Sell Your Posessions

Mark 10:17-27 is the story of the Rich Young Ruler. It’s probably the most popular story outside of the Sermon on the Mount for the new movement of Christianity that has been titled “The Emergent Church”. This movement emphasizes a deep commitment to God that is lived out by loving others… especially others who are less fortunate. In my opinion, it’s a great thing! I’m not sure when Christianity and social justice parted ways, but those words should be synonymous with one another and the Emergent Church is leading the way in reuniting the two.

Within the past ten years or so, this movement has crept into the Evangelical circles as well. Guys like Francis Chan and, more recently, David Platt, are now teaching these values. I think they are doing a fine job of merging the Evangelical emphasis on obedience to God’s laws and the Emergent emphasis on social justice. The stereotype usually goes that people who obey God’s law are legalistic, demanding, and inconsiderate, while people who want to love others are wishy-washy, willing to bend the rules, and not too concerned about God’s wrath/judgment.

Anyway, back to the Rich Young Ruler. I’ve read this story a lot. Almost every book I’ve read recently has mentioned it at some point. The preacher at my church has even referenced it several times in the past year. So recently, I was very challenged by the idea of actually selling everything I own to help others. Couple that idea with the idea that God will provide for your needs if you seek his kingdom first, and my mind was going nuts about how I could apply this to my life.

Right now, we are in the midst of raising money for a mission trip to Arizona to serve the Apache Indians in Whiteriver, AZ. We have a yard sale coming up where all of the proceeds will go toward this trip. So I’ve been trying to decide what I could sell at this sale in order to donate money toward the trip. My mind started thinking big… sell the living room furniture, sell my awesome TV, sell my lawn mower, sell my truck (which I am trying to do anyway, but not for the purpose of donating to the trip). I even thought about selling my entire wardrobe and starting from scratch.

The idea of unloading all of this junk started to really sound appealing to me! It almost seemed like I would be free from a lot of responsibility and pressure. Pressure to watch my TV in order to justify spending so much money on it. Pressure to wear all of my nice shirts instead of wearing the same ones every week. Pressure to play my video games, use my paintball equipment, keep our lawn looking immaculate… all of these things felt real. The more I read scripture the more I began to think that my life is way out of balance. After all, my mind doesn’t start to slip into worship of God when I’m watching my favorite sports team, play XBox, or building relationships with people. However, when I worship God, my mind will often slide into what’s going on with all of those things.

So I finally made a decision. I decided that I would sell my Xbox on craigslist, buy a cheap DVD player, and donate the rest of the money to the mission trip. And that is what I have done. But instead of feeling free, this is what happened to me…

As soon as that money hit my hand, I automatically began to think about what I could use it for! I starting realizing all of the “needs” I have. I starting dreaming about what a new Blue Ray DVD player would look like on my awesome TV instead of the cheapest one I could find. I had every dime of that money spent in my mind within a matter of seconds! And then it became a temptation to buy all of those things and rationalize a way out of donating it to the trip. I even thought at one point, “It’s my money, it wouldn’t be wrong to spend it on myself.”

Selling my Xbox was one of the smallest things I could have done, and it was SO HARD! Buying the cheapest DVD player at Walmart was SO HARD when all of those fancy ones were staring at me. I was even tempted to buy the next level up, which was about $10 more, just because it looked cooler… it didn’t have anything to do with how it functioned… it just looked cooler!

This experience has made it very obvious to me that consuming things has become an addiction to me and probably to our entire society! We are constantly looking to upgrade our lives! We need the newer car, the bigger house, the nicer DVD player, the better looking sofa… we NEED them! We ARE ADDICTED!

Here’s the saddest part of this story. I am actually somewhat proud of myself for following through with my decision to buy the cheapest DVD player. That was a major step for me! Isn’t that sad? I feel like I’m a better person because I sold one of my possessions and I took part of the money from that possession to give toward God’s mission and then kept part of it for myself to get another possession.

In other words, if I were the rich young ruler who approached Jesus, and Jesus said, “Go sell a possession of yours that you value but haven’t really used that much in the past two years. Then buy a new possession and give the rest of the money to the poor. Then you will be saved.” If Jesus said those words, I would have struggled with it! AAAHHHH!!! GOD HELP ME!!!! Who of you can blame the rich young ruler for walking away sad?!?!?!? Someone, in reference to this passage, said the other day, “Jesus doesn’t expect EVERYONE to sell all of their possessions and give the money to the poor. But chances are, if you are thinking that Jesus isn’t talking about you, he probably is.”