Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. David Inglis October 9, 2009

Mark 10:17- 22

"Climbing Towards Eternity: The Ladder of the Law"

Scripture:

17As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.' 20He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." 21Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." 22When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Sermon:

This little exchange has always been one of the most unsettling passages in the Bible to me. Most of us have possessions, comforts and luxuries that this man couldn't have begun to imagine, and that even today 80% of the world's population can only dream about. Some of us donated some of our excess stuff to the big rummage sale, or we drop it off at Goodwill or a clothing box. If we have saved most of our things back for our own use, is Jesus implying that we're on our way to hell? Or is this passage about something deeper? What do we have to do, really, to inherit eternal life?

When the man in the story asked Jesus that question, Jesus first pointed the

man to the 10 Commandments. The law of Moses was the foundation of the Jewish faith. And Jesus said that he himself came to fulfill the law.

So today I'd like to take you up the steps of what we might call the "ladder of the law," so that we can see how our relationship to the law changes as we grow in maturity, and how our journey through life can lift us little by little towards eternity.

THE LADDER OF THE LAW

Stage	Operating Principle	Motivation	Infraction
Young child	Coercion	Avoid punishment	Violates authority
Older child/youth	Obligation	Conformity	Violates rules, laws, expectations
Adult	Responsibility	Principles, investment	Violates what's important to oneself
Spiritual person	Calling	Serving a higher power	Violates one's true self or purpose

We all made our entrance into the world totally clueless about what was right or wrong, helpful or hazardous. So our parents and caregivers had to teach us everything about how to get along in this world: You have to eat vegetables and protein, not just candy and cookies. You can't stick sharp objects into outlets—no, not into your sister either. If you have a young child at this stage, you know that you can try to explain the science of nutrition or electricity or stab wounds to help them understand why we do or don't do those things, but as far as the kid is concerned, it's basically because you said so. That's why I put the operating principle for this stage as coercion. We can try to be gentle and patient, but as parents we have to assert our authority at this stage because we know things the child can't yet understand. In fact, if children at this stage don't feel those firm limits and structure, they get anxious, act out, and try to find the limits by testing them. That early training and limit setting was what they need to learn habits and patterns that will serve them as they get older.

Now there are basically two types of young children. The first kind gladly does what they're told because they want to make Mommy and Daddy happy. This type represents about 1% of young children, which then goes down to 0% when they get to the stage known as the "terrible two's." In the terrible two's, the child begins to develop a will of its own. And where there's a will, there's a won't. As many of you know, the terrible two’s often begin as early as 18 months and basically last until the child has children of his or her own.

This seems like bad news for parents. But it’s actually good news for the human race. Becoming individuals requires us to develop and exercise our own sense of what we need to have and want to do and how we feel about things. That's how we become a distinct self with our own free will, perspicacity, innovation, and unique abilities.

So the law at the next stage of the ladder—the older child and youth—is designed to help that often headstrong individual self conform to the world around it enough to keep from hurting other people or itself. A system of rewards and punishments is set up to reinforce the rules, laws and expectations.

As children go through this stage, we can begin to explain to them the reasons for the rules and laws in ways they can understand. This helps them see the rules as right and fair rather than arbitrary. But the rules and laws still feel like they are “coming down from above,” and the child follows them out of a sense of obligation, loyalty, or fear of the authority figures, whether it’s parents, teachers or God.

Our legal system operates at this level, and some people—even people in high places—seem to need the threat of punishment to maintain order in our society. At least I know I do when it comes to obeying the speed limit.

But most of us eventually progress to the adult stage of internalizing the law, at least in some aspects of our lives. At some point you might have asked questions like, "If everybody dumped their garbage where they wanted to, what would things be like? I understand why I can't just do that myself." That's how we develop principles that are based on a sense of justice that applies to everyone, including ourselves. And at this stage we care about other people besides just ourselves. So we are also motivated by a sense of responsibility for the well-being of our families, our work, our church, our environment, and even future generations.

When we’re at this stage of being responsible adults, we'll still feel the temptation to assert our own selfish desires in ways that hurt other people. But when we yield to those temptations, we have a sense that we are violating our own principles and the people or things that are important to us. In a sense, the law is written in our own conscience and heart.

But is there more? Can you get closer to God than living by your principles and carrying your share of responsibility for the things that concern you? That's what the man in today's story wanted to know. This man was godly, and seemingly blessed with good fortune. So what drove him to run and catch up to Jesus as Jesus was heading out of town, and to drop down on his knees and to ask Jesus, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

For all this man’s godliness, God still felt judging and distant to him. He wanted to know God, to feel God, to touch that eternal Spirit out of which laws and life and eternity spring. He could see that Jesus had this intimate grace-filled relationship with God. That’s why he called him "Good teacher." What did he need to do to have life like that?

Jesus didn't say, "Sorry, mister. I'm the only Messiah here." Quite the opposite. He started by pointing him toward the God that was bigger than both of them. "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." Then he made sure that the man was standing on a solid foundation for a God-centered life by living in harmony with God's law. And when Jesus saw that the man loved the law but was still hungering for more, Mark says he looked at him and loved him. Here was someone who was ready to enter an advanced level of living. "You lack one thing," Jesus said; "go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

So what do you think of Jesus' words now? Is Jesus saying that in order to get to heaven, we can't keep our own possession? Or is he saying, If you want to know God, feel God, live a life that is in tune with eternity, you have to let go of whatever it is that ties you to yourself?

We can tell that Jesus hit the nail right on the head when he told this man to give away his possessions, because the man "went away grieving." That's how much his possessions meant to him. It wasn't his possessions per se that were the barrier; it was his possessiveness of them, and so they were possessing him. His sense of importance and security were coming from them, not from God.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Christ says, 'Give me your all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you.... Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own nature shall become yours.’”

This is what Jesus was inviting the man to do–release everything that he had and that he was to God, and come follow Jesus in his total devotion to God's call. Ron Buford^.put it this way, "You can keep the commandments and still be a jerk. But you cannot be in relationship with the living God without being continually transformed." Jesus was Inviting this man to bring his whole self into a relationship with the living God.

Some people have given their lives to God in a sudden, dramatic shift from being a self-centered jerk to a God-centered saint. We call this a conversion or rebirth experience. But because our human nature is what it is, even if we have a big change like that, we have to hear Jesus' challenge to sell all and follow him over and over again. Our egos keep grabbing onto things that give us a feeling of importance or a sense of security, so they keep creating barriers to our living a God-centered life.

"Selling all" means releasing whatever it is that is tying us to our small selves.” Following Jesus" means plunging into life wide open to God, seeking to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourself. Jesus said this is the very fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

Selling all and following Jesus means saying to God, "Here I am, Lord; send me." It's unlikely that God will send you off to Africa to bring hope or to the Middle East to bring peace. lt's much more likely God will send you back into the troubled places in your family or in the world right around you that need you to embody God's renewing love, God's all-embracing peace, God's life-giving hope, God's creative power.

Is there something in you that wants to do that? Is there a part of you that, at its highest and best, might be able to say with St. Maria Skobtsova, "I am your message, Lord. Throw me like a blazing torch into the night, that all may see and understand what it means to be a disciple."¹