Reading: Matthew 19.16-30
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What are you looking for out of life? What does it owe you? What would really satisfy you?
A little boy was offered the opportunity to select a dog for his birthday present. At the pet store, he was shown a number of puppies. From them he picked one whose tail was wagging furiously. When he was asked why he selected that particular dog, the little boy said, “I wanted the one with the happy ending.”
Are we trying to reach out for a life with a happy ending?
That may have been part of the goal of the rich young man who came to Jesus. His word for it, of course, was “eternal life”. But I am sure he was wanting life to be meaningful, fulfilling, rich rewarding… He accepted that there was plenty of hard work to do and sweat. He wanted to be able to play his part to make the world a better place. He wanted life to be pleasant, and, in the end, a happy ending.
Already he had enough money. Have we ever wished for a bit more? What would we do if we had more money – besides paying taxes? In what ways is our life restricted for want of cash?
We aren’t told where this young man got his money. He had received it honestly – perhaps as an inheritance, perhaps through hard work. There are some people who assume that having money is evil. But that is nonsense. The love of money is the root of many evils. Too many people are possessed by their possessions and obsessed with getting a little more and a little more – or a lot more and a lot more! But money itself is neutral. It is a means of living and has great potential for good and ill in this world – depending on how we use it!
He had enough money, but it didn’t satisfy him! It didn’t guarantee the happy ending and he knew it! Yet perhaps it might in fact be the means of doing something to that end! “What good thing must I do…?”
He was a young man of deep moral principle. He is asking Jesus about the good. The good has to do with God himself. The secret of life is doing his will. So keep the commandments…
“I have already kept all these commandments. What else do I need to do?”
Could we say that? Are we sure that we have never at any time committed any sin by thought, word or deed? It’s a very big claim to make. The apostle Paul claimed it when he wrote to the Philippians, “As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault” (2.6). But he then goes on to say that kind of righteousness was worthless and says, “I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ…” (v. 9). And late in life he could write to young Timothy, “This is a true saying, to be completely accepted and believed: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I am the worst of them, but God was merciful to me…” (1 Tim. 1.15,16a).
He was a young man of deep moral principle, but that didn’t satisfy him! It expressed how he ought to live, but it didn’t guarantee the happy ending and he knew it! “What else do I need to do?”
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
These words of Jesus are very striking. We might have expected him to say, “Come and follow me and you will have riches in heaven.” But instead, he calls on the young man to divest himself of all his worldly goods and give it all to the poor. At that point “you will have riches in heaven.” Riches cannot give us eternal life. We have to come with our nothing to receive his all. As long as we truly believe we are someone because of our bank balance, our art collection, our jewellery, our car… we will have a gnawing ache of dissatisfaction.
Remember the widow. Many rich people were dropping a lot of money into the temple treasury. A poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth no more than a couple of cents. “I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had – she gave all she had to live on” (Mk 12.41-44).
Then Jesus does say, “Come and follow me.” That is the fulfilment, the completion of what he is to do.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus insisted that all our religious duties – including giving to the poor – are to be done for God’s sake, not for our personal credit in society (Mt. 6.1ff). If we could be persuaded to give away all our goods, we would want to do it in as conspicuous a way as possible. And for this rich young man it would be impossible to give all away and start following Jesus without society noticing. But he needs to follow. He needs to learn love, humility, compassion, dependent trust in God… He needs to be part of the Kingdom and involved in all that will come to imply. It is not enough to be an isolated do-gooder. His wealth has been part of his identity, part of his security. Following Jesus will bring a new identity, a new security.
Jim Elliot, a young missionary who was martyred for his faith, encouraged others to serve when he said: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Elliot and his three friends gave up their lives in a desperate effort to bring the gospel to the hostile Auca Indians.
And that is it! This young man will give up all he has and gain something far more important.
“When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.”
“I assure you it will be very hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven. I repeat: it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” It has been assumed that the “eye of the needle” was a low narrow gate in the city wall through which a camel could only go if its load was completely removed. But it appears that no such gate has ever been known to exist. Jesus is deliberately exaggerating here. There was an old Jewish proverb that a man did not even in his dreams see an elephant pass through the eye of a needle.
In the words of Jesus it means that riches can never help a person to gain entrance to the Kingdom. We cannot buy our way to God’s favour.
“Who, then, can be saved?” It seemed to the disciples that a rich person with strong moral principles would have a very good chance of entering the Kingdom. Almsgiving was an important religious duty and a devout rich person could keep on doing this throughout his life.
But Jesus is emphasising that for anyone – rich or poor – entrance to the Kingdom can only come as a gift from God. No one is advantaged – or disadvantaged – all have to learn the way of utter dependence on God.
And for them – his disciples who had given up all to follow him – there would be the discovery of rewards infinitely greater than anything they had surrendered for his sake.
An anonymous author penned the following lines in great remorse: “How foolishly I have employed myself! In what delirium has my life been passed! How I’ve wasted my life while the sun in its race and the stars in their courses have lent their beams – perhaps only to light me to perdition! I have pursued shadows and entertained myself with dreams. I have been treasuring up dust and sporting myself with the wind. I might have grazed with the beasts of the fields, or sung with the birds of the woods, to much better purposes than any for which I have lived.”
Today, the Sunday after Pentecost, is Trinity Sunday. The Father has been revealing himself over the centuries, the Son has come in person and given himself in redemptive love, the Spirit is poured out on the people of God.
Our greatest need is to come – to give ourselves, our all, to him (how little it really is!), so that he may give his all to us! If you really want the “happy ending”, then come!
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© Peter J. Blackburn, Buderim Uniting Church, 2 June 1996
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible, © American Bible Society, 1992.
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