“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21).
From the point of view of an activist Christian, this biblical verse is a call to servanthood, a call to serve God and the people, a call to become an activist or a revolutionary person.
This verse is part of the Gospel reading in Mark 10:17-31 (the reference is the IFI Ordo Calendar) on October 13, 2024 (Sunday). Mark 10:17-31 has a parallel in Matthew (19:16-24) and Luke (18:18-30). It is about the rich man and the reign (kingdom) of God.
In verse 17 of Mark 10, there was a man (a “man” also in Matthew’s account), but in Luke a “certain ruler” (Luke 18:18), who “ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’”
Jesus replied, “You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother,’” (Mark 10:19). The man declared, “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” (Mark 10:20).
The following verse reads, “Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’” The man “went away sad, because he had great wealth” (Mark 10:22).
Wealth is a hindrance to “inheriting eternal life.” Ironically, Christians always pray to become wealthy.
In the Philippines, to become wealthy is to run for an elective position in the government. A wealthy family, in order to double or triple its riches, has to control the municipality, city, or province. Thus, the father runs as governor, the mother runs as congress representative, and the son runs as mayor, provincial board member, councilor, or a nominee for a family party-list. A wealthy family promotes a political dynasty.
Who would not think that these people are Christians or followers of Jesus? These people are even close to religious leaders. They give assistance to the programs and projects of the churches. Some of them regularly participate in religious worship and prayer. In return, religious leaders love them and bless them.
Surely, they will no longer ask, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” A question that indicates what is to be done in human life. A Christian in our time is like this man who was close to Jesus. He even knelt down.
Even so, a wealthy Christian is commanded by Jesus to ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ Why? Because in Jesus’ time, like in our time, there are many poor.
This command of the Lord Jesus has a deeper meaning. It is about being a disciple of the Lord. In the previous chapter of Mark, Jesus said, “Whoever wants to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34).
The richest person should do what the Lord commanded. In fact, the disciples of the Lord Jesus did this when they started building the early Church (read Acts, chapters 2 and 4).
Unfortunately, most Christians today are not like the people of the early Church. Philippine churches are made up of different types of people who live as part of a social class.
The upper classes, the capitalist bureaucrats, big businessmen, landlords, and even foreigners dominate the lower classes. They are few but control the vast wealth of the country, leaving the poor deprived.
The cycle of exploitation continues as the few like these powers-that-be use their resources and positions to deepen their control. Capitalism, rooted in private ownership of wealth, perpetuates this inequality and concentrate in fewer hands while the majority toil endlessly, burdened by poverty. In such a system, it is impossible for the rich to truly divest from their wealth or for the poor to rise on equal terms.
A big challenge to Christians is how to live out what Jesus commanded. The question “How can I obtain eternal life?” is clearly answered by Jesus. Possessions are heavy burdens to carry, preventing a person from entering the kingdom of God and hindering them from fulfilling the mission and ministry of the Lord.
In Mark 8:34-37, Jesus demands that His disciples devote their entire lives to following Him and serving the marginalized. At the end of Mark 10, Peter says, “Look, we have left everything and followed you” (Mark 10:28). This was in response to Jesus’ call. The apostles left their families and possessions behind.
They believed that wealth was a burden in the work of fulfilling God’s reign. In the parable of the sower (Mark 4:13-20), it is said that “because of concern for this life, lust for money, or being attracted to other things,” a person cannot do the work for the realization of the reign of God or to eliminate hunger and live a life of fullness (John 10:10).
Here, we see how Jesus’ teachings align with the struggle of the working class to rise from oppression. The heavy burden of wealth, hoarded by a small ruling class, is incompatible with serving the greater good. In serving the poor, the disciples of Jesus reject the lure of material gain. In rejecting wealth and taking up the cross, one does not merely sacrifice personal possessions but challenges a social order built on exploitation and inequality.
In Jesus’ perspective and conviction, the main task of His disciples is to be followers of God. They must live like Jesus, ready to die on the cross, stripped of everything.
The first disciples of Jesus left everything behind, even though there was no mention of them selling their possessions.
There is no mention that they sold their property and distributed it to the poor, which is a significant difference from the person who asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
However, the first disciples of Jesus left their old lives, security, and wealth.
They did this out of service. They understood what Jesus said in Luke 16:13: “No servant can serve two masters at the same time because he will hate the one and love the second, serve the one faithfully and despise the second. You cannot serve God and wealth at the same time.”
Saint Paul also clarified: “Because the love of money is the root of all evil. Because of the desire to get rich, some people fall away from the faith and fall into many tribulations,” (1 Tim. 6:10).
The understanding here is not limited to renouncing personal wealth but challenging systems that perpetuate suffering. It speaks to collective action, recognizing that the structures of capitalism, imperialism, and feudalism must be dismantled to achieve genuine liberation.
Jesus commissioned His disciples with the assurance of great reward: “Remember: whoever leaves his home, or brothers, parents, children, lands, because of me and the Good News, will receive life that this is a hundred times more of those; houses, brothers, mothers, children, and lands, but with persecution attached. And in the time to come, he will have eternal life,” (Mark 10:29-30).
For faithful service, the things that such people leave behind “house or brother or sister or mother or father or children or fields” is a call to self-emptying. And only activist or a revolutionary can understand and even do it.
