The Teaching of Jesus on Wealth (Mk 10:23-31)

The Bible: Gospel of Mark Series Icon.

During 2019, each week, I will write a weekly post about the Gospel of Mark, as I review and explore each of the 16 chapters and how it may be applied in our daily lives. If you are following this series for the first time, you will find this series under Scripture- New Testament- Gospel of Mark. 

Click here to read the first post in the series. I have written this series in different years (2012, 2015, 2018) with some irregularity, but am determined to complete this series this year since I am more than half way through this Gospel.

My goal is to understand and pray the Gospel of Mark. I hope you will join me on this journey as we travel through the liturgical season.  In today's post we explore chapter 10:23-31 which is called the teaching of Jesus on wealth.

THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON WEALTH

Jesus shocks His disciples when He tells them it is hard for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God, to experience God’s power coming into the world.  Like most Jesus of that time they see wealthy as a clear sign of God’s blessing.

The disciples are even more amazed when Jesus say with tenderness towards them how hard it is fro anyone to enter the kingdom of God. His comparison of a camel trying to pass through the eye of a needle shocks again.

Jesus exaggerates to emphasise His teaching.  He implied the difficulty, even human impossibility, for the wealthy to have real contact through faith with the kingdom of God, yet what may be humanly impossible can still be possible for God.

As the rich man in the previous story failed to understand, eternal life which is really another word for the kingdom of God, does not come simply from doing the right thing, what we should do.  It is always God’s free gift.

Peter characteristically reminds Jesus that he and the other disciples left all to follow Him.  Jesus emphasises, with ‘Truly (Amen I say to you, ‘that those who have left any person or possession for His sake, and the gospel He brings, will receive a hundredfold blessing of God.  They receive this now by their experience of community and the things they share, paradoxically with persecution too, Mark adds, and in the future by sharing eternal life, the life of the eternal God.

Mark ends this fifth episode of a group of five (9:35-10:31) connected with the teaching of Jesus about the need for His disciples to be little ones with words that summarise and shock.  The last and the little ones now will be revealed later as the ones who are the first and truly great in the God sees things.

JOURNAL REFLECTION

In our journal and/or our discussion group we may wish to reflect on this passage as follows:

• Name the key points that you have learnt about the person of Jesus in this passage of scripture?

• Imagine that you are one of the disciples- What do you see and hear and feel. What can I learn from this?

• Imagine being Jesus telling the disciples and knowing that they did not understand- what would you have felt?  

• What is reading the Gospel passage with the eyes and ears of disciple mean to me?

• What does wealth mean to me? What areas of my life are abundant/wealthy? How does Jesus teaching on wealth resonate to me?

• What are the areas of wealth and poverty in my life I need to bring to Jesus? What questions do I want to ask Him?
• What does a stingy mentality create in my mind and soul?
• What factors stop me from being generous- have you been ‘’used’’ or taken advantage of by being generous?

• Am I willing to look into myself with honesty and ask how much do I grasp what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus in the light of this teaching? 

• Is my faith in the divine power of Christ, whom we follow, large enough to make us ready to follow the teachings of Jesus and in particular this passage?

• In the light of this passage, how will you respond to Jesus as a true disciple?

• If a fellow parishioner had read this passage, what might he/she say about this passage?
  
  
• Think of a time I may have harmed other people by not sharing my wealth/abundance?

• In the light of this Gospel passage what positive change will you adopt in your life and in your spiritual life.  How will you implement these changes?