Releasing What Has Become Bound

Today’s gospel reading from Mark 10 is what theologian and activist Ched Myers calls a “text of terror.” You might see why in just a minute.

In the story a man runs up to Jesus and poses the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus reminds the man of the commandments (and specifically mentions you shall not steal and you shall not defraud), and the man answers (albeit presumptuously), “I have done all that since I was young.” So Jesus – looking at the young man with love – replies and says, “Amazing! Then you only lack one thing. Get up, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” We are told that, “At that statement, [the man’s] face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”

But wait…there’s more!

Jesus then goes on to say, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God…It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” 

For hundreds maybe even thousands of years, the church and the followers of Jesus have struggled with this text. We have collectively dismissed it outright, assumed it’s a “metaphor” or found some way to minimize its implications for our lives. But the more I have come to understand about Jesus, it is a text that we must reckon with – and especially with our status as people who may be “wealthy” or “rich.”

I am guessing that most people reading this blog will say of themselves, “I am not rich or wealthy!” I guess that I’d respond, “It depends…” Consider this…

To be in the top 10% of earners in the United States, you need to earn only about $167,000 annually.  (Top 5% is about $330,000; top 1% $550,000)

In 2021, median annual income (which means half of a country’s residents earn an income that is higher than the median, while the other half earn an income that falls below the median), in the poorest countries in the world ranged between $395 – $600. In the United States, it was about $25,000.

Average net worth of a United States household (based on 2020 data – which includes a home, cars, financial assets, bank accounts, etc.) was about $500,000. In Burundi it was $800.

And I remember a line from a song written by singer Brian Sirchio. He recounts a story from a time when he was doing some mission work in Haiti where a group was debating, “Who is rich?” One of the locals said these poignant words which became the title of one of Sirchio’s songs, “If You Eat Each Day, You’re Rich.”

For most of us living in the United States who own a home, we are the rich. And in terms of the world population, we are the wealthy. Of course there are people far richer and wealthier than we are, but it does not change the fact that, for many of us reading this, we’re part of the group that Jesus is talking about (generationally or personally). We are the beneficiaries of unjust and historic economic systems.

In today’s gospel, Jesus looks at the wealthy young man with LOVE and then tells him a hard truth about what he must do in order to find his way into God’s kingdom. Jesus is actually trying to heal this young man by inviting him to release his wealth. In fact, Jesus addresses him using the term he uses in so many of his healing stories when he tells him to “Get up…” and go and sell his possessions. 

Jesus, like so many of his time, knew that wealth was unevenly distributed and became concentrated in the hands of certain people, families or groups. He is trying to offer this man a chance to “de-construct the fraudulent system from which he derives his privilege, and restore to the dispossessed what has been taken from them (Myers).” But the man is having nothing to do with it. It is too much for him, and he is unwilling to surrender his place in an unfair economy.

Today’s gospel reading raises so many questions for me, and is one that I know that I need to keep returning to again and again – because it does not relent in its demands. Myers concludes his reflection by saying, “This is a text of terror for Christians who are the “inheritors” of the rich man’s legacy. It is clear that redistribution is what it means for us to follow Jesus.”

Redistribution is what it means to follow Jesus.

If you have grown up in the mainstream of this culture, this message runs against just about everything we’re taught. And so we need to continually practice radical generosity and the redistribution of resources. “Riches” can get stuck so easily – in our pockets, in our bank accounts, in our families, in our businesses. Furthermore our culture glorifies the amassing of wealth and has normalized wealth inequality to such an extent that even wealthy people can feel economically insecure.

Jesus – who loves us more than we can know – invites us to release what has become bound in our world. This includes wealth and riches. He wants us to be well, and so he MUST tell us the truth about the systems we are in. It can feel like harsh news, and yet this is what is needed for us and our world to heal from the wounds of injustice.  

Perhaps for this week, we commit to a practice of redistribution. Start small and let it grow. Notice what comes up in you. Breathe into it and keep going.