Sermon 11 October 2009
What price to follow Jesus ? Mark 10 : 17- 27
Who wants to be a millionaire, or rather today a billionaire ?
Have you ever dreamed of being rich ? Or maybe had an ambition to succeed and be wealthy and powerful ? Sometimes it seems that all our worries would end if we could just have some more money - then we could be happy and content !
The Attractions of Wealth seem huge :
Security, freedom from anxiety Prov.10:15 cf Prov 11:28 and 18:11
Leisure and enjoyment
Influence and Power Prov 22:7
Prestige and Status Prov 19:4
Fiddler on the roof : musical about the life of a poor Jewish farmer Tevye struggling to make a living in a village on the Russian steppe,with a nagging wife and the need to find husbands for his three daughters
If I were a rich man dai-dle, dee-dle,dai-dle,dig-guh,dig-guh, dai-dle, dum
All day long I’d biddy, biddy, bum if I were a wealthy man
..Wouldn’t have to work hard
.. EASE and ENJOYMENT
.I’d build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen, right in the middle of the town A fine tin roof with real wooden floors below There could be one long staircase just going up and one even longer coming down, and one more leading nowhere just for show PRESTIGE and STATUS
I’d fill my yard with chicks and turkeys and geese for the town to see and hear ; squacking just as noisily as they can And each loud quack and cluck and gobble and honk Will land like a trumpet on the ear As if to say “here lives a wealthy man”
I see my wife, my Goldie, looking like a rich man’s wife with a proper double chin, supervising meals to her heart’s delight. I see her putting on airs and strutting like a peacock – oh what a happy mood she’s in – screaming at the servants day and night
POWER to control
The most important men in town will come to fawn on me ; they will ask me to advise them like Solomon the Wise “If you please, Rabbi Tevye, pardon me, Reb Tevye” posing problems that would cross a rabbi’s eyes And it won’t make one bit of difference, if I answer right or wrong , When you’re rich, they think you really know !
INFLUENCE on others
If I were rich, I’d have the time that I lack, to sit in the synagogue and pray ; and maybe have a seat by the eastern wall And I’d discuss the holy books with the learned men seven hours every day This would be the sweetest thing of all !
TIME for GOD, SPIRITUALITY ?
If I were a rich man
.Lord who made the lion and the lamb You decreed I should be as I am ; Would it spoil some vast, eternal plan If I were a wealthy man?
Maybe it would not be for the best :
John D. Rockefeller ( richest man of his time ) was asked “How much money is enough”? He replied “Just a little bit more” ! A curious illusion and greed can afflict the wealthy – they never have enough
Real estate agent tycoon : “I don’t want all the land in the world, just whatever land touches mine”
Cf Tolstoy How much land does a man need ? ( answer = six feet to bury him !)
the NEED (Greed) is always for MORE ! Ecclesiastes 5 : 10, 11, 19
The Interview
The Gospel reading Mark 10 : 17 - 31 today tells of a promising conversation Jesus had with a young man of admirable character and fantastic prospects – but the outcome was sad and disappointing, and a powerful challenge to all who would claim to want to follow Christ.
The young man was rich in assets, well-placed in society, respected in his judgements (ruler) – successful and promising future ahead
Yet he sensed that something was missing in his life
that what he had was temporary v17 Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life ?
He knew already about inheritances, and he did not want to miss out !
Jesus reminds him , as a good religious Jew, of the requirements of the Laws of Moses – in particular of six of the 10 Commandments relating to our relationships with other people
“Teacher”, says the earnest young man, “all these have I kept diligently since I was a young boy”.
We have no reason to suppose that he was not telling the truth – he had an admirable high moral character and openness – for Jesus took greatly to him in his sincerity and desire to find the true way v21
Despite his wealth, and despite his keeping of the outward code of the Law, the young man was not satisfied in his heart –restless, something was absent !
That is a restless feeling that we can all share
– success and riches, as well as outward morality will not meet the need of our heart to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength
Then Jesus’s reply penetrated to the crucial choice ( cf Heb 4 : 12 )
“One thing is missing”, says Jesus, “Go and sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come and follow me !”
No doubt the crowd around gasped and were bewildered, (for surely riches were a sign of God’s approval according to their religious teachers)
The young man was stunned for a moment : then walked very sadly away
He could not bring himself to release control of his wealth, and all that it brought him. It was too risky – and that was where his heart’s desire really was, on this world’s tangible assets not on a heavenly investment. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also ( Matt 6:21 ) How difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God ( Matt 19:23 )
All this held him back from the only commitment that would satisfy his spiritual need, to give all back to God and to follow Christ . So he went away unfulfilled, sad, not knowing the “joy of the Lord which makes one rich ”
We here today in Strasbourg may think that we do not have great riches ( true in many senses, but relative to 90% of the world’s population we are unbelievably priviledged )
But are we trying to hang on to what we have and hope to be such that we are not prepared to yield it all up to Jesus and to truly follow Him, letting Him direct all our ways ? We may look respectable and good , materially and morally, but have we surrendered ourselves – all of our life – to Christ ?
Moses
.regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt Heb 11:24
St Paul reminded the church members at Corinth of what Jesus had done for them
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we though His poverty might become rich 2 Cor 8:9
I have learnt in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content Phil 4:12b
Charles Thomas Studd may be a name that means nothing to you I’m sure. He was born into a very wealthy English family, educated first at Eton College and then at Trinity College, Cambridge. He showed great promise as a cricketer and in 1882 he was in the England team which lost the match against Australia, which became famous because the England team burnt their bats and sent the “Ashes of English Cricket” in a funeral urn to Australia – hence the origin of the famous competitive series still going strong 120 years later.
CTStudd realized that “cricket would not last, and honour and fame would not last, and nothing in this world would last, but it was worth while living for the world to come. When his father died, CTStudd gave away his inheritance of £29000 to Christian missions for social and missionary activities. He himself went to China, at the call of Hudson Taylor, as a missionary with the “Cambridge Seven”. He worked in India and established the “Heart of Africa Mission” in the Belgian Congo ( later to become WEC = Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade ) . He believed in plain speaking and a muscular urgent Christianity.
One saying that brings it all home, on our theme of what price will we pay to follow Christ, is
If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him
The rich young ruler wanted to find what was missing in his experience of life, but he was reluctant and then refused to release what he prized most.
I trust that each of us this morning will be prepared to release our lives to the Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us totally ; that we can pray in the words of a beautiful hymn
All, all for Jesus, all I am and have and ever hope to be
All of my ambitions, hopes, and plans I surrender these into your hands
For it’s only in your will that I am free
Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have and ever hope to be
Sermon notes by David J. Cowley, Reader at Strasbourg Anglican Chaplaincy
