Stuff

Luke 9:57-62, Mark 10:17-31

As Jesus and his entourage were traveling, someone approached him and said, “I will go with you, wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Lions roam, and birds are free, but even they have homes. But God’s ruler doesn’t even have a pillow, let alone a bed.” And Jesus motioned to another, who was thinking about being Jesus’ student, and said, “Come along with me.” But the thinker said, “Well, how about if I bury my father first?” Jesus replied, “Let the dead who live in your house bury their dead. Your task, right now, is to tell people God’s kingdom is coming.” Another approached Jesus and said, “I want to do your work as well, Lord. But let me just say goodbye to my family first.” Jesus stared at him, saying, “Anyone who begins the work and looks back at what he left behind isn’t a worthy worker for God.”

As Jesus returned to his travel, a man ran up to him and bowed in front of him. The man asked, “O Holy Teacher! What must I do to obtain eternal life!” Jesus, assuming this was some brown-noser who was looking for a positive answer, said, “Why do you call me ‘holy’? Only God is holy. I’m sure you’ve heard about the commands that make you right with God—‘Don’t murder,’ ‘Don’t cheat on your spouse’” ‘Don’t steal,’ ‘Don’t commit perjury,’ ‘Don’t defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and all the others. But the man, desperately, said to Jesus, “Teacher, I have already obeyed these from my youth. Isn’t there anything more?” Then Jesus truly noticed him and felt love for him and said, “There is just one thing you need: Go home right now, sell everything you have and give the money to the needy. Then you will have the treasure in heaven you desire. And when you are done with all that, follow me on my journey.” The man stood silently, his face downcast, then he walked away slowly, dejected, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus turned around and said to those following him, “People with a bunch of stuff have a hard time getting into heaven.” Jesus’ students’ were shocked, but Jesus repeated himself, “Kids, it’s very hard to enter into God’s nation. It’s easier to fit a Starbucks in one of their cups than for one of the well-off to get through the gates of heaven. It’s easier for Donald Trump to deflate his ego. It’s easier for Twiggy to swallow a space shuttle. That’s how hard it is for them to give up their stuff.” The students were wide-eyed and mumbled, “Who could possibly be saved, then?” Jesus heard this and stared at them, “It is impossible for any human—but for God, nothing is impossible. He can do anything He wishes.”

Then Peter spoke up, “Look, we left everything to wander places with you.” Jesus replied, “That’s true. And there isn’t anyone who gave up their siblings, parents, and jobs for me and for God’s truth that won’t get a hundred times as much. Even now, before God’s nation fully comes, those who gave up everything will get a hundred times as many siblings, parents and food. Of course, this all comes with being rejected by the world, but you do obtain eternal life in the next age. Just remember this: the first will be last and the last will be first.”

All To Jesus, I Surrender

Jesus is a really demanding boss. Heck, he won’t even let you work for him unless you’re willing to give up just about everything. But Jesus has got some pretty good wages—and the retirement is the best ever. Jesus has established a school, and it turns out that this school is the only avenue to enter God’s kingdom. So Jesus doesn’t give his school really easy requirements to enter—people have to give up their families, their possessions and even their very lives for Jesus. This is a part of Jesus’ program to have his disciples humbled so that they would obtain greater things from God when the kingdom comes.

Different Strokes

Jesus had a lot of people who wanted to be a part of his school. It was very popular, because people wanted to learn how he accomplished the miracles he did, and also because they wanted the favor that God gave Him. Jesus didn’t make it easy on anyone. He seemed to find the very thing that the potential disciple had a hard time surrendering, and that is what He chose. But He wasn’t making these demands just because it was hard. Rather, he recognized that everyone had different things that would block their passage to God’s kingdom, and He would tell them to get rid of it.

But not everyone’s requirements were the same as others. For some, they need to give up family obligations. For others, they need to surrender the social obligation of saying goodbye properly. For others, they need to sell everything they have. For still others, just leaving everything they have behind is enough. But everyone has to surrender their families, in some way. Everyone has to surrender their possessions. Because these are the things that distract us from God’s work.

Selling everything—The wealthy man had to sell all of his possessions. Although at first Jesus thought the man was looking for a standard answer, when He realized that he was sincerely looking for the truth, Jesus told him the harsh reality—that his possessions was getting in the way of him entering God’s kingdom. The problem with the man was not that he had a lot of money, nor that he didn’t do what was expected of him, nor that he loved his wealth more than God. His problem was, frankly, he just had too much stuff. Stuff will always get in the way of our relationship with God. So if we have a whole lot of stuff, God will tell us to sell it and to give it away. This is because too much stuff is poison to our spiritual lives.

Leaving things behind—Peter noticed Jesus’ response to the man with lotsa stuff, and he was nervous for himself, so he said, “Hey, Lord, we didn’t sell everything, but we did leave it at home.” Jesus’ response is that to leave one’s stuff behind is sufficient. Jesus recognized the sacrifice that the disciples made as being equivalent to selling it. But, unlike the wealthy man, the disciples didn’t have so much stuff that they couldn’t leave it behind. Some have so much that they need to get rid of it permanently. Others can think that they are leaving it behind temporarily (like the disciples who tried to go back to their fishing occupation), but find that Jesus’ call on them is permanent, and that they can never go back.

Community property—As the church developed, there needed to be support people for all the itinerate evangelists. People with large households, such as Philemon (after whom the book of the Bible was named) kept their houses and a lot of their stuff, but shared it with the whole church. They would have the church meet in their homes, have evangelists stay with them and provide generously to the poor. For many people, they live as the early church did, “They held no property as person, but held all things in common… and there was not a needy person among them.” (Acts 4:32,34) These folks don’t leave the possessions behind or sell them, but give them freely to whoever, especially in the church, has need of them.

Takin’ Care of Business

Why should we give away our stuff? I mean, it’s our stuff isn’t it? We didn’t steal it or extort anyone! Why can’t we do with it what we want? Of course, we can. But God has greater demands of us than just taking care of our families and our stuff.

Doing kingdom work—Jesus wants all of his disciples to be involved in the work of the kingdom. This means evangelism, establishing communities of believers and discipling new believers. This is hard work, and requires mobility and time—and the more stuff we have, the less work we can give to God.

Treasure in heaven—Treasure in heaven is, first and foremost, entrance into God’s perfect utopia. Secondly, it is the wealth and reward we will receive from God when we get there. There is only ONE way to get treasure in heaven, according to Jesus—giving to the poor.

Getting rid of distractions—The more stuff we have, the more work we have to do to maintain it, protect it, and to keep more coming in. Stuff is the world’s primary way to get us distracted from God, and to feel that we really don’t need Him. To focus on who we really are, and our real need for God and to focus our love of Him, we’ve got to get stuff out of our lives.

Helping the needy—Our stuff is a resource—a treasure—that could be use to help others who aren’t as well off as we are. People are starving in the world, are being destroyed by war, are being persecuted for Jesus. Perhaps we can’t help their emotional pain—that’s God’s job—but we can sell off some of our stuff so they can have their basic needs met. The poor are God’s people, and so to give to them is to give to God.

Bennies and Perks

To give things away is to have God put those things in an IRA with a really high interest rate. It will be returned to you a hundred fold at retirement—when the kingdom comes. We surrender our lives and hopes and dreams in this world, in this age so that God will give us a better time for us to thrive. The more we surrender now, the more we will thrive in the age to come.

“We are slaves of what we want”—Switchfoot

The more stuff we have, the less Jesus we have