Mark 10:2-16
Out of Gratitude
James Sledge October
3, 2021
Some of you are old enough to recall a
famous advertising campaign by the investment company Smith Barney. It featured
a well-known, professorial and upper crust looking actor stating very
profoundly, “Smith Barney, we make money the old-fashioned way. We EARN it.” 
Christ and the Children
Emil Nolde, 1910
I suppose the statement was supposed to emphasize both the expertise and strong drive of a company that would work diligently and effectively to make your portfolio grow. You could trust them with your money because they had the skill and tenacity to ensure success.
I have no idea how successful the ad campaign was, but it ran for a long time so the company must have thought it worked. I can see why it would. We Americans are enamored with people who earn their way to the top. The prototypical American icon is the self-made individual who claws their way to success. Such notions are so baked into our culture that many people assume rich people are largely responsible for their wealth while poor people are largely responsible for their poverty. They earned it.
I’ve frequently heard America described as a meritocracy, which is another way of saying that whatever your lot in life, you earned it. Merit even makes its way into to popular religious thinking. You get what you deserve, as countless “There’s a place in heaven…” or “There’s a place in hell…” statements will attest.
But Jesus’ statement at the end of our gospel reading stands at odds with popular thinking about merit. When Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it," he is talking a total lack of merit. Little children in Jesus’ day were totally and completely dependent on others, with no means to acquire things, no merit to apply. They could only receive, not buy, earn, merit, acquire, etc.
Jesus’ words about receiving rather than earning not only undermine thoughts of religious merit, they also provide an interpretive key for understanding what Jesus has just said about marriage. Jesus gives no new religious rules to follow if you want God to like you. Jesus refuses to play that game with those who bring the question about divorce to him.
The Pharisees’ question, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” is not a real question. They are easily able to give the answer, quoting the law. It’s merely an attempt to get Jesus to weigh in on what must have been a contentious issue, but Jesus doesn’t take the bait. The question is about the law, but Jesus’ answer is about God’s intent for humanity.
Jesus goes back to the creation story, where the man and the woman are joined together and become one. God’s intent is an unbreakable bond. That’s not a rule or a law. The law permits divorce. But Jesus says he comes to proclaim the kingdom, the day when God’s will is done on earth, and in that day, the brokenness of humanity, the brokenness in each of us that leads to selfishness, anger, hurt, pain, and bitterness between people will be no more.
(By the way, Jesus’ words do not address issues of same sex relationships or marriage. He is asked about men divorcing women and he sticks to that topic.)
But my guess is that the hardest words to hear in this passage are not Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees but his comments to the disciples when they ask for clarification. He says that to remarry is to commit adultery against one’s former spouse. Adultery is one of the 10 commandments, one of the biggies. Isn’t this a little harsh, Jesus?
Again, Jesus is not creating new religious rules, but he won’t relegate the failure of a marriage to something minor and trivial. It is a tragedy that runs counter to God’s core desires for humanity, a 10 commandment worthy failing. On top of that, divorce could leave the women of Jesus’ day destitute, and Jesus makes clear that it is no small matter to discard one wife for a better one.
But given the brokenness, the sinfulness of all humans, failed marriages and divorce are inevitable, sometimes best for all involved. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that broken marriages have no place in God’s kingdom, in the ways of God’s new day.
When I was young, divorce was still something of a scandal in the south. Some preachers were fond of quoting Jesus’ words from our passage, and I have known people who agonized over the fate of a loved one who had gone through a divorce. One pastor writes about a woman in his church who was terrified that her son, who was about to remarry, was going to be damned for all eternity.[1]
Curiously, I’ve never heard of anyone worried about the mortal soul of a loved one who has done well and acquired wealth. Yet Jesus says that it is nearly impossible for people with wealth to enter the kingdom. It is easy, however, for little children.
I suspect that some people saw a divorce rule as doable and a wealth rule as impossible, and so they pushed one rule and ignored the other. But as Jesus makes clear with his words about the kingdom and children, it’s not about rules and merit.
And that raises for me the question of motivation. Why do religious people try to be good, try to keep the rules? Why would we re-shape and transform our lives so that they more and more reflect the ways of God’s new day?
Over the centuries, religion has often used fear as a motivator. If you don’t keep the rules, don’t believe the correct things, don’t live in a certain way, things will go badly for you. Badly can refer to troubles in everyday life or to getting locked out of heaven.
But John Calvin, perhaps the largest Reformation figure after Martin Luther, said that the motive for the Christian life is gratitude. That only makes sense if you receive the kingdom as a little child, something given to you by a generous and loving parent. If you imagine that you somehow earned it, that you deserve it, gratefulness may be a poor motivator.
Young children are frequently not all that grateful for the love and care given to them by parents. It often takes a bit of maturity to realize what you’ve been given. Even those of us with mostly idyllic childhoods may not develop much gratitude until we’re adults, and I think faith works the same way sometimes.
It takes a bit of spiritual maturity to see things as they truly are, to recognize the abundance of divine love that envelopes us, no matter who we are. It takes most people a while to wake up and see the grace that God showers on us, the hope that God has for us, grace and hope that we neither earn nor merit.
And when we do wake up and see, it leaves us less worried and more secure, more aware of the abundance of God’s good creation, and profoundly grateful that God has been so good to us, before we even thought about keeping the rules or trying to bless ourselves.
Have you ever felt such a huge debt of gratitude to someone that you knew you would never be able to repay it? If so, how did you relate to that person? How did you act towards them? What would you do for them?
Now imagine you felt an even bigger debt of gratitude to God, to Jesus. How would you relate to God, to Jesus? How would you act toward them? What would you do for them?
“Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” The gift is given. You need only receive it.
All thanks and gratitude to God.
[1] David B. Howell in Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 4: (Kindle Location 5082). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.
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