Bearing One Another's Burdens
A Community Shares Its Resources
Mark 10:17-27 The Message
To Enter God’s Kingdom
17 As
he went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with
great reverence, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal
life?”
18-19 Jesus
said, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. You know
the commandments: Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal,
don’t lie, don’t cheat, honor your father and mother.”20 He said, “Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!”
21 Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, “There’s one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me.”
22 The man’s face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.
23-25 Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who ‘have it all’ to enter God’s kingdom?” The disciples couldn’t believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: “You can’t imagine how difficult. I’d say it’s easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for the rich to get into God’s kingdom.”
26 That set the disciples back on their heels. “Then who has any chance at all?” they asked.
27 Jesus was blunt: “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it.”
For Reflection
I
don't think Christ meant that only the poor will ever be qualified to
be accepted into the Kingdom of God. Often times our discipleship is
defined by how well we follow the rules as though God was keeping a
score card on each one of us. It is never enough to play by the rules
if by doing so one expects rewards from a grateful God. God wants us to
be completely committed to righteousness, transformed and so deeply
engrossed in the Holy Spirit that we, by example and grace, bring others
to realize God's transformational power.
Pray
that you will forsake the worldly, Pray that you will accept the profound grace of God. Pray for your dependence on God.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please post comments here.