Sunday Gospel-Meaning?

[Wiseowl]

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.” He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, “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 one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.” Peter began to say to him, “We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.

 

[Nigel7]

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone."

I’ve been looking at this verse a lot lately and something interesting has dawned on me about this first exchange between this man and our Lord (God incarnate).

The man calls Jesus “good teacher”, thereby not recognizing the divinity of Jesus. He doesn’t recognize Jesus for who he truly is, namely God.
Jesus then, recognizing the man’s failure to see him for who he truly is, says to the man; “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”, as if to say ‘if you don’t believe that I’m the Messiah then why do you qualify me as “good” if only God is good?’.

Remember, it’s not long before this in Chapter 8 when Jesus poses the question to his disciples “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Most said this or that, perhaps a good teacher or a prophet.
Peter though answered, “You are the Messiah.”

I hear all the time the views that different religions/faiths have about our Lord, and how so many deny the divinity of Christ. Islam, for example, says that Jesus is a “good teacher” or “prophet” similar to Mohammed, but nothing more, and flatly deny that he is the Son of God (God incarnate). Buddhists say that Jesus is only a “good teacher”, but not God incarnate. Gnostics (such as my neighbor who I debated Christianity with just last night) deny that Jesus is God incarnate, denying his true divine nature as well (many heretical beliefs in gnosticism, but that’s for another thread). The list goes on and on.

Anyway, in light of all of this then I find this exchange between this man and our Lord interesting, especially lately in regard to the many religions that do not (or refuse to) recognize the true nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, and rather regard him as only a “good teacher”.
Jesus, pointing out their failure to see him for who he truly is, would say to them “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”

Anyone care to kindly comment about this interpretation of this scripture? Agree? Disagree?

 

[Seeker1961]

At our vigil Mass, Father spoke about the rich man being unable to escape the hold his possessions had on him to follow Jesus and asked us to question what may be holding us back from following Jesus. For some it may be possessions, for some it may be past hurts, for others habits or attitudes. He then challenged us to place those things before God with faith that He can release us-because as Jesus reminds us, “nothing is impossible for God”. No matter what our past issues are, no matter what bad habits we have, God can transform us.

I love my Church and I love my parish.

 

[Regina_Love]

When people tell me Jesus was a good teacher, or prophet, but not God. I say, “Either he is God or lier.” If he is just a teacher or prophet he lied & said he was God’s son! So which is he?

 

[Regina_Love]

I’ve also heard that the "eye of a needle’ was a back, or side gate to the city. It was small, so a person on foot could come or go, but armies couldn’t charge through in large numbers. A camel might be able to get through, if you unloaded his pack, and he was willing to crawl…Obviously the camel would have to be highly motivated.

 

[Qoeleth]

When people tell me Jesus was a good teacher, or prophet, but not God. I say, “Either he is God or lier.” If he is just a teacher or prophet he lied & said he was God’s son! So which is he?

I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and God- but that banal argument is not going to convince anyone. In fact, Jesus does NOT claim to be God.

All those evangelics and protestants running around saying “Either Jesus was God, or He was a liar, or crazy”… I think they have never read the Bible. They are doing the Church and God a great disservice, by creating this mindless ‘straw man’.

After Augustine, Aquinas, Scotus and Bonaventure, are we reduced to this?

 

[Qoeleth]

I’ve also heard that the "eye of a needle’ was a back, or side gate to the city. It was small, so a person on foot could come or go, but armies couldn’t charge through in large numbers. A camel might be able to get through, if you unloaded his pack, and he was willing to crawl…Obviously the camel would have to be highly motivated.

Yes, that myth has been discredited long ago, as fiction. There is not, nor never was, such a gate. A camel through the eye of a needle is a Middle Eastern expression for an impossible task.

 

[Nigel7]

All those evangelics and protestants running around saying “Either Jesus was God, or He was a liar, or crazy”… I think they have never read the Bible. They are doing the Church and God a great disservice, by creating this mindless ‘straw man’.

After Augustine, Aquinas, Scotus and Bonaventure, are we reduced to this?

C.S. Lewis first popularized this in a BBC interview. It’s come to be known as “Lewis’s Trilemma”.

He said;
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”

• C.S. Lewis

 

[Wiseowl]

All those evangelics and protestants running around saying “Either Jesus was God, or He was a liar, or crazy”… I think they have never read the Bible. They are doing the Church and God a great disservice, by creating this mindless ‘straw man’.

Catholics like Regina make this argument as well, not just Protestants.

 

[poptown]

Mk 10: 17-30

Some Protestants’ interpretation: Because “through law comes the consciousness of sins”, the rich man, by his human nature, couldn’t obey this command of Christ and couldn’t give up his possession. Therefore, since one’s deed always fall short before God, one’s deed cannot be a part of salvation at all; only his faith in Christ counts.

The Catholic Interpretation: The rich man and many disciples still held the OT mindset, i.e. richness helps one get saved; it’s not because they couldn’t give up possessions, but because they didn’t understand the reason why they should do so, that is, one cannot be saved on his own with the help of possessions, but only through the unity with Christ, which Peter first realized and said “we have left everything and followed you”. We see that Christ’s command is fully capable of being obeyed, and is indeed required in order to follow Christ and be saved through Christ.

 

[creole54]

Here are some notes I took from today’s bible study group:

By adding “good” to the usual salutation: Rabbi, Teacher, this man most probably was stressing the great esteem he had for Christ. The rich man had no suspicion that Christ was anything more than a man and therefore should not be called by a title which at the time was reserved for God—the only one who was good by his very nature. Of this Christ reminds the rich man.

Because worldly prosperity among the Jews was looked on as a sign of God’s blessing on good-living people," the disciples were amazed" and could not see why riches should be a barrier to heaven.

camel…needle: This was a proverb expressing impossibility.

There are very rich men who have acquired their wealth honestly and justly and who spend much of their wealth on charitable causes. Their wealth will not hinder them from reaching heaven. On the other hand, there are many in the middle and lower income-bracket who may be offending against justice through the means they use to acquire what they have, and in the little helps which they refuse to a needy neighbor.

We need not be rich in order to be charitable; often our own exaggerated sense of our poverty can make us hard-hearted and mean toward our fellowman who look to us for help.

I’m so thankful for bible study. Sigh. I’d never be able to figure all this out on my own.