I guarantee the most common question every pastor hears after this passage gets read is, "So is Jesus telling me to sell everything I have and give the money to the poor?" In fairness, most of the time the question comes not from avarice and greed but from concern about how to survive without money for food or a home to stay in, but it does seem to the first thought in everyone's mind when they listen to Jesus say it to this young wealthy man.
Earlier in my career, I would often try to explain things in the passage like its context and listening with intent and stuff like that. Now I just say, "I don't know what Jesus is asking you to do. What do you think?"
Jesus met a lot of wealthy people during his ministry and some of those meetings are described in the gospels. He doesn't tell all of them to sell their goods and give the money to the poor, so we don't even know what he wanted all the rich people he met to do, let alone what he wants us to do. All we know is that he wants this young man, who has asked what he must do to have eternal life above and beyond full and faithful obedience to the commandments, to do.
That's not a cop out. You've probably heard people say, "Well, I'm not what you call rich so I don't really need to pay attention to this one." In 2015 people making minimum wage in the United States made twice the highest average wage of any nation on the entire continent of Africa. The average annual wage in the US ($29,930) is four times as high as that figure, $7,750 in Botswana. "I'm not really rich" is a cop out. "I don't know what Jesus would like you to give up" isn't.
We can see why Jesus selected wealth as the thing that this young man needed to consider giving away when we see his response. He is sad, because he has many possessions. Jesus perceives this about him and that's probably why he directs him to do what he does. He accepts the man at face value, as a sincere seeker of the truth and gives him what he needs to know.
When we sincerely seek Jesus, he does the same for us. Even though we may not be directed to divest ourselves of possessions and wealth, there is something -- probably a bunch of somethings -- we hold that come between us and full commitment to following Jesus. If we listen to him, we can learn what they are.
Because that's how we find them out. The wealthy young man didn't know what he lacked but the fact that he questioned Jesus meant that he knew he lacked something. When we rely on our own understanding to figure out what holds us back from the path of Jesus we can find ourselves in the middle of extravagantly detailed systems of legalisms that do everything but light our way to the Lord. We create joy-sapping jumbles of rules that produce worry and anxiety but absolutely no love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
And we do it because we think this is what makes Jesus happy, but we never ask Jesus if it's what we ought to do! "Lord, I've given up watching football on Sunday afternoon because I think my enjoyment of it gets in the way of following you. I really liked watching Patrick Mahomes bring his team back from three touchdowns down, but since I am sure this is what you want..."
And Jesus replies, "Actually, I'm kind of partial to big comebacks. When did I tell you to do that?"
"Um, you didn't. I just assumed..."
Our perspectives and understanding are limited. We, as Paul says, know in part and see in part. Our limitations keep us from seeing ourselves as God sees us, and it is only God's vision that can reveal to us what holds us back. From our point of view, the obstacle created by the young man's wealth seems clear -- but it didn't to him, and our own obstacles are not clear to us. The only way we can know what holds us back from answering Jesus' call and following him is to ask.
And then listen to him.
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