GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 10:18
Only the Father Is Good
Recently, I was shopping at a superstore and asked a personal shopper—who happened to be standing in the aisle—where I might find tamales. He gestured vaguely down the aisle. When I reached the indicated spot, however, I found only ingredients for making tacos. On another aisle, I asked the same question of another personal shopper, who took me directly to the exact spot where the tamales were shelved.
Mark records the story of a young man who came to Jesus and asked what he could do to inherit eternal life. The term “inherit” carried a legal connotation: to receive something to which one was legally entitled. The supplicant addressed Jesus as “good,” a term freighted with theological significance. The only other place in the New Testament where this vocative title appears is in the parallel account by Luke (18:18). According to Mark, “But Jesus said to him, ‘Why are you calling me good? No one is good except one—God.’” (Mark 10:18)
There may be a play on words here, for the word “good” (ἀγαθός, agathos), used by the young supplicant, can be rendered “beneficent” or “generous”—a giver of gifts or charity—as well as essentially good. Some writers believe the young man used a merely conventional form of address, similar to someone saying, “May I ask the good man from Georgia …” This would not be the proper way to address the Lord, who immediately redirected the attribution of goodness to God, teaching the young man—and all who approach the Father—to do likewise.
Therefore, the story might be understood this way: the young man asked, “Oh, beneficent teacher, what must I do to receive what is rightfully mine?” To this, Jesus replied, “Young man, there is only one who is essentially good—God.” In this reading, Jesus gave the young man the correct answer—just as the second personal shopper did in the story above.
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