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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
As you heard in today’s Gospel Reading, the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark tells us that, as Jesus was setting out on His journey, a man ran up and knelt before Jesus, called Him “Good Teacher”, and began to ask, or was repeatedly asking, Jesus what the man must do in order to inherit eternal life. The man clearly had heard positive things about Jesus, as the man showed Jesus respect by kneeling before Jesus and by calling Jesus “Good Teacher”. Then, the man seemed eager to have Jesus answer his question about his “Inheriting Eternal Life”, and, this day, also we should be eager to hear and understand what Jesus says about our “Inheriting Eternal Life”.
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up right where last Sunday’s Gospel Reading left off, with Jesus’s talking about couples’ staying married and people’s receiving the Kingdom of God like a little child (Mark 10:2-16). As we heard today, the man’s great possessions prevented him from being such a little child who trusts in His Heavenly Father’s generously giving His Kingdom. And, picking up right where today’s Gospel Reading leaves off, next Sunday’s Gospel Reading will report Jesus’s teaching that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:23-31). Although today’s Gospel Reading describes the man who ran up and knelt before Jesus only as having great possessions, the parallel accounts that the Holy Spirt inspired through Saints Matthew and Luke describe him, respectively, as “young” and as a “ruler” (Matthew 19:16-22 and Luke 18:18-23), so people often refer to the man with the composite term “rich young ruler”.
We really do not know much about the man at all. Perhaps the man already had inherited his great possessions, likely including land, from his deceased parents and then wanted to inherit eternal life—after all, the land in some sense anticipated eternal life. Clearly the man wrongly thought that he himself could do something in order to inherit eternal life, that he was not responsible for his sins before his “youth”, and that he had kept the Commandments since his “youth”. When Jesus reminded the man of the Commandments that the man already knew, Jesus noticeably at first skipped those Commandments pertaining primarily to love of God; Jesus moved the Commandment about honoring parents to the end; and Jesus said “do not defraud”, where we might expect the Commandments about not coveting. The man ultimately did have a “love of God” problem. Jesus may have emphasized Himself as a teacher and “father” of a new family with love for this, His “son”. And, as this morning’s time of Catechesis providentially reminded us, the Commandments about not coveting are understood as both prohibiting our scheming to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, or getting it in a way that only appears right, and enjoining our helping and being of service to our neighbors in keeping their inheritance or house. Jesus knows things that we do not know, and so maybe Jesus listed what we number as the Ninth Commandment the way that He listed it—do not defraud—because the man, like those in today’s Old Testament Reading (Amos 5:6-7, 10-16), unrighteously accumulated wealth and trampled the needs of the poor (Weedon, CPR 25:4, p.28). Jesus told the man to go, sell all that had, give to the poor, and come, follow Jesus. Similarly, the rich tax collector Zacchaeus later promised to give half of his goods to the poor and to make fourfold restitution of anything that he had defrauded (Luke 19:1-10).
You and I are not necessarily called by Jesus to go, sell all that we have, give to the poor, and come, follow Jesus as He journeys, but Jesus looks at us, loves us, and does call us in ways that cut to our weakest side. And, today’s Epistle Reading, with its Psalm quote, warns us against hardening our hearts to Jesus’s call (Hebrews 3:12-19, citing Psalm 95:7-8)! We may not be holding back wages from our workers, but we may not be helping the poor as we should. We may or may not have the same spiritual problem that the man with great possessions had. We may or may not wrongly think that we ourselves can do something in order to inherit eternal life, that we are not responsible for sins before our “youth”, and that we have kept the Commandments since our “youth”. Holy Scripture states, and the liturgy teaches us to repeat, that, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8; Lutheran Service Book 167, for example). As St. Paul writes to the Romans, all have sinned and fall short of (or “lack”) the glory of God (Romans 3:23). As Jesus said in today’s Gospel Reading, no one is good except God alone, and only as He enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin and trust Him to forgive us are we “Inheriting Eternal Life”.
We can say that no matter what the man in today’s Gospel Reading thought of, said to, or did in front of Jesus, the man was looking for something that the man could do, and, arguably, until the man repented, as Jesus lovingly called and so enabled the man to do, the man was not going to hear from Jesus the Good News of the free gift of eternal life for Jesus’s sake. Jesus is the good God in human flesh, and He self‑sacrificially loved the man, and loves us, even in our fallen state (confer Romans 5:8)—loves us in part by confronting us about our fallen state. Jesus perfectly kept the Commandments: perfectly loving God, for example, by carrying out His will to save us, and perfectly loving His neighbors, for example, by dying on the cross in order to save us from the eternal separation from God that our sinful nature and all of our actual sins deserve. What God through Amos “hinted” in today’s Old Testament Reading might happen did happen: the Lord, the God of hosts, was gracious. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though Jesus was rich, yet for our sake He became poor, so that we, by His poverty, might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).
We have what Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading called “treasure in heaven”, as we are sorry for our sins, trust God to forgive us for Jesus’s sake, and receive as a free gift His forgiveness of sins through His Means of Grace, for so we are “Inheriting Eternal Life”. The man in the Gospel Reading spoke of his “youth”, as some people in other religious traditions today wrongly think that, before a certain age, they are not responsible for sins they commit, or that, at a certain age, they on their own can decide to believe in Jesus. From Holy Scripture, we know that even little children in the womb are sinful (Psalm 51:5) and so need Jesus’s forgiveness of sins and freely receive it, especially as the Holy Spirit works through the water and the Word of Holy Baptism in order to save them and us (Titus 3:4-7). When we who are baptized know and feel particular sins in our hearts, we privately confess them to our pastors for the sake of Holy Absolution, which forgiveness of sins by touch and Word in a sense returns us to our baptismal grace. And, so baptized and absolved, we are admitted to the Holy Supper, where bread and the Word are the Body of Christ given for us and wine and the Word are the Blood of Christ shed for us and so give us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We usually think of a death’s being necessary for someone to inherit according to the terms of a will, and so it is with our Lord and the new testament in His Blood: our Lord died for us but has risen and now lives and works in us (confer Hebrews 9:15-22).
Baptized into Christ Jesus we all are “sons” of God through faith and so those who inherit according to God’s promise (Galatians 3:29; confer 4:7). We are fellow heirs with Christ, St. Paul wrote to the Romans, provided that we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him (Romans 8:17). Sorry for our sins and trusting God to forgive our sins for Jesus’s sake, we at least try to keep God’s Commandments, including what we number as the Ninth Commandment, the Commandment not to scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, or to get it in a way that only appears right, but to help and be of service to our neighbor in keeping his inheritance or house. Our inheritance of eternal life, including, as necessary, the resurrection of the dead, is our heavenly treasure, stored up where, Jesus says elsewhere, neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:20; confer Luke 12:33).
At first the man in today’s Gospel Reading was so eager to come and talk to Jesus, but afterwards he was disheartened by what Jesus said and went away sorrowful. Commentators variously point out that this account is the only time that the call of Jesus to follow Him is even tacitly refused and that the man is the only one who goes out from the presence of our Lord worse than when he came. Whether or not the man stayed that way, we are not told, and we should use his example to consider ourselves. We are “Inheriting Eternal Life”, and, in the words of today’s Psalm (Psalm 90:12-17; antiphon: v.1), as the Lord satisfies us with His steadfast love, or “mercy”, we rejoice and are glad all our days.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +