10:2 This is the spirit of a Pharisee. How far can I go? How much is ok? If this is ok, can I do that too? The exact opposite of the gospel. First shall be last, get underneath and lift up, Jesus, others, and self.
10:2-12 The single biggest result of sin in our world is family breakdown. This break down is like a sin multiplier. First, sin causes families to implode, explode, or disintegrate in other ways, and this in turn leads to multitudes of more sin. Porn, affairs, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, abuse. All these and more are before and after effects of divorce and other family dysfunctions.
10:13-16 I have seen myself and many many others suffer and struggle much because we simply made simple things difficult. Over and over Jesus tells us to come to Him as a little child. I wonder if there could be some connection between our struggles and the things Jesus tells us repeatedly?
10:17, 18 Jesus never sinned, His death as a spotless, sinless lamb atoned our sins, and yet Jesus says He's not good. But Jesus also said "when you see me you see the Father". It seems to me that one answer here would be--good equals not tempted by sin, but even Jesus was tempted. Maybe Jesus was also trying to keep a type of separation here between Himself and God which could serve to keep their view of God undiluted by earthly things. Jesus could and would be accused of many things but being "good" like God would make Him equal in a way that they could accuse or see God in the same way. If we believe God can be tempted or weak in any way than He is no longer God. Maybe Jesus is trying to keep the filter they viewed God through spotless.
10:17-22 This man had lived a pure, morally upright life, but Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter. His heart. Who or what held his heart? It turns out that his wealth held his heart. The place where Jesus needed to be king.
10:23-25 In America our greatest wealth is security. We rely on our job to support us. If that fails, we have unemployment, cash assistance, food stamps, food banks, clothing banks, missions, churches and so on. We rely on our friends, our networks, our cars, government, schools, policemen, firemen, doctors and more. Netflix and Facebook we turn to for company. When do we truly have to rely on God? None of these things are evil. So what would be a definition of evil be? I think evil is absence of God. So anytime we go to these "other" things to get what we should rely on God for I think would be sin. How hard it is to put all this aside and give preference and rule and reign to God.
10:26, 27 This I believe is where God comes into our story, where grace comes in and makes the impossible possible.
10:28-31 Jesus is making a leftover stew here. You know, the one where you take all the leftovers in the fridge and make one stew or noodle mystery casserole. Or maybe it's more like the prize package at the end of a daytime tv game show. If you've left everything you get all this.....1.a hundred times as much in this age, 2. persecutions, 3. eternal life, 4. the last first and first last. Each part of this could be a whole sermon. The hundred times as much is looking pretty good (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields) until He sneaks in persecutions at the end. Umm...I'll pass on the 100x as many persecutions. It seems the positives would come from the body of Christ and the persecutions would be from outside-evil working against God. How sad it is that many times it is the body that persecutes it's own members. I have seen people leave the Christian church and God altogether and some go to other religions due to being hurt by fellow believers. Some of my Hebrew roots friends fall into this category. At least a few of them were hurt inside the Christian church. A close family member of mine has ended up in a new age religion. Where is the Love? First-last, last-first. Think Pharisees and Zaccheus. The teachers would have been expected to be first in line for Heaven but Jesus says "you brood of vipers, who told you to flee?" Zaccheus was considered the worst of sinners but as soon as he experiences Jesus, everything changed. Jesus says, today salvation has come to this house.
10:35-45 For the third time in as many chapters Jesus tells them He's gonna be killed. Right after this, or soon after, James and John ask to be seated at His right and left side in His kingdom. This is another reason I'm not Jesus. I'd only have had 10 disciples left after this. Bam! See that spot there,That was James and John. Once again Jesus reiterates that in this new thing He's teaching them the first are last and the last are first. In that culture, He would have had an easier time explaining space ships. They were born and raised in an external-works based society. Not until they received the Holy Spirit and fully grasped everything of the last 3-1/2 years do I think this started to make sense. Jesus taught them well because once they got it, they became the teachers, and they are still teaching us today.
10:46-52 Your faith has healed you. He had one of two ingredients necessary. He had faith, Jesus had power. With the Holy Spirit we now have both ingredients. Then he turned and followed Jesus. I wonder what became of him. He gets healed, follows Jesus, then a week later his Messiah is killed.
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