The March rota is out, and I’m asked to preach on Mark’s account of the rich young man in Mark 10:17-22. This is part of a Lent series about encounters with Jesus.
I know this encounter is in Matthew and Luke too. Do I read all of them, or stick with Mark’s particular viewpoint? This is often a question when preaching from the synoptics. I suspect there is no right answer!
So I read the passage, and the verses following (Mark 10:23-27) where Jesus expands on the encounter for the benefit of the disciples.
And immediately I’m filled with questions. What does it tell us? That wealth is a problem, or maybe that wealth was this particular person’s problem. Christ’s comments afterwards suggest it is a general problem.
Yet in the Jewish world of the OT, wealth is a sign of God’s blessing. Here he is, turning everything upside down again!
Or is this more general – for everyone there is “one thing more” that we will always struggle to do or be? We are on a journey where there is always one more place to visit, yet we know we will arrive eventually at our final destination.
Christ “loved him” – despite the one thing he just couldn’t do. Or maybe he did much later… After all, life is a journey.
