I heard it in worship last week. It is one of those songs that Leah and I listen to frequently. The version we listen to on our phones is recorded by CeCe Winans. It is The Goodness of God. When the band does it, it is often sung by Becky Ash who is a strong mezzo, and she just brings it home.

Goodness.

In this Sunday’s text (Mark 10:17-41), a man with a great deal of wealth runs up to Jesus, and as he kneels before Jesus, he says, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus then engages him with a question, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”

The sermon this Sunday deals with the rest of the story, but I have chosen to use my blog to flesh out a thought that I have about goodness.

Theologians, priests, and pastors have grappled with this text almost from the beginning, and the conversation is deeper and more nuanced than we might think. Is Jesus saying that God is exclusively good and everything else is bad? That would be the basis for understanding original sin.

It certainly can be used to talk about the divinity of Jesus, which would mean that the rich man did not misspeak, but rather he identified Jesus as God. Is this Jesus’s affirmation of that statement? This would certainly fall in line with orthodoxy and the claims of the historic creeds of the church.

Is Jesus saying that the man is wrong, and that Jesus himself is humble and not to be confused with God? That would be a very humanist approach, and few Christians proclaiming this text would go that direction.

I wonder, however, if Jesus might be talking about a goodness of God that is intended to be shared. It is that very goodness that is blended with love, which together becomes the foundation for all creation. It is a gift that is given to all and is not exclusive only to God. It is a goodness that is to be shared.

You see, Jesus is not as orthodox as many of his followers … then and now … would wish him to be. Jesus is not about original sin. According to theologian Matthew Fox, the story of our faith is based on “original blessing” and not original sin. Jesus teaches that very thing. Jesus is about children and those whom he calls “little ones” (read the rest of Mark 10), and Jesus warns us what happens when we try to enter the realm of God with anything other than childlike wonder and awe.

Interestingly, Jesus ties goodness to some key things in this passage. Those who want to experience the goodness of God are called to renounce the idolatry of wealth, privilege, power, and demagogues who peddle sin and call it good. We are called to live as children with complete trust in Christ.

We are then called to embody Christ, which is to say that, like Jesus, we are called to embody God. And when we give ourselves to the full embodiment of Christ in this world, then my friends, we will have experienced the goodness of God.

So if you haven’t clicked the link above, I invite you to click it here and spend a moment hearing from CeCe Winans about the Goodness of God.