Sunday Sermon, August 30, 2026 - The Gospel of Mark 10:13-31 - The Children and the Young Man

 Much of the person of Jesus Christ is found in the teachings that we see with individuals or groups. Our Roman reader has discovered much about Jesus, but maybe even more so about himself. One of the things that the Bible does quite well is shine a light onto how we think and live our lives. Last week, Jesus drove into a very personal element of life that of divorce, and that He did not consider the hap hazard method of discarding of one’s wife acceptable, nor did He approve of the numerous other methods that humans had employed as living arrangements. Jesus taught us that the ordained method of life was that a man would leave his family, and establish a new family with one woman, a wife, and that in this united pairing the two would become one. And that pairing would produce offspring, children, whom Jesus holds up to us as the model for a Christian life. It is through these teachings that we should examine our own lives, and that examination continues, with our lesson today.

Mark 10:13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.

Once again, the disciples are attempting to keep certain folks away from Jesus, and in this case children who have been brought to Jesus from the surrounding communities. It was tradition that a traveling Rabbi would bless the children in the town that he came to, so this was normative, the parents found out Jesus is in town, so they take their kids to get blessed by Him. Why would the disciples stop them? The text does not say, we can only speculate, but needless to say, Jesus was not having any part of that behavior.

Mark 10:14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Mark 10:15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Mark 10:16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Now for our Roman reader this view of children is not one that is shared universally, children were seen as a necessity not as much as a blessing. You have children, because children are free labor, you do not need to pay for them, you keep them alive and healthy and they will be able to work for you for a long time, and of course this keeps the family line continuing. That is not to say that the Romans did not love their children, but that they did not see them in the way Jesus is describing. And the Roman would be asking himself, well how would a child receive the kingdom of God? Children love unconditionally, maybe one of the saddest elements of our world today is that we see so many adults and parents abusing children, because they know that children love without any conditions, and so it is that faith, that defines a child, a helpless faith, a faith that brings nothing, a faith that can do nothing, it is that type of faith that Jesus is speaking of. Children come to everything in faith, there is not a single child that walking into a situation and goes well how I am going to fix this, how am I going to work this out, no child ever thinks that way, children come in, see the problem and do what, look up. They are looking up to the adult, trusting in faith that they are going to take care of this all. This is what Jesus is talking about, that we when we encounter a problem, rather than doing the normative adult human thing which is to figure out a way to handle this mess, we stop and look up, and say, God I know you can fix this, help me. That is the faith of a child, the faith that you cannot do this alone, that someone greater than you is necessary. This is part of the Christian, that we accept our inability to fix our sin problem by our own means, and this comes from a recognition of who God is, that He is Holy and that I in no way can meet that standard of holiness, so I must turn to Christ, I must rely on His righteousness, when times of trouble come, rather than looking inward, I look upward. And what we have here is that example, rather than looking upward, we see what happens when you look inward.

Mark 10:17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Mark 10:18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

So just as Jesus and the disciples are about to leave the area, a man runs up in front of Jesus kneels in front of Jesus and asked him a specific question.

First the man calls Jesus, Good teacher. Jesus’ response is normative for any Rabbi who would have such a title given to them, only God is good, humans are not, if you question this read Genesis 8:21, Psalm 14:1-3 and Psalm 53:1-3.

And Jesus saw the statement for what it was, a smooth-talking introduction, one that sought to butter up the Rabbi. Notice Jesus response, why do you call me good? It is a question, in that Sir, you know nothing about me and yet you give me a title that is to be only applied to God. Did Jesus deny being God, by saying this? No, and it was not the purpose of the reply, it was not definitional to who Jesus is, it was a greeting that needed correction.

But notice the last part, “What must I do” there is an implication that eternal life comes through some means of doing something. This man was asking by what means can I earn my salvation, what specifically must I do to achieve this. This is transactional salvation, this is what we do when we work, we do something then we earn it. It is how we were all raised, right? You go to work you do what the job requires you get paid. That is how the system works and we apply this to everything, I go and help my neighbor and when times comes and I need help he will come help me, right, I mean we want to tell ourselves that we are helping them out of the goodness of our heart, that of course until when we need help and they don’t come to help us, what is our attitude, well I helped them, you would think that they would have remembered that and come over and helped me. So, this man is functioning in this transactional framework, what must I do.

Mark 10:19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”

If the man knows the commandments, then the man is a Jew, so Jesus teaches him as any normal Rabbi would, the path to life was in the fulfillment of the Commandments of God. But notice a couple of things, Jesus does not name all of the commandments, why? Because Jesus has avoided the commandments that He knows the man has openly violated, which are the commandments that are directed to the worship of God, and the last one, coveting. Jesus avoids these and we will see the reason why in a second. But know that this is not the path set before Christians, that path is defined by Jesus here as well.

Mark 10:20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”

Mark 10:21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Why does it say that Jesus loved him? Because Jesus was willing to give him the hard truth, which is something that the young man did not want to hear. You see true love manifest itself by sacrificing those things we hold dear, and one of those is having relationships with others. So, in love Jesus says, you lack one thing, you have a false god, which is your wealth and possessions you are not worshipping the one true God, you are worshipping your money and things, so go get rid of them, sell it all. Remember that Jesus sees the heart and Jesus knows that this man loves his wealth and possession more than anything, you cannot serve two masters, you will love the one and hate the others, you cannot serve God and money.

Now, did Jesus say that his wealth is bad? No, what Jesus is saying is that his wealth had become his god, his idol, when you are consumed with money and with possession, that is a problem, that is sin, and it is the deadly sin of covertness. Coveting leads to a host of other sins, because when you see something that someone had, and you become so focused on having what they have, you will quickly slide into a host of other sins.

Mark 10:22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Now this is a question I hope our Roman reader would ask himself, because one of the things that reading a Gospel should produce is self-reflection, if this were me? Now most of us would say, well I don’t have that much, so I doubt Jesus would ask me, or well that is not going to happen. Might I remind you that you live in the most prosperous places in the world, there are folks who would die for the scraps you throw away after a meal. But let’s look beyond wealth and possessions, what is it that you are holding onto that you are treating as an idol and if God said, that has to go, calls for reflection to seek to understand what are those things in our lives that we place before God? For me, it was my family, I endured a lot to keep my family together. I stopped going to Bible college to keep my family together, turned a blind eye to certain behaviors, to keep my family together, with God sitting there telling me, you need to confront this, and I would argue with myself, but that is going to result in the family being broken up, guess what it happened anyway. You either purge your idols, or God will purge them for you.

Mark 10:23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

Mark 10:24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!

Jesus first ask his disciples, how difficult will it be for a wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God. The question leaves them dumb founded, and our Roman reader as well. Wait, what do you mean, wealth means that you are a blessed person and blessed people are getting into heaven automatically, so what is with this talk about difficulty?

The disciples do not respond, so those children that Jesus had been blessing, he gives them the same question, how difficult is it to enter the kingdom of heaven?

Jesus answer is shocking to them, and want to hear a secret that isn’t a secret? It shocks us as well.

Mark 10:25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Did you hear that? Why? Because like this young man that confronts Jesus, people who have great wealth normally put their trust not in the finished work of Christ, but on their own personal experiences, and many of them are self-made, they did not inherit their wealth they went out and earned it, by hard work, blood sweat and tears, and yes some of them by cheating and scamming the system, but it is not their wealth that they think will get them into heaven, though we cannot say that for all of them, no many simply trust their own determination, I can do this. If I can make all of this money, then I can follow these rules.

Umm no you cannot, and you won’t normally it takes less than a minute to sin after just saying that you are not going to sin.

Mark 10:26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”

Jesus, if the rich are not blessed by God, if they not automatically in, then who can be saved. These people have worked very hard, and we have been taught that it is hard work that matters. But now Jesus you are telling us that these people will not be going to heaven, well if they aren’t then who is?

Do you not see how hard it can be to break down the cultural teachings of a society, this is why we must teach people the Gospel repeatedly, because it is within the Gospel that hearts are changed.

Mark 10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Jesus let’s the cat out of the bag. This is nothing about you, for you to save yourself by your means and your work is impossible, you cannot do it, but salvation is not by your works, it is not by any means that you do and accomplish, it is a complete work of God, hence with God salvation is possible, without God there is no possibility of salvation.

Mark 10:28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”

Then Peter wants to make this personal, well if getting rid of everything and following you gets one into heaven, then we are shoe ins right Jesus. Hey Peter, see that thing passing by you? That’s the point you missed.

Mark 10:29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,

Mark 10:30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

Mark 10:31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Now if you read this and say, well Jesus is promising them property and more family members, well to be a member of the prosperity gospel. What are you actually gaining? More welcoming household who share the love of Christ, more brothers and sisters in Christ, mothers and children, lands to spread the Gospel, all of this will be yours to fellowship and walk across and see the wonderful work of Christ building His church. And then Jesus adds on that last phrase, “with persecution”, this is what happens when you follow Christ, it is a world that is full of hate for the savior.

Darin Bracy is the pastor at Yorktown Baptist Church in Yorktown Virginia. He is a graduate of Veritas Baptist College with a BA in Ministry and a minor in History. He has a wife Stacy, two daughters, Ashlynne and her husband Justin, their daughter Harper Darin's other daughter Aftyn, and her two dogs, Eddie and Lulubelle.

You can reach Darin at his email address, Darinbracy@gmail.com and you can see his video content on YouTube – Basic Baptist Guy