June 27, 2025

Honest Sharing

Mark 10:32-34

The portion for this week is only three verses, but interesting things happen in them.  We are told initially that they are all on their way to Jerusalem, and Jesus is walking ahead of them.  In a moment we are told that Jesus takes aside the twelve disciples, which tells us clearly that this is probably a larger group that is following Jesus, since if there were only one or two additional people then Jesus may not have pulled the twelve apart from the rest.

But the way in which Mark tells us about this traveling contingent is a little confusing, because he first says that they were amazed, and then he tells us that the people following Jesus were afraid.  Now, perhaps what he means is that the followers were amazed at all that Jesus had done, but that at the same time they were afraid because they knew that in going to Jerusalem they would be treading on uncertain ground and that their lives might even be in danger.  It is certainly possible for both emotions to stand side-by-side, but without having Mark provide us with any more details it seems a little confusing to me.

But then, when Jesus does take aside the twelve, he tells them once again of what he knows awaits him in Jerusalem.  Either they haven’t really heard him before, or he knows that they need to hear it again for it to really sink in.  We then sometimes stop and criticize the disciples for being thick-headed.  But if you think about it, when have you received news that was far from good, and been unable to really process it?  How often, if someone tells us they are sick and likely to die soon, do we not want to hear it and so we tell them that they will be okay and we act as if it is something like a common cold that will pass with time?  We often deny what is before us, because we don’t like the news that has come to us.  But, when a person tells us that they are dying, often the best gift we can give to them is to acknowledge the truth of it, and to then assure them that we will be with them no matter what may come.

Whether Jesus told these things to the twelve because he felt they needed to really hear it, or because he was looking for some sense of going through this with his companions supporting him, we can’t know.  The exchange though does provide us with reflection for our own lives.

June 20, 2025

Entry into the Kingdom of God

Mark 10:23-31

This portion follows up on Jesus’ encounter with the man that we considered last week.  The man’s many possessions kept him from following Jesus.  This section begins with Jesus’ comment that it is hard for those with wealth to enter the kingdom of God.  Note that he doesn’t say that they are excluded, just that it will be hard for them to enter.

The disciples are confused by his statement.  Jesus responds with a proverbial saying about a camel going through the eye of a needle, saying that is easier to accomplish that than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.  Now, if we take the proverbial saying literally, it would indeed be impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.  But Jesus doesn’t say it is impossible, just difficult.  It is the nature of proverbial sayings that they resist concrete explanation, but rather simply make a point, which here is the difficulty of a rich person entering the kingdom of God.

There is more happening here though than just a commentary on one man who went away with grief over his inability to do as Jesus had suggested to him.  The larger picture is that the keeping of the law of Moses, which facilitated people’s relationship with God, enabled their salvation, was dependent upon making gifts to the temple, of bringing sacrifices to the temple for a variety of reasons.  These sacrifices were most able to be made by wealthy or well-to-do people.  They could purchase or bring the best animals for the sacrifices.  It was seen that their wealth was a gateway to eternal life.  Poorer people, on the other hand, had to settle for lesser sacrifices, if they were even able to sacrifice at all.  So, Jesus is here not just commenting on one person, but is challenging the whole sacrificial system, and saying that God is really turning things upside down.

The disciples are at a loss and ask, “Then who can be saved?”  Jesus in essence says that it is impossible for people to act in ways that save themselves.  But, nothing is impossible for God.  In other words, God can save us, and as Christian theology developed, as early as with Paul, this would be understood that we are saved by the grace of God.

Peter, though, still wants more clarity.  The man who came to Jesus had been unwilling to sell all that he owned and to then follow Jesus.  Peter says, “Look, we have left everything, and followed you.”  In other words, “what about us?”  Jesus tells him that the rewards will be great in this life and in the eternal one.  The promise of rewards in this life seems out of place, for Jesus was not concerned about houses and fields, although this may foreshadow the practice of the early church to hold all things in common, which could be interpreted to mean that now everyone has houses and fields, it is just that they are shared with everyone.

The portion concludes with another proverbial saying:  “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”  This seems to mean that the rich, the ones who are first in line in this life, will just squeeze into the kingdom of God at the end, but that those who are last in line now, especially the poor, will be the first ones welcomed into the kingdom of God.

This portion still gives us much pause for reflection today.

June 13, 2025

Attachments

Mark 10:17-22

There is an interesting dynamic going on here in this passage.  The questioner asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.  But every part of Jesus’ answer is focused on the here and now on earth.  While the Kingdom of God as Jesus talks about it, seems to be both present with him, with us now too, and also something of the future fulness of life in God, still though Jesus has his evident focus on things here on earth.

Jesus replies to the man that he knows the commandments, as even we could probably name six to eight of them from our own memory.  Jesus summarizes them for the man by naming six of them.  Notice though that he doesn’t begin with the initial commandments that concern the people’s relationship with God, but rather Jesus calls to mind the ones that speak to our relationships with one another.  Jesus is leading the man to focus on the here and now.

But then, after the man claims to have kept all of these commandments since his youth, Jesus challenges him to go further in the here and now by selling what he owns, giving the money to the poor, and to then follow Jesus.  Through this, Jesus says, the man will have treasure in heaven.

But note how Mark relates this story.  He tells us that Jesus, looking at the man, “loved him.”  Jesus is challenging him to be sure, but is not judgmental.  In fact, Jesus knows that this will be too much of a challenge for the man, but even knowing that, he says these things with love.  And indeed, the man is both shocked and chagrined, for he would like to have followed Jesus, but his attachment to his many possessions is too strong.

Lest we judge though, we should hear Jesus’ challenge in our own lives, and ask ourselves how we are responding to him, in light of our own attachments to whatever holds us back from following Jesus more fully.  It may not be possessions, but there is almost always something that holds us back.  It is that “something” that we need to consider as we hear Jesus speak the challenge to us.

June 6, 2025

Childlikeness

Mark 10:13-16

These several verses are perhaps familiar to many people.  Since they are, we may tend to gloss over them.  But there is much to hear in Jesus’ words.

Children in worship is often a tricky situation.  Larger churches, with resources for child care and age-group related activities, often settle on children not being in worship, or on being there for just a short time at the beginning of the celebration.

I remember that as I grew up, I attended Sunday school before the worship time, but then had to quietly sit through the worship service.  There may have been child care for any infants, but none for other ages.  And sitting through worship didn’t mean playing games on my phone, because that was way before cell phones.  If I “played” with anything, it was to thumb through the hymnal and read various entries besides the words of the hymns.  In some ways, it was the proverbial “children should be seen and not heard.”  And that was acceptable back then.

But today, I love having children in worship.  Their energy, their laughter, their interactions, although sometimes a challenge to focus in the midst of, are life-giving elements in our worship experience.  We always have a children and youth time in worship, and sometimes have activities for the younger ones during part of the worship time, but everyone returns for the celebration of communion.

Jesus says that we must indeed become like a little child in order to enter into the kingdom of God.  As that translates into our worship times, I am not suggesting that all the adults start doing exactly as the children are doing, but rather that it would do us well if the adults adopted the same enthusiasm for worship as the children do.  They hurry down the aisle to the children’s time, with joy and expectation overflowing.  They sing the closing response, which involves some level of movement and dancing even on the part of the adults, while sharing the words that they have learned, even if a bit off key, and at least some of them dance with abandon.

As we read this gospel portion, we often interpret Jesus’ words to mean that we should strive to be as innocent as children.  That is, I believe, part of the picture.  But the enthusiasm, the out-right joy of children, is another quality that I think Jesus would include in the description.  And it is in that joy and enthusiasm that we can most readily recognize the gift of the kingdom, and that then allows us to engage fully with being a part of God’s kingdom.