21st September 2014 – Evensong
When I can find the time I enjoy reading novels and also watching films of all different genres. But I confess that I – like many others – prefer the ending to be happy or at the very least neatly tied up so I can either close my book or switch off the television satisfied – as though I can draw a metaphorical line under the story and move on. Endings I find more difficult are twists in the plot, the logical mathematician in me finds open endings with no answers frustrating but perhaps above all I don’t enjoy a sad ending – I mean, who does?
So when I read through this evenings readings earlier in the week I found myself faced with a Gospel story which I confess fills me with some sadness. The story of the rich young man – or as we read in Luke’s version of the story ‘the rich young ruler’.
This evening I want to explore this story by looking at 2 aspects of the passage: the first is to briefly look at an overview of the story – this is to reflect upon the young man, his potential, his encounter with Jesus and what I cannot help but see as the sadness and disappointment at the end of this encounter.
Secondly I want to look at Jesus’ subsequent conversation with Peter and his other disciples after the man has walked away and to see what we can learn from this story and what we may be able to apply to our own lives.
This rich young man (or ruler) was likely to have been well known as many of the rich were at the time of Jesus and the story has a promising beginning. As I read this story more and read more about this story throughout this week I was struck by the sense of the man’s potential. We can see that he is eager, humble, bright, moral. In fact in Mark’s account of the story we read that the man ran up to Jesus and knelt before him – respectfully, enthusiastically.
But behind this he appears conscious that something was missing and he approaches Jesus asking ‘what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’
Jesus says to him that he must keep the commandments and when asked which ones Jesus replies ‘you shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, you must honour your father and mother and love your neighbour as yourself’
To which the man asserts – all these I have kept – but goes on to ask ‘what do I lack?’
This interaction seems a little unusual….. For example why did he ask which commandments when surely he would’ve been familiar with all 10? Were there some that he was aware he was not keeping – those things which were holding him back, making him aware of something lacking in his life.
And then Jesus lists the commandments which the man had been keeping – omitting at this point the commandment about loving God with all your heart, the commandment about idolatry and the commandments about covetousness – the things in fact that this rich man did lack.
Jesus then goes on to say ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me’
The word perfect is from the Greek teleios – not being better than others or perfect in worldly sense but full grown, complete in all its parts and in this case completely obedient – it refers to the rich young man’s original question – what he desired – to have eternal life.
And it is here that Jesus directly addresses the man’s love, his idolatry, of possessions, and offers him a new way – to put God before worldly treasures and to gain what it is he is lacking
But in verse 22 it says ‘He went away – grieving – for he had many possessions’
He went away – a sad, a disappointing ending
A couple of things that arise for me when I reflect upon this encounter between the rich young man and Jesus.
One is that we can’t be satisfied by the world – the man did not put God before his earthly riches and possessions. Here we are told that complete surrender will be required in order to gain heavenly riches
We all have things we covet – we are all tempted by idols of this world and the command to sell all our possession is not a command for all of us. But there is some sacrifice required of all of us which will differ for different people.
It was the love and idolatry of his possessions which was the problem – not the possessions themselves. As the often misquoted quote from 1 Timothy says it is not money but love of money which is root of all evil.
Another issue here is the sense of missed opportunity
This is the kind of ending where we the viewer can see the right ending – the satisfying ending – and when that doesn’t happen – the gasp of disbelief, and I find myself sharing in the grief – as we see the opportunity missed.
The second part of this story is about Jesus’ subsequent conversation with his disciples, after the young man has left the scene. Jesus says the well known saying ‘it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God’
There has been some debate around the interpretation of this. A perhaps more gentle interpretation is about losing baggage- a camel is a large animal and loaded with baggage and often riches. In order to fit through the narrow gate it is essential to lose the baggage and in the case of the rich young man he was required to sell his possessions . And if we continue to use this interpretation we could all consider the baggage we have to lose.
But another interpretation is a more literal reading – that the juxtaposition of a camel and a needle is emphasise it is not just hard but an impossible task. But even with this more challenging interpretation we get the promising words of Jesus in verse 26 ‘for mortals it is impossible , but or God all things are possible’ – even the absurdly impossible is not outside of the realms of possibility for God.
But that does require sacrifice- this will look different for each of us and the rich young man’s grief over the sacrifice he has called to make may well echo our own grief as we are called to lay aside those things which Jesus calls us to sacrifice as we follow him. So are we that different from this man? It’s a challenging thought – but an important one. But what does Jesus say: we must put God first, before any love of worldly treasures. Salvation cannot be bought or earned. And it’s not just money…. but fame, status, whatever holds us back, whatever tempts us to walk away as the rich man did.
Perhaps this story isn’t akin to one of my sad ending films and maybe it would be more optimistic to see this as an open – an uncertain ending – whereby there was still potential for the young man to overcome his grief and go on to follow Jesus’ call and command in the future. We don’t know – but this is a good example of an opportunity to follow Jesus which has been missed and to reflect upon how we may miss opportunities to encounter Jesus due to the worldly loves – or even idols – that are all around us.
The rich young man walked away because the sacrifice Jesus asked of him caused his heart to be filled with grief –We can all share in the grief of the rich young man- and yet we know that being a disciple of Christ is about sacrifice, and while worldy treasures cannot satisfy any one of us any more than they could satisfy the man in this story– there is the promise of treasure in heaven if we lay these things aside, turn to Jesus and follow.
Amen