Word to the Wise
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - Tuesday in the 8th Week in Ordinary Time
[Sir 35:1-12 and Mark 10:28-31]Peter began to say to Jesus, "We have given up everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come." [Mark]
The Easter season is over and Ordinary Time picks up in the lectionary where it left off just before Ash Wednesday, except a quick check shows that we were in the eighth chapter of Mark then, and now we are in the tenth! That is due to the sliding date of Ash Wednesday, which is determined by the date of Easter! So, the ninth chapter of the Gospel According to Mark disappears along with much of the tenth. I urge the Beloved Congregation at least to read the part of the tenth chapter that serves as the lead-up to today's passage. It is all about the rich man who asks Jesus what he (the rich man) must do "to inherit eternal life." Jesus tells him to go and sell all he has and give it to the poor and then follow Jesus. The man goes away sad because he had "many possessions." Jesus then astounds the disciples, who thought wealth to be a great blessing from God, by telling them that rich people have a harder time entering the kingdom of heaven. Peter chimes up with the words that begin today's passage: "We have given up everything to follow you."
It is tempting to focus on what is given up instead of the reason for giving it up! The reason is the value of what will be received (faith, community and eternal life) as well as the cost of receiving it. We are told in the Acts of the Apostles that the early Christian community in Jerusalem did indeed provide a new family and new way of living to those who "gave up everything" to follow Jesus. [Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-37]. It was not just "pie in the sky by and by," but it did mean persecution which continued sporadically until the Edict of Milan, 313 A.D..
The Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, hanged by the Nazis near the end of World War II, wrote what has become a minor classic, THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP. In it he warns about "cheap grace." Following Jesus is not simply a matter of sacraments and devotions. It means self-sacrifice and love of neighbor as well as using resources as a way of following Jesus rather than "owning stuff." The disciples were astounded by what Jesus said. [vv.23-27] and I suspect a part of all of us in our own time reacts the way they did, as well. What does our own reflection on Jesus' words suggest to us? AMEN