Readings: Wisdom 7:7-11; Psalm 90; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30
Grace and peace to you dear family of God’s people.
Today, we have one of those powerful Gospels that will move us to reflect deeply on our lives.
It is the story of a young man Luke describes him as a ruler (Luke 18:18) and rich (18:23). He comes to ask what he must do to inherit eternal life. It turns out that he faithfully keeps all the commandments, however, when Jesus tells him what he is lacking, he can’t do it and he goes away sad. What a sad episode. Without going into too much of an exegesis, I want to reflect on six powerful messages from this narrative.
I. The Emptiness.
This man does all things right – he is obedient and faithful, he is successful in life, he has many possessions, power, prestige and position and yet there is something missing in his life. There is a space, an emptiness.
No matter what we have in this life and what we have achieved, there is an emptiness in every human person, a yearning of the soul that can only be filled in Jesus. Many have gone to the wrong places and wrong things and the frustration became more intense. This is a message we are called to share with the world – God is the one who can fulfill the emptiness within and the deepest yearning of the soul.
II. The desire for eternal life.
The Bible has several accounts of people who run and kneel before Jesus. Most come for healing for themselves or someone dear to them. Some come in need of exorcism, but this man comes and kneels for a different reason – he is concerned about eternal life. He is concerned about what will happen to him when he dies. He has abundance in life but he wants abundance of life. He wants the most important thing when everything he has comes to an end, when everything eventually changes and decays.
Dear friends, how concerned are we about eternal life?
Are we thinking only of life or are we desiring and aiming for eternal life? Do we want heaven when we die? What is our hope after death?
Without eternal life, everything we have in life will be what the preacher says it is, vanity of vanities (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
Eternal life or eternity is a matter that does not concern everyone. It only concerns those who have the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, those described in today’s First Reading.
III. Only God is good.
Jesus starts by telling the man and all of us that only God is infinitely good. Of course, Jesus is not denying His divinity but meeting the man where he is, he sees Jesus as a man but one who is good. Jesus corrects that. There is something wrong in the best of us and something good in the worst of us. In our human nature, our goodness is not absolute.
Yes, many of us are trying but only God is infinitely good. We are imperfect, capable of errors and there is a particle of hypocrisy and fragments of imperfection in the best of us. We need to keep this in mind when next we feel disappointed in people and we want to shut them down.
IV. The look of love.
When this man says that he keeps all the commandments, Jesus looks steadily at him and loves him.
He doesn’t love him because he is perfect. No! Jesus sees what is wrong with him and his frantic effort. He sees his greatest mistakes. He sees where he misses it and yet loves him.
This is a message to someone who thinks they have disappointed God so much and therefore God cannot know them and love them. The message for us is this – Jesus still looks steadily at us. Nothing is hidden from Him (Second Reading) and yet loves us. Yes, He sees it all and still loves us. It is a mystery of Divine Love. He may not love what He sees but He loves who He sees.
Just as He looks at this man and also looks at Matthew, Zaccheus, Mary Magdalene, Paul etc., “He looks at you and loves you” in the same way.
V. Only one thing you lack.
The One who sees all, scans this man and tells him what is wrong with him. He thinks he keeps all the commandments but he didn’t keep the first and primary commandment, which is “You shall have no other God besides me.” The centre of this man’s life and identity are his possessions. That’s his life and to lose it is to lose himself. To lose his money is to lose his life. Wait a minute, isn’t that not what God asks us to do, to lose ourselves for His sake (Cf John 12:25)?
What have we put at the center of our lives where God should be?
I am sure when Jesus tells him, “There is one thing you lack,” he takes a mental inventory of his life, possessions and achievements and he wonders how much that one thing would cost, but Jesus isn’t talking about one more thing but one thing.
He needs to stop trusting in his wealth. He needs to give up what he clings to, what he attaches his life to and trust in Jesus who is the Way to the one thing he needs (eternal life). He just needs to give up the one thing he has, to gain the one thing he needs.
Dear friends, perhaps Jesus is saying the same thing to us – there is one thing you lack. Your one thing may be different from this man or even mine. The question is “What is that thing I lack?” Perhaps I could help here – your one thing may be to forgive someone who has hurt you badly (a friend, your dad or spouse). It could be to drop that idol, syncretism or practice of false religion. It could be to stop that sinful and impure habit. It could be to have more time for God and make Him our priority, or to come out of a sinful relationship. Our one thing is that thing which is keeping us from completely giving ourselves to Jesus, trusting totally in Him and building our hopes around Him.
VI. Going away from the Way.
The man goes away sad (depressed, sorrowful, disappointed, disheartened). He comes to the right person, the One who gives eternal life, and he asks for the right thing (eternal life) but he can’t do what Jesus requires of him.
This man reminds me of how we sometimes relate with God. We tell Him to reveal His will, to give us direction. We say we want His will to be done in our life but when He reveals His will and shows us the direction He wants us to face, if it is different from what we want to hear, do or where we want to go, we object and walk away.
Conclusion of the narrative.
Jesus ends by teaching us all two things:
Salvation is impossible for anyone. It is not by what we do but a gift of grace and only God makes it possible for us through Christ.
Also, we can never lose anything by giving to God. We can’t out-give God. Whatever we give to God, He gives back to us better than we have sacrificed. Let us not be afraid of whatever God calls us to give up or do or become for His sake because in Jesus we lose nothing.
Let us all pray today for those who have walked away from Jesus. May they find their way back to Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Sermon preached by Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on October 13, 2024.