Relationships, connections, compassion, and love are what is needed to inherit eternal life, as Jesus teaches us, because eternal life is not just about getting into heaven. It’s about being a part of something bigger than us, about the Beloved Community coming to fruition here on Earth, about valuing each other for who we are, not what we can give each other, about reflecting the light of God in all things and through all things so that healing and wholeness can happen for all of God’s people.
October 27, 2024
Love… It Might Just Be Crazy Enough
to Change the World
“What if We Learn to Love Each Other for Nothing in Return?”
Mark 10: 35-45
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Mark 10:17-31
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’ ” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “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.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
What if We Learn to Love Each Other for Nothing in Return? Mark 10:17-31
What if we learn to love each other for nothing in return? Because that is not how our world works. That is not how our world operates. The mode of operation for our world is quid pro quo…I’ll do something for you, if you do something for me. The mode of operation for our world is the simple fact that there are always strings attached. In any given place, in any given conversation, in any given relationship, the mode of operation for our world is people networking and shmoozing, people trying to get ahead, people trying to make sure that they get what is theirs. Even the church is not a sanctuary from such behavior. At one point in the history of our culture, one had a better chance of employment based on what church one attended simply because of the connections one made while fingers crossed…that maybe they were also learning a little something about Jesus as well.
Now one could argue those days have long gone, especially as the church continues to decline in power and influence. So I guess the real question is…if we aren’t coming to church for networking and shmoozing, then why are we here? I’m not asking a rhetorical question. I really do want to know why we are here, in this place, doing what we are doing on a Sunday morning? Why are we here at church, in this sanctuary? I’ll wait…
Maybe someone invited us. Maybe we are here because we have been coming to this place for so long that it has become routine, and it is just what we do on a Sunday morning. Or maybe like the young man in our text, we are here because we want to know what we need to do to inherit eternal life. Maybe we come to church, seeking how to become the person God created and calls us to be. Or maybe we come to church, already setting the agenda by saying… Preacher, just tell us the top 3 things we need to do to be good Christians, to be good people. Don’t complicate it with all that faith stuff. Don’t try to push us out of our comfort zones. Don’t give us anything too difficult like loving our enemies, or caring for the least of these. Don’t even try telling us that we need to accept everyone, not just the people who look like us, or think like us or act like us. And Preacher, don’t give us anything too difficult like we are called to be in authentic relationship with those around us, seeing them as children of God, created in the image of God, valuing them for who they are and whose they are instead of what they can give us. Just give us the top 3 things we need to do so that we will be good Christians, so that we can leave this place and nothing that is said here, preached here, shared here, experienced here changes anything about our life, so we can leave this place and go about our week, feeling good about ourselves. Preacher, don’t complicate it with all that Jesus talk. Just give us the top 3 things we need to do so that we will inherit eternal life.
Okay…so here it is…As followers of Jesus Christ, we know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’ As a religion, as a culture, as a society, as a nation, we have these down pat. We have these things posted everywhere including classrooms and courthouses. We are passing bills left and right to make sure these commandments are displayed so everyone can see them.
Yet we still lack one thing…In order to inherit eternal life, we as the followers of Jesus, are called to feed the hungry in the very same schools in which these commandments hang. We, as followers of Jesus, are called to make justice in the very same courthouses where these commandments hang. In order to inherit eternal life, we as followers of Jesus, are called to care for the orphan, the widower, the aged, the stranger, the immigrant, the child in foster care, the drug addict on the street, the homeless vet, the gang member, the prisoner behind bars, the transsexual, the adoptive family, the young pregnant teenager, and everyone else I didn’t mention or name because the labels don’t really matter. As followers of Jesus, we are called to care for all. We are called to help them thrive, not just survive. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be the heart and hands of God in real and tangible ways in the very community, culture, society and nation in which these commandments are displayed so everyone can see them.
Because you see, the flaw in the young man’s question is this…that he comes seeking to find out what he needs to inherit eternal life. He is thinking in terms of wealth and deeds, in terms of power and money, in terms of prominence and getting ahead. When in reality, the word inherit has nothing to do with any of that. Inheriting is not about earning something. It is about belonging to a family. It is about relationships. It is about sharing what we have to care for those around us.
And if we remember somewhere else in our sacred text, Jesus talks about inheriting eternal life, he just uses a few different words and it goes like this… ”For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Inheriting eternal life has nothing to do with wealth and money. Rather instead it has everything to do with being in relationship with God and with one another. It has everything to do with realizing that we cannot, and we do not earn God’s love. Rather it is about responding to that life-giving, world-changing love by sharing it with others because we cannot do anything else. This love is not ours to hoard or to keep. It is to be shared, to be given, used to empower, to make justice, to care for the least of these.
Inheriting eternal life is about recognizing that what gets us ahead in this life is not what gets us ahead in the Kingdom of God. Inheriting eternal life has nothing to do with only concerning myself with me and mine and everything to do with joining in the building up of God’s Beloved Community here on Earth for all of God’s people. Because that is the promise given to us by our God, our God who loves us so much that God gave God’s only Son so that we might live.
In other words, in order to inherit eternal life, as followers of Jesus, we are called to love one another with nothing in return. And when we do that, we will begin to see that love, God’s love, is just crazy enough to change the world. May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for October 13, 2024 – What if We Learn to Love Each Other for Nothing in Return? Mark 10:17-31.
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