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

 

 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.  

Now 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 

 

Yesterday we read that, following Jesus' teaching on mutual correction and forgiveness (in response to the disciples' question as to who would be greatest in His kingdom), He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.  And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.  The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?"  And He answered and said to them, "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."  They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?"  He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.  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.  My study Bible cites the commentary of Theophan, who remarks that the disciples rebuked the mothers for bringing little children to Christ both because their manner was "unruly" and because they thought children "diminished His dignity as Teacher and Master."  But Christ rejects this thinking, and sets the little children as an example of those who inherit the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore children are invited (even as an example to adults) to participate in the Kingdom through prayer, worship, baptism, chrismation, and Communion.  Theophan also writes:  "A little child is not arrogant, he does not despise anyone, he is innocent and guileless.  He does not inflate himself in the presence of important people, nor withdraw from those in sorrows.  Instead, he lives in complete simplicity."

Now 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."  My study Bible notes that this man doesn't come to test Jesus, but rather to seek advice from a person he considers to be no more than a good Teacher.  Christ's response, it says, does not deny that He is God, but rather is designed to lead the rich man to this knowledge.

 

"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?" Formal observance of commandments is not sufficient to make one righteous before God, my study Bible says.  But this man had an earnest desire for eternal life, and sensed that he still lacked something.  Therefore he continues to press Jesus for the answer.

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.  My study Bible says that to be perfect, one must willingly sacrifice all and follow Christ.  It says that nothing is gained unless this sacrifice is given freely.  The specifics of how one follows Christ will be different for each person.  As wealth had such a grip on this rich man, his only hope was to sell and give away all his possessions.  St. John Chrysostom comments on this passage that giving away possessions is the least of Christ's instructions here.  to follow Him in all things is a far greater and more difficult calling.

Today's reading reminds us of Christ's teaching in Matthew 16:25:  "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."  The instructions to the rich young man, whom Mark tells us that Jesus loved (Mark 10:21), constitute an active, embodied way to carry out this teaching.  Jesus is instructing the young man to give away one life (his life of great possessions) for another (the life of following Christ as a disciple).  It is important to note the discussion of this teaching by St. John Chrysostom in his commentary:  first, that these instructions are specific to the spiritual needs of this young man, whose attachment to these possessions is extraordinary; and second, that this first command to sell and give away possessions was the beginning of a life as disciple, and the more difficult challenges would be ahead of him.  Those future difficult challenges no doubt would be those that shaped the construction of the "new life" and new persona to be revealed as disciple, in the same way that we see the character of the disciples -- particularly Peter -- shaped in the Gospels through experience and exposure of the things that need to be challenged and changed.  (See, for example, the story of Peter's denial of Christ:  Matthew 26:31-35, 69-75).  It seems highly likely that this man's "great possessions" had a direct link to his identity, as he is at once young, "very rich," and a ruler (Luke 18:18, 23).  If he were a young man of great wealth, and a ruler, then it is likely his possessions constitute a family inheritance, linked to position as possibly a ruler among those in the temple.  Therefore to give away his possessions is almost quite literally to exchange identity within the broader structure of society, in exchange for an ongoing shaping of new life and identity as a follower of Christ.  We also don't know what would have been in store for this young man whom Jesus loved, as the disciples of Christ in the Gospels are those who would go on to be leaders or "rulers" in the Church, the bishops and pillars who would go out in the world and establish the Church, such as St. Paul, for example, who says of himself that he was born a Roman citizen, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, and was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee (Acts 22:3, 28; 23:6).  There are other devoted and courageous followers of Christ who were also Council members and men of great wealth such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.  Each will go on, as recorded in the Gospels and the history of the Church, to exchange their old lives for a new one in Christ, corresponding to a necessary shift in identity, all requiring heroic courage and sacrifice to do so.  As we will read in the next reading, Jesus will use an expression regarding this process that also indicates such great possession can be thought of in terms of baggage and burden, and in a metaphorical context perhaps a great many of us can relate to this understanding of our lives, where we carry so much that might need to be given up, given away, and "sacrificed" in this sense in order to acquire a new identity in service to Christ, our old habits, talents, the particular shape of character given over in exchange to new expression and new life.  Not everyone's life need be such a radical, abrupt shift as that which we witness in the Gospels and the rest of the Bible, but each life may undergo this process of discipleship even in a lifelong, gradual manner, of discarding old burdens no longer necessary or useful in a life devoted to the expression of the love of Christ, or transformed within shaping that new life and new expression of discipleship in a life lived according to His commands.  This young ruler may have become one administering the great possessions of the Church and overseeing many followers, his talents and identity transfigured in Christ -- again, as St. Paul was transformed and transfigured from persecutor of the Church as a Pharisee into the great apostle to the Gentiles he became, and teacher to all he remains through his epistles.  To exchange one life for another may require courage and faith, but such sacrifice eventually becomes filled in exchange for the new life.  We might begin by pursuing one path we thought important, but the influence of our faith in Christ will take us down quite another.  The courage is in not knowing the outcome of that exchange, but we note that Christ promises this rich young ruler treasure in heaven in exchange for his earthly possessions.  We simply do not know what that eventual form of his life as a disciple would have taken, but we do know that Christ loved him, and that he went away sorrowful.  We also know what was to come in Jerusalem within a generation, his possessions and identity as ruler likely to have been swept away in the fury of the terrible siege and destruction of the city and the life of its aristocracy.  So Christ will call us toward something, but to go there we exchange something of the old, likely precious to us, even though we will be better off for the exchange.  Speaking for myself, I can testify that a seeming promise of great possessions was taken from me when I was young, but a life of seeking Christ in exchange has provided back, over time, other wealth.  The loss taught me a kind of detachment that would not have happened without it, and asked me to gain values I would not have found otherwise, and I continue in that journey.  Let us truly be thankful for all that we have, especially through our gracious Lord who loves us, who offered us His life, and offers us our life in Him.  In this understanding, Christ's teaching about the little children applies to all of us:  we begin a new life in Him each as a little child, and turn to Him to teach us who we are and what it is we need to be about.  This beginning can even be a new start each day, each time we pray.