You might recall a scene that occurred in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus was at Assyria, and he asked the disciples who they thought he was. And you remember that the disciples first responded that he was one of the prophets. Then others said he was John the Baptist. And then finally Peter responds and says, you are the Son of God, the Messiah.

A very quick question. You have heard me ask you this before. Who believes in coincidence? Who believes that everything is purposeful?

How many of us find today’s gospel encounter with Jesus to be really frightening?

Do we really identify with this rich young man, or what? You know, it is very complicated for us because, he has notes and comments everywhere in the scriptures. He being this young man, we encounter him over and over again in Scripture, and we encounter him in ourselves every day. It is as if we are writing a personal journal entry when we hear today’s gospel parable.

We listen to a lengthy selection from the gospel of Mark, and it comes with a young man coming up to Jesus and basically asking, what must I do to be saved? And Jesus then gives him the commandments as we have come to know them. And the young man responds and says, well, I have done all of those things.