In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
As Jesus was going along the way to
Jerusalem, a man came running up to Him, fell on his knees before the
Lord, and asked Him, “What shall I do to inherit eternal
life?” Jesus tells him to
keep the Law, then give everything he has to the poor. And the man
went away crestfallen, because he had many possessions.
From our perspective, taking this
account in the context which Mark records it, the man's question is a
bit ironic. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus has
just told His disciples twice, and is about to tell them a third
time, that the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem, be handed over into
death at the hands of the Jews, and on the third day rise again. Then
this man comes up and asks what he
must do to inherit eternal life. It is easy to dismiss him as
wrong-headed.
