Scripture Daily

Context No. 134 of 4322 · Mark

Context · Reflection

Mark 10:17-21: in context

17As he was going out into the way, one ran to him, knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” 18Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not give false testimony,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and mother.’” 20He said to him, “Teacher, I have observed all these things from my youth.” 21Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross.”

A man runs up to Jesus in the road, kneels, and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Mark gives the details: he ran, and he knelt. This is eagerness, in public, from someone the passage will shortly reveal has a great deal to lose.

Jesus answers oddly. Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. Then he lists commandments, and the list is all second-table, the ones about how you treat people: do not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, defraud, honor your father and mother. Defraud is not in the Ten Commandments, and the man does not object to its presence. He says he has kept all of these from his youth.

Then the line the passage is built on: Jesus, looking at him, loved him. Mark alone records it, and it comes immediately before the hardest thing he says to anyone. You lack one thing. Go, sell what you have, give to the poor, and come follow me. The demand is not a rebuke and not a test of sincerity. It is an act of affection aimed exactly at the one thing in the way. If someone who loved me named the single thing I lack, do I already know what they would say?

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