All You Need Is Love

All You Need Is Love

Mark 10:17-23

            We know this story.  We also know it has been used to make several different points.  It is especially handy for those taking a stand against too much dependence on wealth or against the idolatry of putting too much emphasis on possessions.  I believe there’s another lesson to be learned.

            Several years ago there was a British program on American TV as a summer replacement.  I don’t think it ever got much traction in this country, but I found it fascinating.  It was set in a sort of sanitarium for retired spies.  They were free to roam the grounds and to interact with each other, but quite obviously could not leave.  The main plot concerned an undercurrent of evil inherent in the situation.  Throughout the series some of the spies worked to uncover the wrongdoing and fix the problem.  At the end of the run, one of them became the new head of the institution and everything ended happily for the good guys.

            What I remember most was the background music for the final episode.  They kept playing snatches of the Beatles’ All You Need Is Love.  Since I am to this day an ardent Beatles fan, the use of this song made the show even more interesting for me.

            TV and Beatles aside, the truth of the song’s title can’t be denied.  Perhaps we need some other things in addition to love, but whatever we have is made more enjoyable—and valuable—by the presence of love in our lives.

            Bernadine Healy, M.D. said:  “As a physician who has been deeply privileged to share the most profound moments of people’s lives, including their final moments, let me tell you a secret.  People facing death don’t think about what degrees they have earned, what positions they have held, or how much wealth they have accumulated.  At the end, what really matters—and is a good measure of a past life—is who you loved and who loved you.  The circle of love is everything.”

            At the end of the day love is everything.  Dr. Healy learned this through years of experience.  Many of us have proved it in our own lives with our own loved ones.  On several occasions I have witnessed the love of family and friends at the bedside of one who has come to the end of life.  Fond memories are invoked.  Prayers are said.  Songs are sung—anything to surround the dying one with love.  It’s as if the one final thing that can be given is a letting go, a sending of the loved one to the next life with loving thoughts and words.  It can only be hoped that love has been expressed while the person who is taking leave of this life can still appreciate the loving.

            The importance of love is a lesson the rich young man of Mark’s story seems to have missed.  Somehow he forgot—or never knew—that, at the end of the day love is everything.  Jesus loved him enough to offer him a way out of his lovelessness and into the kingdom, but he couldn’t let go of the things that were preventing him from accepting the offer. 

            Remember the scene from Dickens’s A Christmas Carol where Scrooge’s fiancé breaks their engagement?  She tells him that he has come to love wealth more than he loves her, and she will not accept second place in his heart.  We find the young man of our story in the same position.  He could not love God enough to let go of his possessions.  What a pity!

            Do we love enough to let go of what’s standing between us and God?  Between us and other people?  At the end of the day is love enough for us?  When our end comes will we regret that we haven’t loved enough?  Will we be able to say that all we need is love?

            Don’t wait until it’s too late.  Love now!