everyman in America. I look at the church, the amount of money, the toys, the houses, … and I count myself as guilty … and Jesus' words hit me like a bat:

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.

Jesus loved him; He wanted the best for him; He told him one act that would be best for him, for his soul ("what must I do to inherit eternal life?").

How much "stuff" do we have? What do we need - not want, but need?  This rich young man had lived an upright life, keeping the commandments, doing the "right thing" as defined by his culture and the Scripture he believed. Yet Jesus perceived an idol in his life: go, sell, give were the commands given to the man … commands he could not bring himself to follow, for the idol in his life, his great possessions, had hold of him.

I empathize with the man. Here I am, having 50 years of life, selling my house, well over half my earthly stuff, and moving across the world to a place which is not so easy to live (on the surface, at least). Why? This makes no sense. I was warned that I would have doubt, frustration, loneliness, anger; check, check, check, check. And yet I have not followed to the extent Jesus instructs; I still own many possessions, though not physically in the same location I now live. I gave some possessions, though I sold others. Though far, far from perfect, and far from following the command Jesus gave his disciples (yes, I am observing, interpreting, then applying; not skipping the step of interpretation), I believe and am trying to live this pericope.

Finally, notice Jesus' response:

Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Ouch. To a degree, I am living out this portion of the Gospel. It hurts. And as I have been warned here, international workers have seen negative physical impacts. I'm not certain this is precisely what Jesus meant by the words "with persecutions", but it may be included in the orb of meaning.

Yet I, and we, can live with the assurance, the promise, Jesus gives at the end of this passage: "But many who are first will be last, and the last first." We love to quote this phrase. Living this phrase is different story.

Father, give me, give us, the faith and the strength to live the radical ("to the root") lives You have called us to live. Let us reject, vehemently and stridently, the allure of this world. May I live to see You be made much of.  This I pray.