What must I do to inherit eternal life?

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

- Mark 10:17-31

Lessons on detachment come in this passage of today's daily reading. First of all we start off with the discussion of goodness, of what constitutes goodness. The young man approaches Jesus: ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus responds beginning with an understanding of what constitutes goodness and whence it comes: whatever goodness Jesus possesses is from the Father, from what it is that is shared between Father and Son. It is an important statement, to begin with, of where goodness comes from and the Source of every good gift, because it begins the discussion of what it is and what it means to enter into the kingdom.

Then Jesus teaches the young man that he knows already the commandments, which the young man has assiduously followed. Jesus, we are told, responds with love. He tells the young man that he lacks one thing: 'You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ This shocks the young man, and he goes away grieving. This is a message about detachment, and priorities. Clearly the message here is that we must be willing to give up our lives and all we hold dear for the pursuit of this kingdom. It is not the first nor the last time Jesus' teachings will convey this understanding.

Then he goes on to talk with his disciples about this subject: 'How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! ... It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ In Jesus' classic way of speaking, to give us vivid pictures so that we understand his concepts, he utters the famous saying about the camel going through the eye of the needle, in order to illustrate the difficulties of detachment - particularly for those of us who grow greatly attached to possessions. Now, because what we own is so deeply connected to issues of survival, it's not at all an easy saying for any of us. And the disciples respond with that understanding: we are told, "They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’" Jesus replies with the understanding that for any person, this is virtually an impossible saying: ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’ Every good thing comes from the Source of all good, 'for God all things are possible.' It is within that quest for union, in worship and in prayer, that we find the impossible to be possible, we find the detachment to place the kingdom first in our hearts, beyond and above even our need for possessions.

Peter replies, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus then tells them: 'Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. ' This cuts, I believe, to the heart of the matter. It is not a call for poverty, although vows of poverty have come within the spiritual life for many who have become saints and monastics throughout the centuries. It is rather about a placing of values, of priorities, on the things we have and own, and on our greatest possession - our soul, and what we choose to worship. Idolatry comes in many forms. I believe that we are creatures designed for worship. It is in the choice of what we are to worship, to love, to place first that the call for detachment comes here. We place emphasis on the priority of that prime commandment, in that all things in our lives become of service to the spiritual life. Once we give up all these things, Jesus seems to say, they are returned to us with the right priority, adjusted to this primary placement of the quest for a good spiritual life. All things, then, can become of service to that life, to that goal in our lives, that primary quality or possession of the quest for what is spiritually best for us, and for entry to and participation in that kingdom.

To enter into that kingdom takes above all the type of detachment that comes with humility, so we are once again continuing on the subject of "he who would be great" and the various forms and guises in which the quest for greatness among us comes. Jesus says, 'But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’ This again is a statement of the radical equality of the kingdom and its logic of service to all as the duty of those who would ask for its greatness. And we also must remember that the return of all these good things, these possessions, Jesus says, comes with persecution. Whatever we possess, we carry with us also that cross. Regardless of who we are and what we own, the kingdom must still come first, and we bear our duty to it regardless of what comes as a result of that faith. Humility is the key to our capacity for detachment: in worship we place one thing first, and this sets into place what else we have in our lives, into proper relationship, righteousness or "right-relatedness." This is what he asks of us.

We take with us the knowledge that the Source of all that is Good is with us. When we worship, we seek not just to practice this humility of understanding the primary place of that which we seek, but also that which gives us our capacity for participation in that kingdom. In that understanding is also the knowledge that we worship and are in turn loved and received by that Source of "every good gift," of Goodness itself.