Walking by Faith without Insurance

Read: Mark 10: 17-31

Isn’t it depressing how life sometimes turns out? Sometimes, people are gifted with things that seemed to serve life to them on a gold platter. My mom had a friend whose two children had perfect GPAs and both went on to Brown University (turning down acceptances with scholarships from Harvard and Yale) because Brown had one of those 7-year MD programs. The rest of us, unfortunately, had to work our tails off and pray to God that we might make it to the second round of admissions decisions. Maybe you feel that way during finals week. Some people are just so smart, they don’t need to study to get an A. You’re studying, it’s 3 AM in the morning, and your parents are up your case about studying more. And, worse, that A is looking more and more elusive the more you study. The next thing you know, you think your future’s in the trash can because the best you can do in the exam is to muster an earth-crushing, shame-slapping, and dignity-destroying B+.

But in the narrative in Mark 10, Jesus seemed to say otherwise. The rich young man, much like many in Singapore today, had gobs of money. Let’s just say he has a net worth of $50 million. But he was a devout person, having gone so far as to follow all the commandments! Very, very impressive, indeed, by any standard. Now, young 20-some-old people generally aren’t rich, unless of course you received that wealth as an inheritance. It’s quite clear, it seems to me, that the rich young man had life handed to him on a gold platter. Lots of money and lots of faith.

But before we move on, note the next thing: Jesus loved him. Jesus, of course, knew what’s about to happen next, but how reassuring it is to us that Jesus loved us before we even knew it. The young man expected Jesus to say, “Good work, my faithful servant!” but no. Jesus responded, you’ve got lots of money and lots of faith. Now give up all your money and follow me on faith alone. Of course, the young man walked away. It is not that the young man had a hard time choosing between Jesus and Money. The problem is that the man was only willing to follow Jesus with his money as insurance, in case things don’t work out. If following Jesus ends up being a waste of time, at least he can go home and continue buying food for himself for the rest of his life. But the challenge is that Jesus is calling the young man to remove his “golden parachute” and throw all his chips into the Jesus basket; to trust in Jesus alone. That, my friends, is a tough sell. No wonder the rich have a hard time entering the Kingdom of Heaven.

Maybe you don’t have a lot of financial wealth, but society has conditioned us to think that if you study well in school now, if you get all A’s and go to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, you will end up having financial wealth. If you get just one B+ and your GPA drops below the sacred 5/4, you can’t be successful in life. But wait – if you’ve read the passage above, you should know that Jesus was never interested in “successful lives”. He was only interested in whether we’d follow him.

So I ask all of you to rest your hearts and not let your final exams get the best of you. Don’t give up on spending some time in meditation and devotion, at least for a few minutes every day. Of course, you should study so you can perform the best you can in your exams. But if the best you can do is a B+, do not despair. Your future and your worth is not preconditioned upon your GPA, but based on how God sees you. And how does God see you? The same way he saw the rich young man: he loved him.