A Belated Labor Day Sermon
Mark 10:17-31
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ 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.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’
Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’
While we were discussing this passage at Bible study this past Monday, I commented that this passage would make for a great Labor Day sermon. And then I thought, you know—we did a hymn sing for Labor Day, so I never really got to do a Labor Day sermon, so a month and a half later, I figure better late than never. But why, you may be thinking, does this scripture make for such a perfect Labor Day sermon? There’s no mention real mention of labor, no mention of wages or work ethic, or anything of that ilk.
So let’s get into it—when this rich man asks Jesus what must he do to inherit eternal life; to inherit the Kingdom of God, Jesus lists the commandments. This list will be so familiar to you—it has all the classics, right? Honor your mom and dad, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, etc, etc—because of the familiarity, it’s easy to miss the fact that Jesus adds a commandment. He takes it upon himself to just throw another “you shalt not” in there. Now, it doesn’t come out of nowhere, Jesus has passages in Deuteronomy and Exodus to back him up, but “You shall not defraud” isn’t one of the original Mosaic commandments. When I realized this in my research, I could not get it out of my head. There’s no way this was an accident—it wasn’t an accident by Jesus, it wasn’t an accident from the folks who compiled these sacred stories. There has to be a very specific and real reason why Jesus felt the need to add another prohibition, to add another rule to the ultra-sacred original commandments.
In our modern understanding of defraud, it means to gain money or wealth by doing something illegal. In the ancient Greek, this can also be true—but it also means to deprive, or even to withdraw oneself from someone, from the humanity of others. So, I believe the reason for the addition of “you shall not defraud” was an implication, almost low-key accusation that this rich man had gained his massive wealth from defrauding people—from exploiting people. Maybe he did this by charging them exorbitant rent; maybe he did this by charging them huge amounts of interest on loans, which is something Jesus was always appalled by. Maybe he simply did not pay or treat those who worked for him well. Whatever the case, I believe “you shall not defraud” was a specific dig at this man, and was a specific dig at not necessarily wealthy people in general, but especially at outrageously wealthy people who have accumulated their wealth by exploitative and unethical means.
And because this man accumulated his wealth by such vile means, he doesn’t deserve any of it—so in order to inherit eternal life, he must rid himself of all his riches, of all his possessions. But this rich man is so deeply tied to this lifestyle, he can’t. I believe this is the only call story in the Bible—that is the only story in which Jesus clearly states, “this is what you must do to follow me and enter the Kingdom of God”—in which the called actually turns Jesus down. It just shows what a hold wealth and riches and material things held on people. Because it’s not like this man just scoffs and laughs Jesus off and walks away—he was “shocked and went away grieving…”. He knew he was making the wrong decision, he knew that Jesus was right, but he just couldn’t bring himself to pull himself away from his things.
And it wasn’t just the rich man who was shocked by this command of Jesus. After Jesus’ interaction with the rich man, he goes back to his disciples who appear to be just as shocked—“they were greatly astounded…”, it’s written. These disciples surely did not have as much to worry about as the rich man, but here’s the thing—these statements Jesus was making were radical. Before this moment, it was assumed that those who had massive amounts of wealth were blessed by God—that they were simply blessed with good work ethic, with intelligence; or that their ancestors must have been great people for them to have been so blessed. This was an absolutely common assumption of the day, so for Jesus to make it clear that, no, it’s actually the complete opposite, that wealth is, in fact, one of the biggest hinderances to gaining eternal life was absolutely mind-blowing. Once again, Jesus was subverting all the norms—especially the exploitative and unfair norms of the day—and shocking both those who agreed and disagreed with him.
As usual, I’m finding myself disappointed and not especially surprised that in many ways, we haven’t changed a whole lot since these ancient days when Jesus and his disciples walked this earth. I’ve spoken before about how American culture sees poverty as a moral failing instead of a systemic problem that must be dealt with. Those with exorbitant amounts of wealth are to be idolized, romanticized; it’s assumed that they’ve gotten to that point because they’re… well… blessed—blessed by God, blessed with innovation, blessed with good work ethic—when in reality, it’s often that they’re blessed with various types of privilege, and/or generational wealth. And for the rich to get to the point of being billionaires, to get to where they’ve gotten to today, in our current time, there is absolutely no way they’ve gotten there without exploiting those under them; without defrauding people.
This is such a timely passage, not only because of the continually growing wealth gap in this country, but also because, if you follow current events at all, you might have noticed that there have been quite a few worker strikes brewing. The biggest one making headlines is the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or IATSE. 65,000 workers have approved of striking if the powers that be don’t meet the workers’ simple demands that include meal breaks, livable wages, and sustainable working hours. The main reason things have gotten so dire is the fact that there are so many different streaming platforms now—think about all of it—Netflix, Hulu, Prime, HBOMax; now every major network has its own streaming offshoot—and it’s making network executives and producers unbelievable amounts of money. But the need for this constant content, and this huge uptick in demand is making it so these film crew folks are working more hours, with less breaks, and sometimes for less pay. Media has changed, but working conditions haven’t changed with it; in fact, they’ve gotten much worse. And instead of doing the right thing by compensating workers for their time and labor, executives are raking in the money and thinking nothing of the people they’re exploiting—defrauding—to get that money.[i]
And at John Deere, a strike is tentatively off, but the reason about 10,000 John Deere factory workers nearly went strike? The company shattered profit records this past year—and what did they do with those profits? They gave them to shareholders, not to the workers. In fact, the powers that be had been plotting to cut employee benefits and pay before these 10,000 United Auto Workers approved a strike. [ii]
1,400 workers at several Kellogg’s plants have gone on strike—they’ve been working sometimes 7 days a week, 100-130 days in a row. The workers are being threatened with losing their jobs to other country’s factories if they don’t accept these unsustainable and backbreaking working conditions. All of this as the company made $1.25 billion during 2020 as cereal sales and profits rose by 8% because of pandemic demand. Meanwhile, the CEO of Kellogg’s made $11.6 million in 2020. That shall not defraud, am I right?[iii]
And this isn’t even mentioning the thousands of healthcare workers on the West Coast about to go on strike because due to horrible working conditions amidst a pandemic; or the couple thousand hospital workers in Buffalo NY, striking for the same reasons. It’s not even mentioning the fact that there are thousands of union carpenters striking in Washington state. The list right now goes on, and on, and on, because there are so many people making millions of dollars who don’t care how they make that money. They’re so tied to their lifestyles, to their pride, that they’ll exploit and defraud those working backbreaking hours without giving it a second thought.
Church, this is what Jesus was preaching about—people so attached to their wealth, to their money, to their lifestyles of luxury, that they cannot fathom letting any of it go in order to give the people who labored to provide them with this wealth something as simple as a meal break during the day… or something as crucial as affordable medical care. Jesus makes it clear that it’s impossible for people who exploit others, for people who defraud others to make it into the Kingdom of God.
And yet—Jesus also says, “For God, all things are possible.” There’s hope, church—even for those who have taken advantage of their power and privilege and exploited those under them. Despite the rich man’s rejection of Jesus, and despite the harsh instructions that Jesus gives him, it is also written, right before he gives these harsh instructions, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…”. Now, I don’t think this means that these shameless ultra-rich folks are off the hook—but I do think it means that there’s hope for them, as there is hope for anyone. They have to right their wrongs, and distribute their wealth to those whom they’ve exploited. At Bible study this week, Maggie made the excellent observation that Jesus doesn’t just say, “leave your things and follow me.” He says, “sell what you own, and give your money to the poor.” It’s a direct action—he would be giving back to those he’s taken from. And that’s what so many people are fighting for today—they just want to get their fair share—their share that’s been hoarded by those people like this rich man in a system that benefits the already powerful and wealthy.
Now, if you remember from last week, this passage comes directly after Jesus makes it clear that to enter the kingdom of Heaven, one must enter as a little child—as the lowliest of the low. So this passage about the defrauding ultra-wealthy being unable to inherit eternal life, to enter the kingdom—this is perfectly on theme. In the world in which Jesus and the disciples are living, the wealthy and powerful on first, and children, servants, and beggars—they’re last. So if we read last week’s passage right into this week’s, there’s this incredibly strong and radical emphasis, throughout all of Jesus’ teachings that the world doesn’t have to be like this—that the world shouldn’t be like this. We have to free ourselves from these toxic myths that we’ve all held for far too long—that the rich are morally superior and good and blessed, and that the poor are inferior and lazy. These myths were rampant in Jesus’ day, and they’re rampant now.
These myths are kept in place so that we don’t question the status-quo. And the status-quo exists so that the powerful and the wealthy can keep their power and their wealth. This is why the disciples were so shocked when Jesus made it clear to them that being wealthy isn’t a blessing, but rather a curse. And today, believing these same myths are holding so many people down, keeping so many people working against their own interests, against their own well-being.
But I see some hope in these dozens of strikes popping up all over the country. I see people, whether they’re Christian or not, doing the work of Jesus, by making it clear that this way of life can’t continue—that those who are doing the exploiting and defrauding are the morally bankrupt ones, not those who are toiling under deplorable conditions for wages that barely cover the funds to keep a roof of their heads.
So as we go from today, with this belated Labor Day message in our thoughts, let’s remember, every time we see someone championing the wealthy, every time we hear someone disparaging the troubled, the struggling, the poor, that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. It’s easy to fall prey to these dangerous myths that have had such a grip on us for centuries, for millenia, if we want to go all the way back to Jesus’ day. So let’s go from today, not just knowing that the first will be last and the last will be first, but acting that way—we’ll support the workers, we’ll lift the lowly, we’ll work for a world in which policies no longer benefit the already powerful just because of some myths we’ve bought into for so long. We’ll work towards a world in which there will be no first or last. Amen.
[i] https://gizmodo.com/iatse-has-voted-in-favor-of-a-nationwide-tv-and-film-st-1847795272
[ii] https://jalopnik.com/john-deere-workers-just-voted-to-strike-1847777651
[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/07/kelloggs-workers-strike-offshore-jobs
