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. 

 

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 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 after Jesus taught the disciples about the essential importance of humility, mutual correction in the Church, and forgiveness, He left Galilee and went 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 reports that, according to Theophylact, 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 Jesus rejects this thinking, setting little children as an example of those who inherit the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, in the Orthodox Church, children are invited -- even as an example to adults -- to participate in the Kingdom through prayer, worship, baptism, chrismation, and Communion.  In another commentary (on Luke 18:15-17) Theophylact describes little children as the standard of faith by which adults receive the kingdom of God.  He 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.  But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."   My study Bible comments that this man does not come to test Jesus (unlike the Pharisees in yesterday's reading -- see above -- who came to test Him with a question on divorce).  This man, on the other hand, has come to seek advice from one he considers to be no more than a good Teacher.  Jesus' response here doesn't deny that He is God, but rather is designed in order to lead the man to this knowledge.  

 

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?"  My study Bible comments here that formal observance of commandments does not make one righteous before God.  Here, this man had an earnest desire for eternal life, but he sensed that he still lacked something.  So he continues to press Christ for an 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 heaven; and come, follow Me."  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.  To be perfect, according to my study Bible, one must willingly sacrifice all and follow Christ.  There is nothing gained except that this sacrifice is made freely.  The specifics of how one will do this will be different for every person in following Christ.  In this man's case, wealth had a great grip on his life.  Therefore Jesus teaches him that his hope is to sell and give away all his possessions.  St. John Chrysostom says 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.

 

 Earlier in St. Matthew's Gospel, Jesus has made several references to amputation, or self-mutilation.  These are analogous to the concept of separating from ourselves habits, proclivities, personal choices, forms of passion that get in the way of our salvation, of our union with Christ.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of the statute against adultery, but took it further in His teachings to speak about the lust that leads to adultery.  In this vein, He taught, "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart," indicating to us that there is a chain of events in terms of the breaking of a statute or law.  Then He told the crowd of His disciples, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell" (Matthew 5:27-30).  As we commented on that, and subsequent passages in which Jesus used the same analogy for decisive personal action to prevent sin, Jesus speaks of an eye that looks with lust or covetousness, or a hand that reaches where it shouldn't go. He used the same type of illustration to speak warnings against abuses of "little ones" in the Church as He taught the disciples about leadership and greatness in chapter 18.  He warned, "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea."  And again, to illustrate the serious point about cutting off personal impulses that lead to violations or offenses, He said, "If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire" (Matthew 18:6; 8-9).  His focus is on our internal state as prevention of sin, so that we deal with our passions which lead to sin before the violation of a commandment of religious law.  In this light, we must examine His teaching for this rich young man who comes to Him in earnest, whom St. Mark tells us Jesus loved in giving him the advice we read today to give up his wealth (see Mark 10:21).  To emphasize the point regarding the internal life in the previous passages we've cited, we note that this rich young ruler has followed the commandments of the Law all of his life.  But Jesus finds something hindering his entrance into the kingdom of heaven, an attachment to his wealth that will prove a stumbling block to following Christ in all things.  We don't know why this wealth is a problem; this is not a moral lesson.  This man is doing nothing immoral with his wealth, and Jesus does not condemn owning wealth as sin.  But his attachment, his passion for what he owns, is a stumbling block to eternal life.  Perhaps, as he's called a ruler, he's one of the powerful families in Jerusalem, and his wealth is connected to family and social status and personal identity so that it's like removing an eye or hand or foot to part with his wealth.  But nonetheless, this is what Jesus calls on him to do.  Regardless of how little or how many possessions we have, we can understand the difficulty in being told to give away all that we have.  However, as St. John Chrysostom says, that is the easier part; the harder part is afterward following Christ in all things, as many monastics have sought to do.  The real aim here is the kingdom of God, and the eternal life Christ preaches, His gospel, and how we find it.  Out of love for him Jesus has taught this young man to give away his wealth to the poor, and follow Him.  It is another kind of illustration of the decisive and difficult action we may be called upon to take to follow Christ's path for us, to separate from ourselves the things we might even cherish but which nonetheless hold us back, keep us from the life He offers to us.  Let us take this sobering example to heart, for the Cross is for all of us; it just comes in different forms for each.  But it is the way of Christ, the way we need out of this worldly life to the one He offers us, the treasure in heaven He promises.