Theophylact on Mark 10:17 - 45

 Verses 17–22 “And as he went out into the road, someone ran up, and kneeling before him asked him: ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do in order to possess eternal life?’ But Jesus said to him: ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except one, namely God. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud; honor your father and your mother.’ But he, answering, said to him: ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’ And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him: ‘One thing is lacking for you: go, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, with the cross lifted on your shoulders.’ But he, distressed by this saying, went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions.”

“Some people accuse that young man of being crafty, evil, and a tempter. But the case is not so; he loved riches, he was not tempting Christ. Listen to the evangelist, that when Jesus looked at him, he loved him. Why then did Christ answer him in this way, saying, ‘No one is good’? Because he had come to him as to a man, and as to one teacher among others. For Christ’s meaning is: If you think that I am good as a teacher, then no human being is good when compared with God; but if you judge me to be good as God, why then do you call me ‘teacher’? And by these words Christ wants to raise that man’s mind to something higher, so that he may acknowledge him as God. He also corrects something else, by teaching him not to cling to the people he associates with, but to know God as the root and fountain of goodness, to whom honor is due.”

“I also marvel at the young man because, whereas many others came to him for the sake of having diseases cured, he asked about the inheritance of eternal life, although he was held fast by the very serious sickness of greed. On that account, when he heard ‘Go, sell, and give to the poor,’ he went away saddened. Notice that he did not say, ‘Go and, whatever you have, sell bit by bit and give,’ but ‘Sell once for all and give to the poor’—and not to flatterers and the intemperate. And he adds this besides: ‘Come, follow me,’ that is, embrace every other virtue as well. For many are poor but not humble; or even if they are humble, they are not sober but drunken, or entangled in some other evil. And therefore the Lord says, ‘Sell and give to the poor, and follow me, with the cross lifted up,’ that is, prepare yourself for death on my account. But he, grieved at that saying, went away; for he had many possessions. Nor did he add ‘many’ without reason; for the man who has much and the man who has little are not bound in the same way. It is hard to break the chains of those who possess many things.

But even if some youth is of a youthful and frivolous temper and has a disordered mind, let him sell his “resources,” that is, anger and desire and whatever evils spring from these, and let him hand them over and cast them away to the poor, that is, to the demons. For they are poor and utterly deprived of good and have fallen from the rich bounty of God’s goodness. And then let him follow Christ. For the one who has thrown the riches of his sins to the demons will be able to follow Christ. For ‘Turn away from evil,’ he says—that is, cast away your evil riches to the poor powers, I mean to the demons—‘and do good,’ that is, follow Christ and take up the cross.”

Verses 25–27 “And when Jesus had looked around, he said to his disciples: ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ But the disciples were astonished at his words. And Jesus again, answering, says to them: ‘Children, how hard it is for those who put their trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ And they were exceedingly amazed, saying within themselves: ‘And who can be saved?’ But Jesus, looking at them, says: ‘With human beings it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.’”

“Riches are not evil, but those who possess them deserve to be examined. For it is not that one must not possess them at all—that is, not have them in one’s control—but that one must use them according to necessity. For chrēmata (that is, ‘resources’ or ‘wealth’) are so called because they are for people’s use and bring them help and assistance, not because they are meant to be hoarded. Therefore those who have riches and lock them up find it hard to enter the kingdom of God. Take ‘hard’ here to mean ‘impossible.’ For it is impossible for a rich man to be saved. This is clear from the example the Lord gives, when he says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. For it cannot happen that a camel should pass through the eye of a needle. By ‘camel’ understand either the animal or the thick rope which sailors use on the largest ships. It is impossible for a person, insofar as he is rich, to be saved; yet with God this is possible. For Christ said, ‘Make for yourselves friends out of the mammon of injustice.’ You see, then, how, if we listen to God, it becomes possible. ‘With men it is impossible’—that is, when we think in merely human fashion, it is impossible.

Why then were the disciples astonished at his words? For they themselves were not rich. It seems to me that they were anxious on behalf of all people. They had by now begun to become compassionate. Some people raise a difficulty here: how can he say, ‘All things are possible for God,’ when God cannot sin? We say, therefore, that when he says ‘all things’ we understand ‘all the things that are.’ But sin is not a thing that truly “is”; sin is something without essence and without substance. Or we may put it another way: sin does not belong to power, but to weakness; as the Apostle also says, ‘Christ died while we were weak.’ And again David says, ‘Their weaknesses were multiplied,’ and thus sin is not “possible” for God, because it is weakness. Do people then say that God cannot make what has been done to be not done? We call God “truth.” But to make what has been done not to have been done is a lie. How, I ask, could truth produce a lie? It would first have to lose its own nature. And so those who talk this way are speaking as if they were asking, ‘Can God cease to be God?’ You see, then, how ridiculous a question it is.”

Verses 28–31 “And Peter began to say to him: ‘Behold, we have left all things and have followed you.’ But Jesus answered and said: ‘Amen I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children .or fields for my sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time – houses and brothers and sisters and 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 first." 

Peter, although he had left only a few things, yet because he said ‘all things,’ is evidence that even those few things had held him back with a certain bond; and thus blessed is the one who has left even a few things. And although Peter alone had asked, Christ speaks in general to all, saying: ‘Everyone who has left wife or father...’ He says this not in order that parents should be left without help, or that husbands should be separated from their wives, but he teaches us to put piety toward God before all fleshly ties.”

“For since in truth a war had been kindled by the preaching, and children were going to deny their parents for the sake of piety, he says: Whoever has left the relatives whom nature has given him, and, in a word, all bodily things for the sake of the Gospel, will receive all these a hundredfold in the present age and, in the future, eternal life. Will he then also receive a hundred wives? Yes, even though the accursed Julian mocked this. What does a wife contribute to a man’s household? She takes care that her husband has what he is to eat, and what he is to be clothed with, and she relieves the husband of the care of all these things. See then that this is so also in the case of the apostles. How many women there were who took care of their clothing and food, and who ministered to them, while they themselves took no thought for any of this, but only for preaching and teaching! In the same way the apostles had many mothers and fathers who loved them and were affectionately disposed toward them as friends. And Peter, who had left one house afterwards had the houses of all the disciples. And now also, everywhere on earth, temples have been raised in his name, which are splendid houses. And what is more, the saints possess all these things amid persecutions—that is what he means when he says ‘with persecutions’: that they have suffered persecution and been ill-treated and afflicted. Hence those who in this world seem to be last on account of afflictions and persecutions will be first because of their hope in God. But the Pharisees, who seem to be first, have become last. Those, however, who, leaving all things, have followed Christ, have become first.

Verses 32–34. ‘Now they were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them, and they were afraid and those who followed were fearful. And again he took the Twelve and began to tell them what was going to happen to him: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and will hand him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him, and will scourge him, and will spit upon him, and will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.”’ 

Why does he foretell to them the things that are to happen? In order to prepare the minds of the disciples, so that what they have previously heard they may more easily endure, and that they may not be suddenly struck down in spirit. Furthermore in order that they may know that he suffers voluntarily. For he who foreknows and can escape and does not flee clearly exposes himself to sufferings of his own free will. And he takes the disciples aside and speaks with them alone. For the Passion was a secret mystery which had to be revealed only to those who were more intimate with him; and therefore on the road he goes before them all, wishing to separate the disciples from the crowd. Moreover, by the fact that he goes before all and anticipates them on the way, he shows that he hastens toward the Passion and does not flee from death for the sake of our salvation. And although he enumerates many harsh things, nevertheless a sufficient consolation for all of them is this one point, that on the third day he will rise again.”

Verses 35–39

“And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come to him, saying: ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ But he said to them: ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him: ‘Grant that one of us may sit at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them: ‘You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?’ And they said to him: ‘We can.’

Another Evangelist says that their mother came to Christ. It is likely that both things happened: that the apostles, from a certain shame, first sent their mother ahead, and then afterwards themselves came to him separately; and for this reason the Evangelist expresses it by saying, ‘They come to him,’ that is, they come separately, apart from the others. Let us then learn what it was that they asked. They were thinking that he would go up to Jerusalem to reign with a certain temporal kingdom, and that after he had reigned he would suffer the things of which he spoke. Thinking such things within themselves, they asked for a seat at his right and at his left; and therefore the Lord rebukes them, as asking for something foolish. ‘You do not know,’ he says, ‘what you are asking. For you think that my kingdom is something sensible, and you are asking for a temporal throne; but the matter is not so: all these things are above the mind of man. And to sit at my right hand is something great, and something that surpasses even the angelic orders; and you indeed are hastening toward glory, but I call you to death. For by the cup and the baptism he means the cross. The cup, namely, which at once brings on sleep, and which is taken from him with great sweetness; but the baptism was to be the cleansing of sins. But they, not understanding what he was saying, made their promise. For they thought that he was speaking of a sensible cup, and of the baptism with which the Jews were baptized when they washed themselves before eating.”

Verses 39–40 “‘But Jesus said to them: “The cup that I drink you shall indeed drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized you shall be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give, but it shall be for those for whom it has been prepared.”’

‘To martyrdom,’ he says, ‘you will indeed come, and you will die for the truth; but to sit at my right and at my left is not mine to give.’ On this passage two questions are usually raised. First, whether it is prepared for anyone to sit there; secondly, whether the Lord cannot grant that seat to whomever he wishes. We must therefore say that no one sits at my right or at my left in such a way as to be above all. And when in the Scriptures you often hear of a “throne,” you are not to understand a piece of furniture, but an exalted rank.”

Cathedra / “not mine to give”
“As for the words, ‘it is not mine to give,’ they have this sense: ‘It is not mine’—that is, it does not belong to a just judge—to give you that dignity by way of favor; for then I would not be just. Rather, that dignity has been prepared for those who shall have labored, just as, if a just king were presiding at some contest, and afterwards some of his friends came to him and said, ‘Give us the crowns,’ he would surely say, ‘It is not mine to give, but the crown has been prepared for the one who has striven and has won.’

And so you also, O sons of Zebedee, will indeed be martyrs for my sake; but if someone is found who, together with martyrdom, possesses all other virtues in greater measure than you, that person will go before you.”

The indignation of the ten; service vs. lordship

“When the ten heard of it, and understood what they had asked and what sufferings they would undergo, then they were indignant. For as long as they were being honored by the Lord, they endured it without indignation, although they saw them preferred to themselves; but now that these are themselves demanding honor for themselves, the others cannot bear it. For the present they behave in this imperfect way; later, however, you will see them each yield precedence in turn to the others.

But Christ heals them, and first softens them by calling them closer to himself. This is what is meant by the words, ‘When he had called them to himself.’ Then he shows that the grasping of honor and the striving after dignities belongs to the Gentiles. For the rulers of the Gentiles, he says, parade themselves with great power and authority; but it shall not be so among my disciples. Rather, whoever wishes to be great, let him be the servant of all; for it is also the mark of a great soul to bear all things and to serve all. And an example was ready to hand. For the Son of Man did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life as a ransom for many, which is greater than to minister. For when someone has not only ministered, but has also died for the one whom he serves, what could be greater or more wonderful than that?

Yet that very ministry and condescension was an exaltation and a glory, both his own and that of all. For before he was made man he was known only by the angels; but after he was made man and crucified, he not only has that former glory, but has received another besides, and he reigns over the whole world.”