Proper 23B: Mark 10:17-31, Job 23 “Beyond Words”
Last week, I required myself to do something I really didn’t want to do. I required myself to read all of the chapters of Job that led up to today’s reading. It was a quite a lot of suffering, a lot of words, it was a lot of insistence by Job’s friends that he should confess his sins to God and receive absolution. It was a lot of protest from Job that he had not sinned.
Just so you can get a taste of what I read, I’ll speak a few of the verses for you.
“…Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.”
“Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?”
From one of his friends,
“Think, now, who that was innocent ever perished?”
and
“How happy is the one whom God reproves; therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.”
From Job,
“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.”
And,
“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.”
Finally, in the midst of the twelfth chapter of this misery, I wrote in the margin of my Bible, “Words, words, words!” I think his friend Zophar was getting a bit weary of Job’s litany of complaints as well, for he said,
“Should your babble put others to silence, and when you mock shall no one shame you?”
Zophar then challenges Job in this way:
“Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?”
Job’s friend Bildad gets weary of his endless complaining as well, and asks,
“How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we shall speak. Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?”
Perhaps you have shared the agony of Job at some point in your life. Perhaps you have shared the frustration of his friends in trying to reason a person out of their misery. We all feel unrest and confusion when trying to either say the right thing or do the right thing for a friend who is suffering. One of the statements I’ve heard most often from people suffering from grief and loss of a loved one is, “You can’t believe what one person said to me!” And then they recount the statement. The friend was no doubt wanting to help and struggling for words. But the words they offered apparently did not balm the wound, and then became a springboard for anger. Sometimes words just fail us. Here is a story from Why Walk When You Can Fly? to illustrate that point.
“A philosopher had been pondering God’s existence for years, trying to understand the divine. He traveled the world, discussing in depth with theologians, priests, ministers, rabbis—anyone whom he thought might have a clearer understanding of the Almighty. One day he was walking down the beach, lost in thought, trying to understand God in all His complexity. He came across a young boy digging a hole in the sand. The boy piqued his curiosity—he wondered why on earth he was digging such a deep hole. The boy dug and dug and dug, until he had made a huge pit. Then he ran to the ocean, collected some water in his hands, and ran back to pour it into the hole.
Finally it was too much for the philosopher. He went up to the boy and asked, “Why are you taking handfuls of the ocean and putting them in that hole?’
“I’m doing the same thing you’re doing,” the boys replied. “I’m trying to fit the ocean in a hole, just as you are trying to fit God inside your head!” (Pause)
Let’s take a few moments to pull our passage from Mark into this story. It bears a lot of resemblance to Job, actually. A man approaches Jesus to ask about inheriting eternal life. Jesus reviews with him the commandments, and the man proclaims that he has kept them all since his youth. Sounds a bit like Job, right? As Mark records the rest of the story,
“Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” (Mark 10:21,22)
It seems that Job was attached to an answer in words to his anger at being “punished” despite his upright natures. And it seems that the man who approached Jesus really wanted to follow him, to find eternal life, but grieved when asked to release his attachment to material goods.
You may recall a series of sermons I once preached on the book Love Without End: Jesus Speaks” by Glenda Green. I found some interesting solutions to the problems of Job and the man who approached Jesus while perusing the book last week. In explaining what he means by “innocent perception,” Jesus tells Glenda not to be obsessed with figuring out life before you live it. Job is obsessed with figuring out his misery. Jesus says to Glenda,
“Be there with what you are doing and innocently enjoy the process. This is what children do. This is the key to heaven. This is the key to being here now and cherishing this time and place in your life. Whatever you are doing, savor it. Sit on the grass and savor its moisture and coolness, the refreshing breeze that hits you, or just he warmth of a human conversation, by looking into someone’s eyes and really being alive.”
I think it is fair to say that prior to his losses of family, wealth and health, Job had the life of a prince. And I think it’s fair to say that the man who approached Jesus was in the same estate. Here is what Jesus tells Glenda:
“You will take into your very being whatever you allow to define or explain your life. When a person believes that his life is the result of history, external conditions, or accumulated identities, then he has internalized those structures. Compared to the power of love within each person, it matters not whether he was born a prince or a pauper. Both conditions are equally insignificant! You will, however, suffer three great losses if you believe they are significant. First you will have substituted a false identity for the love that you are. Second, endless conditions will derail your innocent perception. And third, you will have become a partner in structural mortality.”
Words, words, words are weighing on me now as I type. Rather than explain structural mortality, I’d like to tell another story from the “Why Walk…” book.
There was once a poor man who used to pray to God for a treasure that would make him rich. One night in a dream he heard a message that a monk would come to his door, and he could ask the monk for whatever he wanted. The next day, the monk appeared. The man told of his dream, and asked for a treasure that would make him rich!
The monk fished in his habit and brought out a brilliant, huge diamond. He asked the man if this was the treasure he sought and offered it to him. The man grabbed the stone and the monk went on his way after eating lunch with the man.
That night the man could not sleep for fear of losing his diamond. He worried that his house was not secure enough to evade intruders who could steal the diamond. He wondered if he could find anyone rich enough to buy it. He worried that if he traveled far to sell it, someone might mug him.
The next morning, when he awoke, he took the diamond and rushed down the trail he had seen the monk take. After running for hours, he finally found the monk sitting calmly beneath a tree, contemplating nature with an expression of perfect peace. “I have come to bring back your diamond,” panted the man. “I have realized that this is not the treasure I seek. What I truly need is what you have inside yourself that allows you to detach, without suffering, from such a valuable jewel.”
Stay tuned for more on Job. We will conclude this three part series next week.
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