When will the promise be cashed?

Making promise and keeping promise cannot be separated. Otherwise, there is no trust. Without trust, we can’t live. This is the logic of life. Some people may argue that it is better not to make any promise so that there is no breaking of promise. This can be true. But can we live in a life without making promise? I don’t think we can. When the promise is related to the future, the question of that ‘when will the promise be cashed?’ is valid. This is the concern of today’s reading.

Mk 10:17-31 tells us that the rich man considered eternal life important, but the importance of eternal life was not really important in comparison with the earthly riches. This was why he went away when he was requested to sell all that he had and gave it to the poor. This is the background that Jesus talks about what the importance in life is. Jesus agrees with the rich man that eternal life is importance, but eternal life is not understood as a matter of life after death. It is here and now. This is why Jesus said, ‘there is no one who has given up home, brothers or sisters, mother, father or children or land for my sake and for the Proclamation, who will not receive in this present age a hundred times as much.’ (v. 29) What Jesus has said is that eternal life is not just about non-material reward. On the contrary, it is very materialistic. In fact, this kind of understanding is reflected in Job’s experience in the Old Testament. Job has blessed more than he had blessed the first. Unfortunately, the rich man is leaving too quick so that he has failed to have a full picture of eternal life. Otherwise, he might be voluntarily to sell all he had for the poor. Is his decision to leave just a result of lack of a full picture of eternal life?

I would say that if he remained here to listen to what Jesus had explained what eternal life was, he might be further disappointed, because one would experience persecutions (v.30). I don’t think that this is something that the rich man expects. In other words, what Jesus requested from him to sell all his possessions is relatively soft and mild, for the worst is to be a beggar, but being persecuted is even worse. He may be jailed, exiled, homeless and tortured. Thus, what Jesus has said to the rich man reflects that Jesus really loves him, and even lowers the request in order that he is able to inherit eternal life.

However, the rich man finds it difficult to do what Jesus requests, because he does not have faith in the promise of eternal life. This is why Jesus said, ‘For men, this is impossible, but not for God.’ For the rich man, what is in hand is more important than what is not in hand. This is the background why Jesus makes his promise of eternal life related to the present age. The promise of eternal life is not just a matter of faith, but is something that we can experience in here and now. The next question then is whether you really have received a hundred times of what you have given up for God.

There are differences between Christians in city like Hong Kong and Christians in nations like Myanmar (Burma), North Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and other nations in Africa. They have experienced persecutions due to their belief in Jesus Christ and their insistence in justice. They have experienced their families being killed. They have to take refuge in other nations, and become both homeless and stateless. Paradoxically, most Christian witnesses that we have heard in Hong Kong are more or less related to how God helps us to find a job, get a flat, overcome the difficulties and even heal the sickness. I never question the validity of these witnesses, but I am deeply stirred by Christian experience of being persecuted and suffering. What is the meaning of Jesus’ promise in Mk 10:29 to them? Is it better for Jesus to talk about eternal life in the coming age? What Jesus has promised in this present age has put him in a difficult situation.

My answer is that Jesus’ promise has to be understood with persecutions together. In other words, what Peter has said that they had left all to become Jesus’ followers (v.29) is not just about their sacrifice, but also about a result of fleeing or escape. In other words, it is not because a person has to leave all your home, family and land to follow Jesus, but because persecutions due to following Jesus make a person to flee from house to house, from family to family, from farm to farm. In this sense, the promise of that you would receive a hundred times as much does not mean that you would be rich enough to buy another piece of land, get a second wife and build a house, not flat, but rather that you would be received, cared and embraced in your life of persecutions and fleeing by the Christian community elsewhere. The promise that Jesus has made is not a reward, but a provision for need. Jesus never promises to get rid of persecutions and suffering in our lives, not because suffering leads to salvation, but because this is the reality of life. Even Jesus himself has no exemption. It is absolutely right to protest against injustice, but it is also equivalent important to show our solidarity as well as friendship to the persecuted and suffered. The promise that Jesus has made is that life is difficult, but God cares.

The church is a sign of God’s care. On the one hand, we are a community being cared by God. On the other, we are a community to show God’s care to the suffered. Through worship, prayer and fellowship, we embrace one another in love and tears, hope and frustration, solidarity and struggle to proclaim that ‘I believe in life before death’.