I recently read in Mark 10, Jesus’ conversation with a wealthy young man. I’ve read the words lots of times, but something new hit me that I’d never seen before.
The young man comes and he gets on his knees and he tells Jesus he's got to know what it really takes to follow Him. And Jesus goes through six of the ten commandments. Don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t dishonor. And the young man says he’s done all that already. Or rather, not done it.
And for the first time, I put myself in the place of the rich young man. Cause I’m rich. I live in America. I have extra food in the refrigerator. I’ve got a roof over my head. Quite a large roof actually. I own a car. I don’t have to melt snow when I want a drink of water. And I’ve kept the commandments. You’re welcome to check my closet; there’s no skeletons inside. What if that rich young man wasn’t a picture of the neighbor down the street, the Hollywood star who ought to be a little less selfish, or the millionaires living in their castles? What if that rich young man was me?
And then I looked at Jesus’ answer.
He doesn’t list the other four commandments. He doesn’t take out a certain percentage. He says gather it all and give it away. He says if you really want to hold life by the hand, you can’t hide the other hand behind your back and hold onto a thing that’s not life. And that dead thing isn’t a commandment this time. It’s wealth. Money. The comfort and confidence and safety that comes from knowing you’ve got enough in the bank to see you through any accident, whim, or freak of nature.
My nephew is seven. This Christmas, he looked in a World Vision catalog and found a goat, a lamb, and two chickens he wanted to give away. I asked him why. He said, “Because it will help somebody else.” That’s pretty straightforward. Only problem is, my nephew doesn’t have a goat, a lamb, and two chickens. So, he set out to earn the money. He stacked split logs at a quarter each. He called his grandparents for extra chores he could do. His little sister even donated $3 of her own. Last time I asked, he was about $25 away from his goal. He’s seven, and he’s trying to earn $205. Why?
So he can do what the rich young man wasn’t willing to do. So he can take his wealth and give it away. Not ten percent of it. Not even half of it. All of it.
I wonder how this world - how the church of Christ in this world - would change if we began to take the words of Jesus literally.
