Proper 23B, 2024

Text: Mark 10:17-22

Title: Give It All Away

+ INI +

Jesus makes heavy demands of you.

Three weeks ago, Jesus told you to put yourself last and become a servant of all.

Two weeks ago, Jesus told you to get rid of anything that causes you to sin, even if it meant cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye.

Last week, Jesus told you to love your husband or wife to the very end, and to avoid divorce at all costs.

This week may be the hardest lesson of all to hear: sell all your possessions and give them to the poor.

So- could you do it?  Could you empty your bank accounts, have a huge garage sale, put everything you own on Craigslist or E-bay and take all the money and just give it away?

That would be tough for any of us.  We like our stuff, we like having nice things, and we like to trust in our money to get us through the rough times.  We like to have a little cushion, a nest egg just in case we ever need it.

The problem is that we can grow to trust our possessions, we trust our money rather than trusting in God.

God demands your total, complete trust in him. 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”

Not “love the Lord your God with some of your heart,” or “love the Lord your God with most of your heart,” and not even “love the Lord your God with 99% of your heart,” but “love the Lord your God with all your heart.”  There should be no room for anything else in your heart but love for God.

Now this man in today’s gospel was so close.  He tracks Jesus down.  He runs to him.  He kneels before Him.  He calls Jesus “good.”  He has kept the commandments from his youth (or at least tried).

But he was still missing something.  He was still incomplete.

It probably didn’t look like he was missing anything.  He had plenty of possessions.  He seems to be in good health.  He has a desire to be saved and wants to do what is right.

What he’s missing is complete and utter devotion to God.  His possessions actually got in his way, and they became a stumbling block to him.  His stuff kept him from following Jesus.

Sometimes we don’t realize how much we love something, how much we are attached to something until we are asked to give it up.

Many of you have had to downsize over the years.  As you move from a house to an apartment or condo, there’s stuff that just won’t fit, and needs to be gotten rid of. 

Or maybe you’ve found that you’ve got too much stuff lying around and it’s time to throw it out, give it away, take it down to Good Will.  But when it actually comes time to let go, it can be hard.

I’ve got a house full of stuff that I probably don’t need- clothes I don’t wear any more, books I haven’t read, mementoes from my childhood.  There’s lots of stuff that I should just get rid of, but I’m too lazy and I’m afraid that as soon as I get rid of it, I’ll find that I need it.

That sort of stuff is hard to give up, but you can do it if you have to.  What about the stuff that’s harder to give up?  What about the stuff that you really love, the stuff that you use every day? 

Could you give up your car or your house, or your phone?  Could you give up those family heirlooms passed down from generations? Could you give up your wedding ring? Is there anything that you love so much that you would never part with it?

In the end, though, your possessions will not do you any good.  Your possessions can’t get you a better place in heaven. We all know that we take nothing with us.  Why do you spend so much time and effort piling up things that don’t last, that will fade away into nothing?

Our stuff rots, rusts, and gets stolen.  A few years ago, a man in Sydney, Australia sold his car to be able to pay his mortgage.  He decided to hide the money in his house until the bank opened the next day. Since his wife never used their oven, that’s where he decided to stash the money.  Well, you can guess what happened.  His wife came home, turned on the oven to heat up some chicken nuggets for the kids, and baked about $15,000.

Sooner or later your possessions will waste away.

In reality, the more possessions you have, the harder it is to love God.  The more you have, the more things compete with God for your love and attention.  Being wealthy, more often than not, makes your spiritual life more difficult rather than easier.

Like this man in today’s gospel, we are never able to do everything that Jesus demands of us.  We always fail.  We always hear Jesus’ demands and are sad, because we simply can’t live up to them. 

Perhaps you could easily get rid of everything you own without a second thought. But for most of us, that’s pretty hard. You may not think of yourselves as rich, but compared to most people around the world, you are incredibly wealthy. You have tons of stuff.  I learned in Bible Class this week that the average American owns 300,000 items.  And if Jesus told you to give it all up, you would probably be sad, too.

But Jesus doesn’t leave you in your sadness.  Don’t leave today broken and sad and disappointed in your failure.

What you are unable to do, Jesus does for you.

Jesus keeps God’s law completely and perfectly.  He even goes beyond what the law demands.

Jesus was the richer that you could ever imagine.  Richer than Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos put together. Jesus had everything.  The whole world was His.  He made it all and it all belonged to Him. 

Jesus had angels to serve Him.  He had the glory and bliss of heaven.  And He gave it all up.  He gave it all away.

Jesus became poorer than anyone else had ever been.  Jesus not only gave up all the stuff, but He gave up His glory, He gave up His favor with His heavenly Father, He gave up His perfection to bear your sins.

When Jesus became a human being, He took on the sins of the world, He became the worst sinner in the whole world.  Jesus became guilty of every single sin that was ever committed.  Every crime, every murder, every lie, every angry word, every evil thought- Jesus was guilty of everything.  He was so poor and lowly that His own Father turned His back on Him. Jesus took all of your poverty, your spiritual poverty and became like you.

Jesus became poor so that you might become rich, that you might have all the riches of heaven for free.

Jesus traded places with you.  You are now rich because He became poor. 

You now have more riches than you could ever imagine.  You are now more wealthy than Musk or Zuckerberg or Bezos.  They may have money.  They may have big houses and servants to wait on them.  They may be able to travel the world and live a life of leisure.

But you have been given something far better.  You have been given something more costly, more precious than all the wealth in the world.

All those things will fade and rot and decay away into dust.  But you have a treasure that will never spoil or fade.

All of the riches of heaven are yours.  The glory and bliss of God’s presence are yours.  God’s love and pleasure and happiness are yours. 

The rich man asked what he could do to inherit eternal life.  The answer is “nothing.”  There is nothing that you can do to inherit eternal life.  You can never keep the commandments perfectly.  You can never completely love God with our whole heart. But Jesus can, and Jesus did, for you. 

Jesus did all these things for you, in your place.  You leave today rich, wealthy, filled with the love and forgiveness of God, filled with his blessings of peace and joy.  Go- give those things away, get rid of them.  Give that love and forgiveness to the people you meet during the week.  And if there’s something that they need that you’ve got, give them that, too.  Because next week Jesus will fill you up again, giving everything to you, even His holy precious body and blood given and shed for you.