NOTES for Mar 10:17-27

The Savior's words that it is hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom have often been remembered, and are remembered now, with the difficulty understood as impossibility. But Jesus did not say "impossible"; He said "hard." Much has also been said and written about Gospel poverty. Still, the community that formed around Jesus was not a community of mendicant monks. The apostles received donations in such amounts that there was even enough for charity. Perhaps the hardest thing for the rich young man was not to give away his possessions, but to enter the community. To give up freedom. To give up his accustomed way of life. To give up the independence that a person of means could hardly fail to have. In a certain sense, to give up himself: in the apostolic community, of course, no one held anyone by force, but once a person found himself in it, once he touched the Kingdom, he could no longer become what he had been before. He could not simply go back as if nothing had happened in his life. The step offered to the young man who asked the question seemed to him, and really was, irreversible: whatever happened next, there could be no road back. He asked his question as a religious and pious person. He wanted to understand what else this amazing and strange Teacher would propose that he do. But the Teacher offered him neither new rules, nor new knowledge, nor a new morality. He offered him the Kingdom. And the young man understood everything. And, sorrowful, he stepped aside. In any case, that was more honest. This young man betrayed no one and renounced nothing. And Jesus only said after him that it is hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom.

The evangelists report that Jesus' conversation partner was not only rich, but also young (Matt. 19:20) and influential ("one of the rulers," Luke 18:18). But this brilliant young man has no peace. One question torments him, and he asks it of the Teacher.

Jesus knows that His answer will not make the young man happy. Therefore He says, as it were, to His conversation partner: "Do you really consider Me good? Then receive My word, the good word of the good God, although it will not seem good to you." Evidently the young man thinks he has fulfilled all the commandments of the Law of Moses, and not only those Jesus named. So he is rich, influential, young, and pious. But for some reason he himself is not sure this is enough. And Jesus knows that it is not enough.

Jesus loved the rich young man, and saddened him. Sometimes God's love is manifested in the fact that He saddens us. He saddens us so that our eyes may be opened, and then there is hope of salvation. It is better for us to "go away sorrowful" for a time than to continue in error.

The disciples were amazed because they understood: even this excellent young man was not yet ready to enter the Kingdom of God. "Who then can be saved?... With men this is impossible..." Peter tries, though not directly, to argue with the Teacher: "And what about us? We have fulfilled what You are talking about: we have left everything and followed You." Peter still hopes in himself, and a trial awaits him that will crush his self-confidence (Mark 14:66-72). As if hinting at this, Jesus says: "But many who are first will be last, and the last first." These words of the Lord are useful for us to remember too.

The question of possessions has periodically become central in Christian history, if not for all, then for many Christians. People appeared who asserted that a Christian not only can, but absolutely must, be poor, completely and absolutely poor; otherwise he will have to forget about salvation and the Kingdom.

Some of the stories told by the evangelists can indeed lead to such thoughts, especially at first glance. Meanwhile, Jesus Himself was not completely destitute: in the community of disciples that He headed there was a common purse, which is mentioned in one way or another in all four Gospels. That purse, admittedly, was managed by Judas Iscariot, which has undoubtedly served at all times as an additional argument for supporters of complete and absolute poverty. Yet the apostles themselves reacted to the Savior's words about the difficulty of salvation for the rich, and in such a way as if all of them were rich men. If the matter were material wealth, money, or possessions in general, they would have had nothing to worry about; but, as is clear, the disciples understood that the Teacher meant something more.

The young man who was speaking with Jesus was indeed materially rich, but the matter was not material wealth as such. Jesus simply answers the question asked: what do I lack for the Kingdom? This is precisely the question the young man asks Jesus, expecting an answer like the one learned rabbis and teachers of the Torah often gave then. He thought that, like them, Jesus would offer him some special means: a prayer, for example, or a special ascetic exercise, or some secret connected with observing the norms and rules of ritual purity - in short, something that would allow him to enter the Kingdom. He did not expect the simple answer about the commandments: "All these I have kept from my youth." There was nothing special in that; most observant Jews could say the same about themselves. The young man, however, is seeking something precisely special; he wants to receive the key to the Kingdom, and he is looking for it as he goes from one spiritual teacher to another.

Jesus can offer him only one thing: complete poverty. Not poverty in the literal sense, but poverty as readiness to give up what one considers one's own. In the Kingdom no one has anything of their own. Each person uses everything he needs, but does not appropriate what he uses. He does not cling to it with his heart, which remains free. This task is harder than completely renouncing possessions, and this time the disciples understood their Teacher very well. Such poverty is not so much a human matter as God's, as Jesus tells them.

Today's passage is devoted to the theme of wealth and how hard it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. However, it would be more accurate to say that the episode given by the evangelist is connected not so much with the question of wealth as with the question of poverty. It is especially remarkable that even His own disciples are horrified by Jesus' words about the difficulty for a rich person to enter the Kingdom, although it would seem that they had nothing left to fear: they had left everything they had and followed Jesus, just as Peter says (vv. 23-28). Apparently, when Jesus speaks of poverty, He has in mind not only material wealth, and His disciples understand this well. The conversation with the rich young man does not begin at all with a question about property, but with a question about keeping the commandments already known from the Old Testament books (vv. 19-20). Only after the young man wanted something more, something that would let him reach perfection sooner, did the conversation turn to his property (vv. 21-22). In general, in Gospel times there were religious communities whose members, upon entering the community, donated all their property to it and afterward relied only on the support of the community they had joined. The apostolic community was the same: its members also evidently had no property of their own, receiving support from the common treasury. And yet the apostles, who had resolved to do what the rich young man did not resolve to do, feel that Jesus' words about wealth apply to them as well. Perhaps they understood what Jesus said about those who trust in wealth (vv. 24-25): it became clear to them that they had to give up every hope in anything whatsoever in this world. Otherwise one would have to squeeze into the Kingdom of God like a loaded camel through the "Needle's Eye" (this was the name in Jerusalem for a special narrow and winding passage in the city gates, through which an animal as comparatively large as a camel could pass only with great difficulty, squeezing between the walls). And they also understood that a person has no strength to live this way (v. 26). Jesus did not try to persuade them otherwise; He only observed that what a person cannot do himself, God can do for him, if only the person wants it (v. 27).

From a human point of view, every risk should be justified. Of course, the disciples did not leave behind such wealth as the devout young man had, but all the same, Peter asks the Lord about the reward. And indeed: for the sake of what are they enduring hardships, wandering with Him through the country, for the sake of what should they go after Him to the cross (the words "Take up your cross" could only have been understood by them literally)? They fully realize the answer to this question only after the Resurrection and Pentecost, when they themselves, with their whole being, see and feel the immeasurable riches of God's life that will be given to them. We too, some of us less often and some more often, ask the same question: for the sake of what? Christianity becomes unbearably heavy and stifling when it turns into a bare system of moral prohibitions, ideological prescriptions, and dogmas. Only the life of the Spirit, only the joy of prayer, gives us awareness of how much we receive already here, "amid persecutions," while we are still on the way to the Kingdom.

After the rich young man was unable to follow the word of the Lord Jesus, to give everything away and become His disciple, the Lord, addressing the disciples, speaks about how hard it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Explaining to the disciples what happened, the Lord says: "How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of God." A camel trying to enter through the eye of a needle is an image the disciples remembered forever. Usually the readers' attention is drawn to this strange, even somewhat surreal picture. It may be that the translation of this saying into Greek, made by the evangelist Mark from the Aramaic in which Christ spoke, and in which Peter told this story, is not entirely perfect; we do not know. It is obvious that the Lord is speaking about something absolutely impossible, and this is what Peter remembered and Mark translated.

The words about those who trust in riches, however, are found in late versions of the Gospel text. The copyists may have inserted them there by analogy with the accounts of the other evangelists; in the Middle Ages there was such a tendency toward unifying the accounts of the Synoptics. The most ancient manuscripts do not contain these words, and Mark's text in them sounds simply astonishing. The Lord says: "Children! How hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God; it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God." Thus the issue is not even wealth: according to Christ's words, it is hard in general to enter the Kingdom of God. Wealth and reliance on it are only a particular, especially vivid example.

This is exactly how the disciples understand Christ's words. That is why they do not speak about wealth, especially since they do not have any. "Who then can be saved?" they ask the Lord. Peter, perplexed, asks an even more specific question: "And we, who have followed You? Is it really hard for us too to enter the Kingdom of God?" The disciples get the impression that entering the Kingdom of God is impossible for absolutely anyone, even for them, who have left everything. It is to this question that the Lord gives us a word of great hope: "With men this is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God." No human merits will help a person enter the Kingdom of God. Only God Himself accomplishes our salvation, and our human ideas are powerless here: many who are last will be first, and the first last; for people this is a mystery. But the main thing is that this is a great hope, open to all.

"Many who are first will be last, and the last first." What do these words mean? Why must it be this way? Have we become so used to words of this kind that nothing in them surprises us anymore? It is clear, we think, that justice requires the very last, the poorest and most unfortunate, to be repaid in another world with honor and power. But, as we have said with you more than once, such logic does not go beyond the logic of the communists: "whoever was nothing will become everything." And it is impossible even to imagine joining this soul-destroying force to the teaching of our Lord. In the late Soviet years there was a joke: in 1917, an old princess looks out the window and asks a man passing by what all the noise is about, what is happening. The man answers that the Red Army soldiers want there to be no rich people. Strange, she replies; my grandfather wanted there to be no poor people. This logic of shaking the world upside down, which the Bolsheviks served, has nothing in common with the teaching of our Lord, who is the God of ineffable kindness. It is only an evil parody of it. So let us try to think about what these words mean after all: many who are first will be last, and the last first. Imagine this scene: a group of runners at the starting line. The signal is given and everyone begins to run. Someone breaks ahead, and someone falls behind. Suddenly a signal is given to run back to the start. Who will arrive first? Obviously, the last. And we see this movement of return as repentance, because metanoia is a turning, a return. Let this be only an image. But why could it not be that this is exactly what the Lord wanted to say? Let us remember Psalm 84: You forgave all the iniquities of Your people; You covered all their sins; You turned back from the wrath of Your anger; turn us back, O God of our salvation. The same situation appears, for example, in the Vulgate, where this conversus - converte sounds twice, while it disappeared in the Synodal translation, where it says "turned away - restore." All this appears to us as an argument, perhaps not a very weighty one but still an argument, in favor of our image for today's words of the Lord, even if we have differed somewhat from the way the apostle Paul uses this image.

As if clarifying His earlier words, Jesus says: it is hard for one who trusts in riches to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It would seem that there is hope in these words: one can be rich while relying not on what one has, but on God. In practice, however, everything proves much more complicated.

The disciples are horrified: they are sure that they will not see the Kingdom. Peter, more decisive than all the rest, as often happened, asks the Teacher the question that everyone wanted to ask but was afraid to. He says to Jesus: look, we have left everything and followed You. Is that not enough? Is something else needed? What will we receive after doing what we have done? Who are we, rich or poor? What are we hoping in?

Such questions are usually asked when something incomprehensible is happening. And that is how it was: the apostles truly understood almost nothing. They trusted the Teacher, but they always had difficulty understanding Him. And now a real theater of absurdity was beginning, behind which something so terrible could already be seen that the apostles were paralyzed by the very thought of that horror.

Jesus points them to the only way out: to look only to the Kingdom, to live only by it, to abide in it constantly. To the question "what will there be for us?" He answers: not "will be," but "is," already here and now. And ahead of you something still more joyful awaits. But if you do not see it, if you cannot receive it here and now, there will be no "later." For the Kingdom has already drawn near. And one must enter it now, without putting it off until later.