In Mark 10 our Lord is teaching us where our priorities are to be. The rich young man wanted to inherit eternal life. He kept the Law; that is, he obeyed the Ten Commandments … at least in his own mind he did. Jesus told him to sell his possessions, and he could be Jesus’ disciple. The man turned away sad because he had great wealth. He loved his possessions. He feared, loved, and trusted in them above God. He was guilty of breaking the First Commandment, whether he chose to realize it or not. His heart was not in the right place. He relied on his great wealth for his happiness rather than on the Lord for his salvation. After the man left, Jesus reiterated to his disciples that it is difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were incredulous. Some ancient manuscripts of St. Mark’s Gospel note that Jesus said to the disciples in verse 24: “Children, how difficult it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!” At issue here is not possessions in and of themselves; the issue is the priority we place upon them. How important are the things we own and the money we have, and are we willing to leave these behind for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of the Gospel? Our Lord calls us to follow him, even to the point of even being willing to leave behind what we own and the people we love because we are to love him more than all of these. True discipleship to Christ demands total obedience on our part.

All that we have and everything we own does not belong to us. These all belong to God. We do not own anything. God has given these things to us, as Martin Luther teaches us in his explanation to the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that he has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.” We are but stewards of what God has given us. He is the Creator, and we are his creation. Yes, we are to thank God for giving us each day our daily bread...and pray that he continues to do so. We also need to be mindful of what the Lord has given us, lest we go to extremes in misusing what God has given us. The ancient Church Father, Clement of Alexandria, writes, “Let this teach the prosperous that they are not to neglect their own salvation, as if they had been already foredoomed, nor, on the other hand, to cast wealth into the sea, or condemn it as a traitor and an enemy to life, but learn in what way and how to use wealth and obtain life.” Material possessions can exist in the life of the Christian, being good stewards of what God has given us here on earth, using these things to his glory. Clement also writes, The Savior by no means has excluded the rich on account of wealth itself, and the possession of property, nor fenced off salvation against them, if they are able and willing to submit their life to God’s commandments, and prefer them to transitory things. Let them look to the Lord with steady eye, as those who look toward the slightest nod of a good helmsman, what he wishes, what he orders, what he indicates, what signal he giv

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