“[The
rich young ruler] came and said to Jesus, ‘Good teacher, what good thing shall
I do that I may have eternal life?’ Jesus replied, ‘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 … [and] if you want to be perfect, go
and sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in
heaven. Then come and follow Me.” Matthew
19:16-17, 21-22 NKJV
‘If
you want to enter into life, keep the commandments …” Wait,
what?? But St. Paul said …
And
here we go. Too often Christians look for any biblical excuse to be found
to just be “saved” or “justified”; that is, forgiven without regard to any
other. Divine mercy is a mystery no one will ever be able to put into
human words, but Jesus is not speaking exclusively about that one thing, that
one event, nor is He offering an easy way out of social responsibility.
And notice this: Jesus is rejecting the notion that “family comes first” in the
most definitive terms because if we get rid of all we have, there is nothing
left for us or for our families!
Rather
than focus strictly on what Jesus may be rejecting (or trying to use St. Paul
as a way out!), we should look more closely at what Jesus is offering – yes –
in the ‘law’; that dreaded, cursed ‘law’ St. Paul declares we are no longer
under. “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
But, the young man asks, “Which ones?” Which commandments? Jesus
lists some of the “Ten”, but then He wraps it up with “You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.”
The
fullness of the love of God is expressed in our obedience to Him even if we do
not fully understand why. We cannot use St. Paul as an excuse not to be
diligent about The Lord’s statutes and ordinances (especially because Paul does
not offer excuses!). Our failure is not strictly defined by a rejection
of The Lord’s instruction itself; rather our failure is defined by our refusal
to understand that “entering into life” is not about “me” – it is about our
“neighbor”, and that defined by Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan.
What we often fail to understand is that the ‘law’ (our word) is not about how
well “me” can obey; it is entirely about how deeply we can love The Lord – and
this is expressed by how faithfully we attend to one another, including the
“stranger”, the “foreigner”.
One
final thought. Jesus told the man, “if you want to be perfect …”
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commands that “you shall
be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). So we are
to look more carefully and closely at what perfection means, what it really
looks like, to be in love with The Lord. We cannot claim to love Jesus if
we treat our ‘neighbor’ with disdain lest we be exposed as “liars” (1 John 2:4).
Jesus
is clear: don’t worry about “getting saved”. Worry more about your
‘neighbor’, and see to their comfort. Give them all you have to give, “and
you will have treasure in Heaven.”
Blessings,
Michael
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