Pentecost 21 (year B)- Mark 10:17-22- The Danger of Legalism

Yesterday’s Gospel, the story of the rich man, is a fascinating account about a seeker of holiness. From parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke, we learn that the man is both young and a Jewish leader. This man has made efforts to lead a good life. He also respects Jesus greatly and approaches Him humbly. He longs to inherit eternal life and comes to ask Jesus for guidance. Our Lord cares for this seeker, but He also knows what is lacking. He sees that the man is both a legalist and a materialist. 

First, this man assumes that he must do something to earn a place in God’s kingdom. He believes that he has fulfilled the Law. Still sensing that something isn’t quite right, he just wants Jesus to give him one more rule for salvation.

Secondly, the young man is too attached to his material goods. Despite spiritual longings, he is happy with his style of life. He has a good reputation and a social position associated with wealth. He isn’t expecting Jesus to disrupt all that.

Yet, Jesus sees that the man needs a radical change. So Jesus tells the man to give up his attachment to worldly treasure, give his wealth to the poor and seek heavenly treasure. With this advice, our Lord is trying to move the man beyond his complacency. The man can only make spiritual progress by trusting in God alone. But he cannot seem to change. He does not renounce his accomplishments, abandon his worldly possessions or follow with radical faith.The story of the rich young man applies to everyone who comes to Christ. All who seek to advance in spiritual matters must search out the two great human temptations of legalism and materialism. 

For now, let us focus on the issue of legalism and continue next week by looking more at materialism.

God in Christ asks people to put everything dear to us on the line in order to follow Him. That includes our religious and moral accomplishments. Of course, we should believe in and honor the basic commandments. We should strive to keep them from our youth up.

However, we must not fall into self-congratulation like the rich young man. Even if we manage to avoid certain obvious transgressions, we human beings are never truly good; we never keep the deeper implications of the Law perfectly. We can never earn our way into eternal life. Superficial legal compliance is not enough. Our striving must be done through dependence upon God and His help. Human obedience to the commandments and good deeds are expected, but they cannot save us. They are only valuable as expressions of our underlying faith in God and our surrender to Him. And such faith and surrender are impossible unless even they are accepted as divine gifts.

Human beings often alternate between lawlessness and legalism. Sometimes, we ignore what is good in the Law, either in theory or practice. Other times, we turn the Law into a simple checklist on external activities. Like the rich young man, we like to assume that we have done enough, or at least, almost enough. We like to imagine that if we just tweaked our performance a little, we could earn God’s approval.

The truth is that we cannot earn divine favor. Assuming that we can is works righteousness or legalism. The Law has several values but it cannot save us. The Law can point out divine standards and ideals. The Law can remind us that we are sinners who always fall short and need forgiveness and grace. But Christ asks us to look beyond the Law to the Gospel, to God’s work for our salvation.

As people who profess to follow Christ, we all face the same choices, not once only, but again and again throughout life. There are many good things that we ought to do. But there is one essential issue- we must trust in God, the God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. We can never be saved by following the commandments. We can’t even be saved by selling all we have and giving it to the poor. We can only be saved by living faith in divine grace in Christ.