I thought I was saved as so many do. In Jesus' time, as now, there is that sense of suffocatingly arrogant assurance that if you obey all the rules you are safe. Of course we all have our own opinion as to how to apply those rules, interpret those rules etc. Most of us for example would be free of the judgment levied by actually murdering someone. But have you demeaned someone? Killed their spirit in some way? Killed their reputation perhaps?
Jesus more than anyone I have known of to date was quite transparent about following rules. He might caution that it is more important that the Ten be tempered by the two. That is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” I have always held that those two make the Ten even harder to apply and obey. So yes, salvation isn't so assured if you are a rules person.
Nowadays, when scientific facts and reality all seem to be questioned as "fake news" there is a further tendency to really cast our own very selfish and self serving interpretations on scripture. You can apparently claim to be Christian and be intensely hateful, almost a minion of Satan, dismissing commandments and even the words of Jesus Christ himself. All you need is a snippet of scripture to support your agenda. It is all rather disheartening and maybe even frightening.
The fact is, at some point we have to live the way Jesus really taught us and let the chips fall where they may for the people that abuse, confuse and follow their own self righteous arrogant agendas. It is not our job to judge but it is our job to educate, inform and most of all, to love.
If we find that we can miraculously follow all the ten commandments fully enlightened by the great two, then we still have to love. If that entails giving everything away to the poor as Jesus told the man in today's passage, let it be so. Just never have the audacity and arrogance to say " I am saved". ( Though I suspect we are ).
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; Honour 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.’
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; Honour 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.’
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