Peo­p­le with pos­ses­si­ons are in par­ti­cu­lar dan­ger of fol­lo­wing them and not Jesus Christ. The inci­dent of the young man with Jesus shows that Jesus, as the Son of God, wants him to come first. The king­dom of God has daw­ned with Jesus. We can­not earn it – it is pure grace. But in order for us to share in it, Jesus Christ should be our most important pos­ses­si­on. This is why deal­ing with our pos­ses­si­ons is an important part of fol­lo­wing Jesus. It is not about fal­ling into acti­vism with our pos­ses­si­ons, but about wor­ship­ping Jesus with our pos­ses­si­ons – by caring about what is important to him.

Today we are start­ing the last ser­mon series on our annu­al the­me «EIFACH mue­tig – mit Jesus als Vor­bild». It is the start of the Pos­ses­si­on & Faith ser­mon series. We are try­ing some­thing new in this series: You have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ask your ques­ti­ons. After the ser­mon series, we will film a Q&A and publish it on You­Tube. You can sub­mit your ques­ti­ons via the comm­ents on YouTube.

Jesus Christ talks a lot about pos­ses­si­ons and money. Of the almost 8000 ver­ses in the New Tes­ta­ment, 2084 deal with finan­ces and ste­ward­ship – almost a quar­ter! At least every third para­ble revol­ves around this topic. Jesus» state­ments about pos­ses­si­ons are pri­ma­ri­ly state­ments about the rea­li­ty of deal­ing with what we have – not pro­hi­bi­ti­ons or commandments.

Would you rela­te the sto­ry of today’s text rea­ding to you per­so­nal­ly? Today’s ser­mon is inten­ded to help you gain a per­spec­ti­ve on what the­se bibli­cal pas­sa­ges have to say about owner­ship and faith.

The rich man in me!

Jesus is about to set off when a young man comes to him with a ques­ti­on: «[…] Good tea­cher, what shall I do to obtain eter­nal life?» (Mark 10:17 NLB). Three things are very important in this short enquiry.

First­ly, he calls Jesus good. Jesus» ans­wer is also based on this: « «Why do you call me good?» Jesus asked. «Only God alo­ne is good» » (Mark 10:18 NLB). This man came to Jesus and asked him this ques­ti­on. But who did he think he was loo­king at? The Son of God? The king of Isra­el? An important tea­cher (rab­bi)? Alt­hough he knelt befo­re him, he «only» saw him as a tea­cher. Jesus» ans­wer makes this clear: only God is good! But Jesus also claims this for hims­elf. He does­n’t just want to be a tea­cher! Who is Jesus for you? Is he a good tea­cher? The King of Isra­el? God himself?

Second­ly, the young man asks about eter­nal life. By this he means the king­dom of God. He wan­ted to know how he could par­ti­ci­pa­te in the king­dom of God. He lon­ged for some­thing grea­ter than the here and now. With Jesus, the king­dom of God dawns on earth. He brings the king­dom of God near (Mark 1:15). What is the king­dom of God? It is the roy­al rule of God over his crea­ti­on. The life of Jesus Christ makes this clear: the sick are hea­led, the blind can see, the dead are rai­sed, sins are for­gi­ven. But this is not an end in its­elf. In all of this, all honour is given to God.

Third­ly, the young man asks what he should do. He focus­ses on doing. Behind this lies the opi­ni­on that he can earn the king­dom of God. This is pre­cis­e­ly whe­re Jesus Christ comes in. He lists com­mandments five to nine and adds one more. But the man claims that he has done all this sin­ce he was a child. Ins­tead of prai­sing him for this, he now comes up with a serious ret­ort: «Then Jesus loo­ked at the man with love. «You still lack one thing,» he said to him. «Go and sell ever­y­thing you have and give the money to the poor; then you will have tre­asu­re in hea­ven. Then come and fol­low me» » (Mark 10:21 NLB). One thing must not be over­loo­ked in this powerful invi­ta­ti­on: Jesus loo­ked at the man with love! When Jesus asks us to do some­thing dif­fi­cult, it is out of love! Else­whe­re, Jesus was once asked what the most important com­mandment was. His ans­wer: Love God and your neigh­bour (Mark 12:29–31). The man was not pre­pared to share his pos­ses­si­ons with others. This shows us that he did not love his neigh­bour as hims­elf! It is inte­res­t­ing to note that five of the ten com­mandments were miss­ing from Jesus» ans­wer. But which ones? They are the ones con­cer­ning the rela­ti­onship with God – and the tenth, which is about desi­re. The young man’s main pro­blem was that he put his wealth first and trus­ted it more than God!

His successors were dismayed

What does the ans­wer to this young man do to the fol­lo­wers of Jesus? It gets even worse: « «A camel goes through the eye of a need­le rather than a rich man enters the king­dom of God! The disci­ples were dis­may­ed. «Who then can be saved at all?» they asked» (Mark 10:25–26 NLB). This ans­wer dis­may­ed his fol­lo­wers. They did not assu­me that many pos­ses­si­ons could save. But they saw pos­ses­si­ons as a sign of divi­ne favour.

From the very begin­ning, God had pro­mi­sed to bless his peo­p­le mate­ri­al­ly (Abra­ham, Isaac, Jacob). If they obey­ed him, mate­ri­al pro­spe­ri­ty always fol­lo­wed (e.g. Gene­sis 26:12–14). Despi­te all the posi­ti­ve refe­ren­ces to pos­ses­si­ons in the Old Tes­ta­ment, trust in wealth is also cri­ti­cis­ed (Psalm 62:11). Jesus picks up on this thought with a famous word: «No one can ser­ve two mas­ters. He will always hate one and love the other or be loy­al to one and detest the other. You can­not ser­ve God and money at the same time» (Matthew 6:24 NLB). Pos­ses­si­on in and of its­elf is not the pro­blem, but that it can take us cap­ti­ve. It does­n’t say: No one should ser­ve two mas­ters, but: No one can! It is an impossibility.

Are you rea­dy to let the Holy Spi­rit work on your atti­tu­de towards pos­ses­si­ons? In con­nec­tion with pos­ses­si­ons, the­re is also a wide­spread and repea­ted lie – name­ly that mate­ri­al pos­ses­si­ons are pro­mi­sed as a reward from God. This is not the case throug­hout the New Tes­ta­ment. God wants the best for us, but this is not mate­ria­lism, i.e. pos­ses­sing more and more, but a rela­ti­onship with him that makes him ever more pre­cious to me. That is why fol­lo­wers of Jesus wage a war against mate­ria­lism. This takes place in the heart – and it is exact­ly that: War!

In the Old Tes­ta­ment, Isra­el is repea­ted­ly cri­ti­cis­ed for not caring for the poor. Howe­ver, caring for the poor is part of its iden­ti­ty as the peo­p­le of God. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus are part of the peo­p­le of God. The­r­e­fo­re, caring for the poor is part of my per­so­nal disci­ple­ship of Jesus. We can­not fight pover­ty per­ma­nent­ly, but caring for the poor is part of it! «The­re will always be poor peo­p­le in the land. The­r­e­fo­re I com­mand you to be gene­rous to the poor and nee­dy Israe­li­tes» (Deu­te­ro­no­my 15:11 NLB).

Everything is possible for God!

I would like to come back to the camel and the eye of the need­le. The­re are some abstru­se theo­ries as to what this could mean. But I am deep­ly con­vin­ced that it is exact­ly what it is – a camel and the eye of a need­le. And it is sim­ply impos­si­ble for a camel to go through the eye of a need­le. This seems par­ti­cu­lar­ly important to me becau­se only then can the glo­ry of the good news of Jesus Christ shi­ne through. The disci­ples ask: Who then can be saved at all? «Jesus loo­ked at them and said, «With men this is impos­si­ble, but not with God; for God all things are pos­si­ble» » (Mark 10:27 New Tes­ta­ment). We can­not buy our par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in God’s king­dom. It is a gift – pure grace. Whe­ther rich or poor. It is impos­si­ble for us humans to get the­re on our own. If you have a lon­ging for the king­dom of God, then not­hing but grace will do.

The­r­e­fo­re, we should not lay up tre­asu­re on earth, but in hea­ven (Mark 10:21). In the hea­ven­ly bank, so to speak. We know that the money is never spent in the bank its­elf, but in ano­ther place. The tre­asu­re in hea­ven is spent in God’s king­dom. All the secu­ri­ties that I give up on earth – my home and my pro­vi­si­ons (house and fields) – I alre­a­dy recei­ve back on earth. But in a dif­fe­rent way, and on top of that, eter­nal life – i.e. a share in the king­dom of God.

So what is the appro­pria­te respon­se to this bibli­cal sto­ry? A chan­ged heart that does not cling to wealth, does not for­get to care for the poor and nee­dy, and stores up tre­asu­res in hea­ven. Jesus invi­tes you to put your pos­ses­si­ons to work for him! It’s not about acti­vism, but about wor­ship. It is about wor­ship­ping God with each To give honour to this area of my life! The area of pos­ses­si­ons is about radi­cal gene­ro­si­ty! Are you rea­dy to put God abo­ve your pos­ses­si­ons too? That’s what this series and the next three ser­mons are all about. As an intro­duc­tion and accom­p­animent to this topic, I would like to say the fol­lo­wing pray­er tog­e­ther: «Lord, show my heart what is important to your heart.»

Possible questions for the small group

Read the Bible text: Mark 10:17–31

1. Who is Jesus for you per­so­nal­ly? In the sto­ry, the young man calls Jesus «good», but does not reco­g­ni­se him as God. How does your per­so­nal image of Jesus (tea­cher, king, God) influence the way you deal with pos­ses­si­ons and trust?
2. What does «King­dom of God» mean to you in con­cre­te terms in ever­y­day life? If the king­dom of God has alre­a­dy daw­ned with Jesus – whe­re do you see signs of it today? How can your hand­ling of pos­ses­si­ons be part of it?
3. «One thing is still miss­ing» – What could Jesus say to you today? Are the­re are­as of your life or pos­ses­si­ons that you are hol­ding on to too tight­ly? What could radi­cal gene­ro­si­ty look like for you?
4. Money or God – who do you real­ly ser­ve? Jesus says: «No one can ser­ve two mas­ters.» How do you reco­g­ni­se that money or pos­ses­si­ons have (not) beco­me your mas­ter? What helps you to put God abo­ve your possessions?
5. What does gene­ro­si­ty mean as a form of wor­ship? If giving is not about acti­vism, but about wor­ship – How can your giving (time, resour­ces, money) be an expres­si­on of love for God and people?
6. «Ever­y­thing is pos­si­ble for God» – Whe­re do you need this pro­mi­se? Is the­re an area whe­re you strugg­le to let go or trust? How can God’s grace help you to beco­me freer with possessions?