A Hundredfold Return on Your Investment
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Psalm 90:12-17; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31
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.”
A hundredfold return on your investment. Blessed are those who bought their Microsoft or Amazon stock at $1 and sold it for $100, for they will have enough money to make it worthwhile to have an investment account in the Cayman Islands and get written about in the Washington Post. A hundredfold return – that’s what Jesus offers at the end of this passage. A hundredfold return on whatever you give up for his sake and for the sake of the good news of God’s kingdom – now, in this age – you’ll get back a hundred times what you give away. And persecution. And on top of that, life in the age to come.
A hundred times return on your investment, plus eternal life. That’s a great deal. Well, OK, not the persecution part. But the rest of it sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, not to be passed up. It sounds almost too good to be true, and maybe it is. Because it doesn’t work that way, does it? Not for everybody, that’s for sure. For every person, back in the day, who bought a share of Enron at $1 and sold it at $100, there is (by definition) another person who bought a share of Enron at $100 and probably wound up with nothing. This is not a life plan that’s going to work for everyone. So when Jesus makes this promise, what is he really talking about?
I mentioned last Sunday that, whenever someone poses a trick question to Jesus, a question asked in bad faith, the gospels never show Jesus giving a direct answer. Instead, he answers in a way that reveals the wrong assumptions that lie behind the question. In today’s gospel, Jesus is asked a question that I think was asked in good faith, an honest question, but one that is problematic on so many levels. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
What’s wrong with that question? A lot of things. We could start with “What must I do to inherit?” An inheritance isn’t something you earn. You don’t inherit something because you deserve it, but because someone chose of their own free will and sound mind to give it to you. What I “must do” and what I “inherit” just don’t belong together in the same sentence.
And about this this “Good Teacher” at the beginning? I had a professor in law school, the first year when the professors interrogate the students like a hostile judge might pepper a lawyer with questions in a hearing. One day someone in our class got a question he wasn’t expecting, and to stall he said, “That’s a good question.” And the professor lifted her head up and said, very sarcastically, “Why thank you!” To remind the student that it isn’t his place to pass judgment on whether a professor’s question, or a judge’s question, is a good question or not. “’Good teacher’?” Jesus says. “I’m so glad that you think I meet your standards for goodness. Actually, I’m more concerned with God’s standards, but thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“’Good teacher’! Now, what was your question? Oh yes, eternal life. Well, you know the commandments. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, you know the list.” And the man replied, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” And then we are told that Jesus looked at the man and loved him. This is the only time in the gospel that we are specifically told that Jesus loved an individual person.
Jesus looked at him, saw him for who he was, really saw him, and loved him. Just as Jesus sees all of us and love us, just as Jesus sees you and loves you. And Jesus, seeing him, loving him, said, “Then you are only lacking one thing. Go, sell what you own, give the money to the poor. It will be the best investment you ever made, treasure in heaven. Then, come follow me.”
Sell what you have and give it to the poor – Jesus does not present this to the man as a commandment. It is not on the list of things to do to inherit eternal life. It is not a test or a requirement. It is definitely not something he – or any of us – needs to do in order to earn God’s love – Jesus loved this man when he looked at him. Before Jesus said a word about selling anything, Jesus already loved him. That’s what “justification by faith apart from works” means – God loves us not for what we do or don’t do, not for what we sell or what we give or don’t give, God loves us because God is love and God makes us worthy of God’s love. We don’t control our worthiness to be loved by God, not even a little bit.
So if it’s not a commandment, what is this word of Jesus? Jesus doesn’t explain himself to the man – the man walks away confused and shocked and sad, before there is any chance to explain. At least no explanation that has been recorded for us. One of the practices I like to use with Scripture passages like this is to try to imagine what Jesus would have said to the man if he had been willing to ask for an explanation. Based on what Jesus later said to his disciples about the incident – which Mark does tell us a little bit about – and what we know about Jesus from the gospel overall, I imagine that a longer explanation would have gone something like this:
Jesus looked at him, saw him, saw his heart, and loved him. And Jesus said: “There’s just one thing left for you to do. Go, sell everything you have, and give the money to the poor. No, really. You’ll love it. It will be the best thing you ever did. You’ve never made an investment that has ever paid off like this one will.
“You tell me that you’ve kept all of the commandments since your youth. And I can see that you believe that. You think that you’re basically a good person, and I can see why. You fear God, you want to do the right thing. For a rich landowner in a poor country you’re pretty honest, and that’s commendable.
“But there’s a lot that you don’t see. Your upbringing and your wealth have shielded you from the experience of a lot of your neighbors. You have no idea how many people pray to God before they go to bed, “Lord, I hope you take justice on that son-of-a-[pause] who foreclosed on my family’s farm and sent us into poverty.” You have no idea. I know, everything you did was legal. I know, you did what any creditor would have done in your place. I know, you personally felt sorry for them. I know, you make donations to the food pantry every month. I know, I see you, and I love you. But other people see things from a different perspective, and you have no idea.
“Selling your house and giving the money to the poor – I know, it sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, where would you live? But if you did that, there would be so many farmers who’d get their land and homes back – there would be a hundred homes where you’d be a welcome and honored guest. And I know you’ve got relatives who were expecting an inheritance who would be really mad at you, your other rich friends at the club will think you’ve lost your mind, they’ll call you a traitor to your class. I know. But I promise you that if you do this, you’ll have a hundred times as many relatives and siblings – and these will be real relationships. You won’t be giving them a handout with one hand while protecting yourself from their situation with the other hand – you’ll not only help them, you’ll be in it with them, and they’ll love you for it. It will be like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.
“Sounds difficult, I know. About as hard as a camel going through the eye of a needle – it’s human nature to fear the future, to want to conserve resources, make sure you’re safe, I know. Loving people enough to give them everything is not easy, and it can be painful. Believe me,” I imagine Jesus saying, opening his arms as wide as a man hanging on a cross. “Believe me, I know. But it’s worth it. It really is.
“You know, I wouldn’t give this advice to everyone. But I see you, and I love you, and I know you’re using your wealth and your privilege to protect yourself, to feel like you’re in control and that you’ve taken care of everything you need. Other people have different ways of protecting themselves and giving themselves the illusion of control over their lives, and I’d probably have other suggestions for them. But for you, trust me – this is the best thing you could possibly do with your life. It would bring you so much joy, so much peace – and that’s why it seems so scary. Because the Kingdom of God is at hand, the kingdom of God where there is enough for everyone and everything is shared. You think you’re ready for the kingdom of God because there’s enough for you. But you’re not ready. You know you’re not ready for the Kingdom of God – that’s why you asked me that question.
“You don’t have to worry about whether you’re going to inherit eternal life. I already see you, and I love you, and I will do whatever it takes to make sure you can inherit eternal life – you don’t have to worry about that in the slightest. But when I do, when the Kingdom of God arrives in its fullness, the last will be first and the first will be last, and you’re at the wrong end of the line right now. So if you believe me, if you believe that the Kingdom of God is truly at hand, you’ll start living it right now and it will be the best decision you ever made.”
And when Jesus finished, this explanation that I imagine him giving, the man went away sad, because he had many possessions, and what Jesus said frightened him. And Jesus said, “How hard it is to really believe that the Kingdom of God is really at hand. How hard it is to give up the habits formed in the Kingdom of Scarcity and the Kingdom of Competition and the Kingdom of Taking Care of Your Own First and be ready to live in the Kingdom of God.” And his disciples were stunned and said, “Yes, that sounds hard. Impossible, even. Can anybody really do that?” And Jesus said, “For humans on their own, you’re right, it’s impossible. Even though it would make human beings so much happier and so much freer, if they would only trust that the Kingdom of God really is what and where I am telling you it is, I know they won’t do it on their own. I see them all, I love them all, and I know they can’t do it. But with God all things are possible.”
It is hard to really believe what Jesus tells us. We may want to believe it, we may say that we believe it, but when the time comes to actually put something at risk, we get scared and we don’t do it. I don’t, not most of the time, and you probably don’t either. But Jesus sees us, and loves us, even when we turn down his offer. Even when we’d make a hundredfold return in this life, even when what we’re asked to give up is something we can’t take with us out of this life even if Jesus is completely wrong and we didn’t have faith at all – even then, we are afraid of taking risks and losing security and following Jesus on the way of the cross.
And here, fellow not-very-good disciples of Jesus that we are, we come together today to share our astonishment at what Jesus asks of us and at what Jesus promises us. To see one another as Jesus sees us, as the not-very-good disciples of Jesus that we all are, and to love one another anyway, as Jesus loves us. To practice together at the table of Jesus trusting a little more, receiving a little more. To experience just a little what it means to live together where the last are first and there is enough for everyone and everyone is seen and loved – and to encourage one another to trust together even more and receive together even more. Because on our own, this kind of trust would be impossible. But with God, all things are possible.