“They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’”(Mk. 10:26).
“Go”; “Sell”; “Give”; “Follow”: these are all action words we find in our Gospel today. Jesus casts them all in imperative form: that is, not “if you go,” or “if you sell,” or “if you give”, or even “if you choose to follow.” No, they’re commands, not a menu of options. They’re words that require action.
Jesus uses them in response to a question, from the man who asks him what he must do in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus first repeats the commandments of the law, and the man tells him that he has kept them from his youth. Apparently he’s been working hard on the eternal life project for a while. Well, ok; that’s great. The man’s got a head start. So Jesus says, “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.” (Mk. 10:21). Then the Gospel writer tells us, “When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions” (Mk. 10:22).
The rich man’s question seems to treat eternal life like a “to-do” list, things to be done on the way to the kingdom of God. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think that the rich man was trying to game the system. I don’t doubt his sincerity. But Jesus’ response reveals that eternal life is not a checklist of items to be ticked off once we’ve achieved them, as in the man’s response, “Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth” (Mk. 10:20). “Go”; “Sell”; “Give”; “Follow” require something more, an offering of self that goes beyond a “to-do” list that we can check off and complete.
One approach to Jesus’ teaching is like the apostles’, a sort of counsel of despair: “Who then can be saved?” (Mk. 10:26). But that’s to see Jesus’ words as another form of the checklist, as commands to be followed without fail. “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.” (Mk. 10:21). One size fits all! Get with the program! Never mind that no one will be able to follow through. “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk. 10:24), Jesus tells them. The disciples seem to think it is impossible.
Jesus’ response to the rich man reveals both scarcity and abundance: our human lack of the things that are needful, and God’s richness in providing the things that we need. “You lack one thing” (Mk. 10:21), Jesus says: there’s the scarcity within us. There’s an emptiness there that we cannot fill up by ourselves. It seems like the rich man would have already had everything he needed, but he didn’t. He still lacked one thing. Yet God gives us what we need, those good things that supply our lack. Indeed, “you will have treasure in heaven” (Mk. 10:21), as Jesus tells him.
And not only treasure in heaven, because the process begins here and now. “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9): that’s St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Jesus Christ comes into the world in order to bestow what Paul calls elsewhere, “the riches of his grace” (Eph. 2:7). That is grace: the power and presence of God, that makes what is impossible for us possible for God. As Jesus says, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” (Mk. 10:27).
It’s love that carries this forward; it’s love that provides the motive power to “Go”; “Sell”; “Give”; “Follow.” Remember what it says in our Gospel, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” (Mk. 10:21). It’s a tiny but hugely significant part of the story. Jesus looked at the man and loved him. We start with God’s love for us, which is the foundation of any action we take in response. It’s both the inspiration and the motivation. As St. John says, in his First Letter, “We love because he first loved us” (1 Jo. 4:19).
St. Anselm’s Church: keep striving and thriving. Practice “Go”; “Sell”; “Give”; “Follow” as much and as often as you can. Recognize your own scarcity and abound in God’s grace. But whatever you do, know that God loves you and that love will be the thing that moves you forward.