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Sound & Season is a daily audio devotional designed to connect the routine moments of life to the rhythms of the Church seasons.
This is Sound and Season. It's Wednesday, the 25th day of Lent. Our passage today comes from the gospel of Mark chapter 10 verses 17 through 31. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?
Lauren Starnes:No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. And he said to him, teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, you lack one thing, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Lauren Starnes:And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then who can be saved?
Lauren Starnes:Jesus looked at them and said, with man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, See, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. This is the word of the Lord.
Lauren Starnes:Thanks be to God.
Jeffrey Heine:The young man walked away from Jesus, his heart full of sorrow. But why? Mark says it is because he had a great many possessions. And that was why he was sorrowful. It wasn't because he didn't think Jesus was telling the truth, or that Jesus was somehow wrong.
Jeffrey Heine:The sorrow was because Jesus was right, and it would affect what he cared about most of all, his many possessions. Saint Augustine wrote, the young man just wanted a good teacher, but he went away sad, bound up in his desires. He went away sad, carrying the great burden of his possessions upon his shoulders.
Lauren Starnes:Lord, hear our prayer and let our cry come to you. Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, in whom there is fullness of life. May we find our wealth in the one who has given his very life that we might feast for all of eternity. Grant us a hunger for the things that are unseen, the riches of a kingdom that shall never pass away.
Lauren Starnes:Give us discernment, Holy Spirit, to comprehend the fleeting and incomplete treasures this world has to offer. Oh, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever. Amen.