Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost; 10 October 2021; Proper 23B (RCL); Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Psalm 22:1-15; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31.
The Book of Job seems to me to be a response to the deuteronomistic revision of Israel’s history. Deuteronomy, and the histories contained in the books of Samuel and Kings, likely found their final form in the Exile in Babylon. This deuteronomistic retelling of history was a way of explaining the catastrophe of the Exile: over and over again, God promises to bless the people if they walk in God’s ways, and to punish them (with Exile) if they depart from God’s ways. We live with the consequences of this retelling: catastrophe (whether corporate or personal) is punishment for sin.
Job’s friends reiterate this theodicy again and again in their speeches to Job, and Job consistently denies it. Job comes close to accusing God of injustice: the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper and God does nothing. God does not even hear the prayers of the suffering, calling into question the laments of the psalms. In the passage for this week, Job is certain that if only he could find God, God would see the justice of Job’s case, but God is not to be found. It’s an ironic twist that Job insists on presenting his case before God, when so much of the prophetic literature from both before and after the catastrophe of Exile depicts God as presenting God’s case against the people. Job calls into question the justice of God.
The prose tale which opens and closes the book presents a version of the wisdom tale, the suffering of the righteous one, eventually vindicated by God. But the poem placed in that tale completely subverts the story. God may restore Job’s fortunes, but that restoration is now completely ironic. Job is a changed man, and can never again see his prosperity as a sign of God’s favor, because he refuses to accept the converse. Prosperity is not longer tied to justice.
The rich young man in the Gospel story seems to be working on the same assumption which Job overturns: prosperity is a sign of righteousness. But, he entertains some uncertainty: Teacher, what must I do to inherit the life of the age? It strikes me that he understands receiving the life of the age is an inheritance, not something he earns. To inherit is to be an heir, a part of a group. Jesus refuses the title “Good teacher,” pointing out that only God is good. Following God’s instructions is what matters here. Jesus replies, “You know the commandments,” and then lists some of them off. The young man has done all these things since his youth.
Jesus looks at him and loves him. That is striking. He wants the best for him. He lacks one thing — he must go and sell everything he has and give to the poor, then come and follow Jesus. Here is an irony. The young man has quite a heritage to pass on to whoever his heirs happen to be, for he is wealthy. But he doesn’t understand how to be an heir of God’s heritage. He must join the community of the poor. His goods belong to that community. In that way, he will have his treasure in heaven.
Now, the rest of the sayings make sense. How hard it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God, which is with the poor. It is very hard for us who have advantages to understand our solidarity with those who do not, to see our future and theirs tied together. Bad things don’t happen to us with the same frequency as they happen to the poor. Climate change won’t affect us like it is affecting people in drought-stricken regions of Africa, for instance.
Peter reminds Jesus that he and others have left everything to follow Jesus, and Jesus reminds them that have inherited a hundred-fold of everything the left: family and kin, houses, fields. All these things belong to the new community and kinship Jesus is establishing — the kingdom.
The Letter to the Hebrews casts it in terms of a high-priesthood, which does essentially the same thing — establishes an identity. And we have a high priest who has been through it all, so we need not fear when he asks us to cast our lot with the poor. Through him, we have access to the inner sanctum in heaven. Where our treasure is.