Mark 10:18 “Why do you call me good?”
What does it mean to be good? The conventional and cultural definition of good is easy to identify. Judging by popular news broadcasts, movies, television and novels, today's conventional standard for goodness is tied to one’s care for the poor and one’s absolute rejection of any whiff of bigotry. Entertainers and other opinion makers eschew the earlier standards that popular culture elevated: chastity, temperance, hard work, even truth telling. Along with modesty these old standards seldom get much support on the athletic field or in the movie theater or the nightly news. Today, if one is egalitarian and one helps the poor then one has met the basic definition of good.
Today, as in the first century, one would find it difficult to enlist Jesus in support of a definition of the good. Jesus refused to be called good. (verse 18) Unlike today, conventional goodness in the first century was defined by the Ten Commandments as interpreted and applied by religious leaders. However, that standard did not meet the definition of Jesus for goodness. It didn’t work in the first century, and it didn’t work fifty years ago, and it doesn’t work now. Yet, the current standard of goodness in America doesn’t work either. These standards do not put us right with God because they are misused. Like the young man in Mark chapter ten the standards--ancient or modern--are most often used to justify one’s behavior. “I must be good because I have kept the Ten Commandments,” or “I must be good because I am not prejudiced,” and “I must be good because I volunteer in my local homeless shelter.”
When the earnest young man came to Jesus with his desire for affirmation he was disappointed. Although Jesus looked upon this inquirer with love (verse 21) Jesus refused to give his blessing to conventional goodness. Jesus simply raised the standard to a level that the man could not reach. (verse 21) It is amusing that current opinion makers will quote this passage to support their idea that service to the poor is the best, the most Christian definition of goodness. However, none of those would-be-ethicists do what Jesus said: sell everything, give to the poor and follow him. Today, just as in the first century people cannot and will not meet this standard of goodness. Even the disciples of Jesus, who had left everything to follow Jesus, despaired in face of this standard. They asked, “Who then can be saved?” (verse 26)
“No one is good--except God alone.” (verse 18) What good we do by any definition of goodness that we propose is never enough to justify ourselves before God. The message of the gospel is God’s mercy which has come to us in person in Jesus, God’s very presence among us. He died and was raised from the dead to give us eternal life, not because we are good but because God alone is good, and God loves us and is merciful to all who call upon him. To seek goodness on our own merit or without reference to God is to go away from the one place where goodness exists. What the world puts first--in the ancient world and today--God puts last. (verse 31)
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Grandchildren. Our youngest grandson will be baptized at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville Sunday October 4, 2015. He is ten weeks old. Last night Judy and I took care of him while his parents went out for a couple of hours. He was awake most of the time. He smiled a lot, especially when Sweetie Pie and Mr. Happy huddled around him and gave him kisses, but he also delighted his grandmother with a series of big smiles just for her. I'm still waiting for the youngest grandchild's nickname to emerge. Mr. Happy has called him "Squeaker," and "Floppy." Neither of those names will be allowed to stick. In due time, something just right will emerge.
