My college marketing professor would say, “Marketing rules the world”; it influences our thoughts and actions. Effective advertising makes slogans and products memorable.
Twenty years ago, office supply retailer Staples launched a marketing campaign: the Staples EASY Button. The message was “When something is hard … .press the easy button and “voila” It’s EASY.” The campaign worked by tapping into our primal, innate desire for simplicity.
In Mark 10, Jesus relays his encounter with a rich young ruler. This is not a parable. This was a real, face-to-face encounter with a young man, maybe like the 2008 Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and at 23 the world’s youngest billionaire—if Zuckerberg was royalty.
This man had everything, except eternal life. But he just couldn’t part with his stuff, he liked his riches more, and he valued security most. The Rabbi’s price tag for life eternal, the kingdom of Heaven was ridiculously too much.
Exactly.
Jesus said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”Jesus repeated himself to his perplexed disciples, “Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God.” He called them children—because their understanding was juvenile and incomplete.
Wait a second. I want the red EASY button. But the red words in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s gospels say it’s hard. Kinda the opposite. I don’t like the way that sounds, do you? The rich young ruler didn’t like it either. What was Jesus trying to tell his immature followers and friends? Flip back two chapters to Mark 8, Peter boldly proclaimed his faith in Jesus as Messiah Christ, son of the living God. So Jesus shares some hard truths, explaining how he must suffer, be rejected, and be killed. Peter wanted EASY. “You’re the Christ, you rule, Rome loses, we win big, no more hard, end of story.”
But there’s nothing easy about Jesus’ words in 8:34. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”
He says I must think, speak, and act like Jesus does instead of thinking, speaking, and acting the way I want or how I feel. That’s denying oneself. Giving up my rights, for his glory. Day after day after day. Jesus wasn’t joking when he said, “How hard it is….”
Everyone knew that the Staples red EASY button didn’t fix problems. But it symbolized confidence. It’s hard but possible, it can and will get done.
Jesus is NOT the easy button. But he makes the “hard” possible—by his shed blood, by the power of his Spirit, because of his merciful love, we can follow Jesus and enter the Kingdom of God.
Donielle Winter
EFCC Member