Mark 10:17-22*
17 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?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 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; Honor your father and mother.’” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money[a] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
I have often heard these instructions from Jesus and the wider passage in which we find them and wondered if I should just sell it all and go follow Jesus (though I’ve never been sure what the following would look like in that case). This thought occurs regardless of whether one thinks this command is meant for all followers of Jesus or just a few. The question for me has always been, is this what Jesus is telling me to do? I have mulled it over and at this point I think it would actually be unhealthy for me to sell all my stuff, for if I did it would end up serving as a form of escapism and would not address my relationship with stuff at its core. So if a literal reading is not how I should be looking at this passage of scripture, then how should I or any of us read it? Perhaps we will see this story in a new light if we read it in tandem with a story about a cup of tea.
A Cup of Tea**
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!” “like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculation. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
When reading the story of the rich man through the cup of tea we can see that it may be less about physical wealth and more about what we bring with us when we come to follow Jesus (be that physical, mental, spiritual, emotional). If we come to learn at the feet of Jesus already full, what can we gain? Christ tells Nicodemus in John 3 that one must be born again or anew, perhaps to empty our cup is to be born again. For the rich man an empty cup might look like sold possessions and an empty bank account. So what does it look like to approach Christ with an empty cup? What takes up space in your cup that keeps Jesus from filling it?
* (NRSV)
** (Source unknown to me)