Amos 5: 6-7, 10-15 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Mark 10: 17-31 (Common English Bible)
The Gospel message today invites us to pay attention and live in a world in a new way. Jesus speaks to the wealthy young man as a teacher and his relationship with God. His first instructions to the young man is to follow the 10 Commandments that God has given to the Hebrews through Moses.
Like the young man, we are called to know and realize the Commandments as a foundation to our faith. It is tempting to place the Commandments in public places like schools. But that misses the point, knowing them is not enough. Jesus expects us to live by them.
It is revealing that one Commandment is not included with the other 10. And that was, “you shall not defraud your neighbor.” It is similar to the other passages not to exploit those like the widow and orphan.
Some with power and influence have a tendency to cheat and cause the poor to pay more than a fair share for goods and services. You can see that now with price gouging for food and gas. The message of the evil of greed and wealth is a subject both Jesus and the prophets emphasize in their message. Unfortunately people are still bewitched by wealth with TV shows like “The Real Housewives” and “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” Such shows do not seem to awaken their viewers to examine the wealth’s sources. Unfortunately people seem to be impressed by that wealth. As we see the gap between the rich and not rich widening, we fail to see the origin of that wealth. Many inherit their wealth and others make money on top of money. One example is Elon Musk. He inherited much of his wealth through his father’s emerald mine in South Africa.
Focusing on the perils of wealth may be a challenge to some Christians today. The Gospel can be a warning to the very rich. It is clear that Jesus was asking more of the young man than just giving up his money. Jesus was inviting him to change his mindset about wealth. It was not necessarily about his money, but his worship of wealth. In his mind, wealth made him a good person. He couldn’t imagine living without his riches. In a way, the young man believed in the prosperity gospel. It was wrong for them as it is still today.
Jesus offers several challenges we can adopt today. If we are accepted in places of power and recognized as part of the status-quo, are we truly walking the new way of Jesus? If we are not ruffling some feathers by our acts of justice, does it mean we are failing to miss the path of Jesus? Are we showing the world what it is to trust God and spread God’s love to our neighbors, both local and foreign? And will we do something about the ethnic hate and lies being said about migrants?
The rich man with wealth couldn’t do it. He went away depressed. Jesus then looked at his disciples, and said, “It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through through the eye of a needle, than a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.”
That is a very powerful metaphor. I can’t even thread a needle. So I did some research on that. The eye of the needle was believed to be a narrow wall in Jerusalem. So camels had to kneel down for their owner to unload his baggage before the camel could pass through it. And so, just like the camel, rich people have to unload their worship of money before they enter God’s kingdom.
This is why Jesus expects people to let go of that one thing we keep a tight grip on, and it can be other things besides money. When that is done, we can take the hand of Jesus to be part of God’s kingdom. Life is eternal for us if we follow the Way of Jesus.
One of the interesting articles I’ve read recently is that billionaires are trying to cheat death. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is investing in a secret start-up company that is researching anti-aging technology. Money can buy many things, but it cannot buy a never-ending life. Eternal life remains out of reach for everyone. Only God can give that.
When it comes right to it, death is the great equalizer. None of us will live forever in our physical bodies. Everyone can relate to the young man in today’s gospel reading, who had many possessions, but it means nothing because they will eventually turn into dust.
Eternal life is so much more than a prize to be achieved, it’s a gift from God. Life stretches back beyond our birth, back to our origin as cosmic dust. Eternal life has no end and is not bound by time. That includes our life right now and continues on beyond our physical body.
When you study the Old Testament there is nothing much said about eternal life. At best, it’s mentioned that both good and bad go to a gloomy shadow land called Sheol, which I believe is only mentioned once. But that doesn’t mean the Hebrew people didn’t have a conscience about good and bad. Amos was one of those prophets who did have a very strong conscience, especially how the rich were exploiting the poor. Amos prophesied during the reign of King Jeroboam II around the year 750 BC. By that time Israel had divided into two kingdoms, one was Israel then called the Northern Kingdom and the other called Judah in the south.
The Northern Kingdom (Israel) at that time was enjoying great political and economic power. It was a time when the economy was booming and the places of worship were full. The people thought if they performed the correct sacrifices, it didn’t matter how they lived.
But Amos was angry at what he saw in the Northern Kingdom. He saw the reality of the widening disparity between rich and poor. It would be called “trickle-down” economics today. It was policies that favored the wealthy and hurt the poor. This led to increasing the centralization of resources, the land and its produce into the hands of the few. God speaks through Amos with scathing words, “For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have sold the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes. They trample on the dust of the earth on the heads of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed.”
Israel’s elite and wealthy had already exploited the labor of the lower classes and left many destitute. The Prophet Amos promises change and urges his audience to use their crowds to let justice reign at the city gate.
The message of justice is both an Old Testament message and a main theme within the gospels. Jesus was a strong advocate of social justice. He talked more about how the poor were mistreated, the danger of wealth and one’s attitude to it, more than anything else.
In Matthew 25: 35-36, Jesus said, “For I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me water to drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.”
Those in power in the Northern Kingdom of Israel chose to ignore Amos’ warning of their greed and selfishness. Amos told them that God would bring a harsh judgment against them. What Amos found in the Northern Kingdom was hypocrisy. The people of the Northern Kingdom made a mistake in thinking since their places of worship were full and they were doing all the correct rituals, God was with them. They were wrong. They ignored what God really wanted them to do, to care for the poor and create a just society. And God’s judgment was severe. Twenty-eight years later (722 BC) after Amos brought his warning to Israel, the Assyrian army invaded the Northern Kingdom and Israel was no more. Nearly all its citizens were taken away in chains to other areas never to be seen again. This is the origin of the lost tribes of Israel.
Justice is God’s priority. Modern examples of justice remind us the momentum for justice comes in surprising ways. We often think that justice comes from the top-down, but the reality is justice comes from the grass-roots. Often politicians are too timid to do the correct thing. They might lose voters or donors. It often takes people like Mahatma Gandhi who challenged the British Empire with peaceful activism to liberate India from England. Labor leader Cesar Chavez, a Mexican immigrant, organized the United Farm Workers Union to give dignity and higher wages to migrant workers in America. Nelson Mandala was in prison but yet was able to use his voice to end apartheid in South Africa.
In what places is justice absent? There are many like the Palestinian people facing genocide in Gaza. How might churches become a place of refuge on behalf of those who have nowhere to go? How does the church react in filling the void when justice is not present? And what action might churches take when the regular channels of power ignore those who are suffering?
A Catholic saint from the 16th century, Teresa of Avila, wrote, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out on a hurting world. Yours are the feet with which Christ is to go about doing good.”
What must we do to inherit eternal life? Take the hand of Jesus and follow him. And to follow him is an invitation that Jesus makes to us all, with love.
AMEN.
