Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?

Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.

And behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" So He said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

- Matthew 19:13-22

On Saturday, we read Jesus' answer to a question by the Pharisees. He has come out of Galilee and is in Judea. They test Him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" Jesus replied, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." When they asked why Moses allowed for a certificate of divorce, Jesus replied that this was given because of the hardness of their hearts. Jesus said, "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery." His disciples said to Him, "If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry." But He said to them, "All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it."

Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." And He laid His hands on them and departed from there. Earlier we read Jesus giving the example of the little children, when He began this collection of discourses on community. That was when He was first asked, "Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Then, He said that unless they became humble like little children, His disciples would not even enter into the Kingdom. And He taught about the "little ones" and how they must be treated in His Church: "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven." Here, the emphasis comes again, and, we have to note, it is repeatedly so. Children are not merely the image of the smallest and meekest of the society, but they also form and shape Christ's teachings on what we must be like with our own Father in heaven and even among ourselves, "for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Once again, we note that we are dealing with a collection of teachings in this point in Matthew's gospel that emphasize community: teachings on discipline in the Church, on humility, on marriage, and now once again, the emphasis on the image of the little children and what they mean for each one of us.

And behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" So He said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is, God." Here, we have another kind of reference to humility. While we know Christ as the Son, Second Person of the Trinity, His emphasis as Teacher is on the work of God. Only One is good; that is, it is God who does the work in us, gives us every good gift, whose grace is sufficient for us.

"But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?" Jesus begins with the commandments that came through Moses. Surely, by now we know Jesus, and we understand that as He listed these commandments to the young man, He was quite aware that they had already been kept "from his youth." So, it all knowingly must lead to the question: "What do I still lack?" We have to give the young man credit for his gumption. This can be a very dangerous and difficult question: an essential one, but one to which we might not want to know the answer, because of the difficulties in which we may be engaged. Nevertheless, this question, and its answer in discipleship, may be the one thing necessary that we need to know. Unfortunately, a lot of us don't get this far!

Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. "Perfection" is quite a step forward, and quite a long fall beyond what we already think we know. We've linked above, the "one thing necessary" in the story of Martha and Mary, as told by Luke. But here, Jesus gives the answer specifically to this young man -- it is the one thing he lacks to be perfect. In other Gospels, this young man is referred to as a young ruler or a rich young man. So, he's quite wealthy and with a prominent family social position, one that would be an essential component of his personal identity. Therefore, what Jesus is asking is a very difficult thing. It is akin to cutting off an arm, a leg, or plucking out an eye as given by Jesus in another analogy to parting with what may seem dear to us but which may in fact keep us from membership in the Kingdom. (See Wednesday's reading of last week, and also Jesus' earlier teaching in Matthew's Gospel during the Sermon on the Mount.) Here is an essential part of this young man's social identity, but Jesus is asking him to give his wealth to the poor -- and importantly, to then, "Come, follow Me." We can see this, then, as an exchange. Jesus is asking him to give up his wealth (in community), in order to receive the pearl of great price, the Kingdom and membership in it as a disciple.

My study bible has a couple of important notes in this passage. In one, it says, "God acts in cooperation with the human soul. To save the unwilling would be compulsion, but to save the willing is a show of grace. Perfection is voluntarily to sacrifice all and to follow Christ for the cause of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God does not belong to sluggards, but to those who want to be perfect." In another, it says, "Formal observance of the Law does not equal fulfillment of all the commandments of God. Indeed, saying that one has kept the letter of the Law, can create a false satisfaction about virtue. Salvation does not depend upon external things, whether they be many or few, great or small, but on the virtues of the soul -- faith, hope, and love -- the reward of which is salvation. These virtues the young man still lacked." At any rate, what I think is essential to keep in mind is the basic understanding that "every good and perfect gift is from above." In this light, we can see personal wealth as something that isn't really quite personal at all, but one more gift from God, just as our lives are a gift, to be used in the ways that we are asked to, in order to participate in that even better gift, membership in the Kingdom, or a life of much greater abundance. In this sense, Christ asks the young man for an exchange, but it is one that runs far deeper than merely a bank account, or a list of properties. In this case, it is also an exchange of deeper identity: membership in the society and class or family status for that of discipleship in the Kingdom. And that's where we have to start to understand what it is that Christ asks of us, and why. I feel that as we go deeper into this journey of faith, the more deeply Christ will ask us to remove obstacles to full membership and full participation. That is, we may be asked to cast aside things we think are important in order to more fully participate in God's love, in Christ's care, and therefore in discipleship and the community He creates for us and with us. In this sense, the "one thing necessary" in the story of Martha and Mary becomes even more important. How are we led by the Good Teacher, our loving parent who would lead us and teach us as little children? My study bible points out, in other versions of this story in other Gospels, that this teaching is specifically meant for this young man -- it is not meant as a universal imperative. Nevertheless, we will each be asked to give up our own metaphorical "hand, eye, or foot" as we participate in the journey, in order to more fully live that abundant life He promises, and to make us truly free. To be "perfect" in the Greek sense here is to reach the end; as St. Paul has put it, to run the full race. Maybe we can always ask, "What do I still lack?"