In reading the passage for this week three words came to mind. The Good the Bad and the Ugly. It certainly describes for us the entire human race.
How
would you answer these questions:
1. What
do you think our acts of human goodness actually do for us.
2. Do you think if I perform enough acts of goodness it somehow cancel out my misgivings and my mistakes?
3. Do really believe that God loves you just the way you are?
Reading for today: Mark 10:17-22
Jesus shocks the rich man and his disciples making the claim that no one but God is good. Really no one but God? Was Jesus including himself here, when he said No one but God is Good! Many just might not take him seriously here.
We often find ourselves calling someone a good person at least until we find out something they did that didn’t fit that label. May I suggest to you that because we do both good and bad as our time with the children pointed out, we humans can only make claim to a fragment of being good or doing wrong. As Jesus claims, God and God alone is the only Good.
Jesus tells his disciples he is not the Messiah they expected, for He too is human. This truth may come as a shock to some of His followers today. His disciples were looking for a new leader who would take the throne and rule as a King. How they actually though He would rule is a mystery but their behaviour might shed some light on it. Jesus continues to challenges there thinking and that of the religious leaders in surprising and difficult ways. Chapter10 of Mark, offers us a glimpse of the unexpected from Jesus. Here Jesus confronts a rich man posturing to earn God’s favour for doing what He thinks is the right and good thing. Jesus beckons them and us to change our expectations of what we sees as right and good. Change our priorities for what appears to be important and begin to look at the way were are behaving. I’m certain the early disciples did not fully realize what they gave up in-order to follow him. Can’t you just imagine them huddled together away from Jesus, discussing their spoils, when He becomes King. They were just doing what most humans would be doing under the same circumstances figuring out what personal gains there would be. In the middle of this scene, a rich man kneels before Jesus and asks how he can earn his way into eternal life. He is a little confused about what it means to be good by following the Jewish Law. My I suggest that many today have alternative motives for following Jesus, and attending church.
This rich man has developed the misconception that following the Hebrew way and it’s rules should be enough to make him at least appear good enough for eternal life. He is not ready for Jesus response to his question. Why do you call me good for no one can be consider good, it is only God who is Good, Jesus tells him. In fact I thing we today struggle with what being good really means. We just need to give thank God that being good or bad does not excluded us from His love and acceptance. Jesus with the care and love of our Heavenly Parent does what his Father would do: Jesus look at this confused rich man with love and does not condemn or discount him. But He doesn’t leave it there either: “You lack one thing He says: and then Jesus offers him a challenge. {Read the passage}
” Even with the rich man following all the rules of his religion, Jesus knows that other priorities appear to be keeping him from a deep relationship with God. It is easy for us to judge a rich man. But aren’t we still a lot like him? We have other priorities that interfere with our relationship with God and would find it difficult to give them up. We can try and justify ourselves by thinking we are good, that we always do or at least try to do what is right and good. And yet we too often hold on to something that gets in our way and holds our relationship with God at bay if we were honest.
Our relationship with God depends on us, Why? Because God’s grace, compassion, generosity, faithfulness patience, love and forgiveness are always there for us, be ye bad or good. We wrestle with that relationship because there are times when we feel forgotten, alone and rejected even though that is not true. These are the times when you have actually stepped away from God. Let us pray.
