Mike's musings

The rich young man, the camel and the needle

I should really have posted this in the Sunday entry, but I only remembered it last night after posting then, so I thought I'd add it today. Last Sunday, the Gospel reading was Mark 10:17-31, which is the story of the rich young man, who asks Jesus what to do to inherit eternal life (and I've just thought: isn't "inherit" an interesting word here?). This is a very challenging text for almost all of us in the Western World, particularly those who are employed and financially stable, and I'd preface all my remarks by pointing out that I'm very aware that I run a great risk, here, of falling into an analysis of the text from a position of power and privilege: something which we must always do with scepticism and a hermeneutics of suspicion.

I read the Gospel having been particularly struck, in Sunday's service, by the power of the Summary of the Law in the Dominical Commandments ("love God above all others, love your neighbour as yourself", from Mark 12:29-31). And then I read the Gospel. And in the passage, Jesus recites some of the commandments to the rich young man. But he does not mention loving God above all others - or, in fact, reference the need to love your neighbour as yourself. And this means that the rich young man never gets to say "I've always done those, too!"

I've always been rather suspicious of the argument that Jesus is warning against idolising money above all else, and that we're safe as long as we don't do that, though this fits in well with Paul's warnings about idolising money, or possessions, or sex. However, I think that it's probably a fair one, as long as we keep in mind the dangers.

Labels: Jesus, money, theology