commentary concerned wealth

Steven_J said...

When Jesus confronted the rich young ruler, though, he didn't insist "no, you can't have followed the commandments; have you ever told a lie? lusted after a woman in your heart? Stolen anything no matter how cheap or trivial?" Nor did he tell the young man that a perfectly just God was obliged to punish him with an eternity in Hell, but that Jesus was going to take his punishment (an admittedly really bad weekend) for him. Rather, Jesus told the young man to sell all that he had, give the money to the poor, and follow Jesus. Jesus' commentary on the event to his disciples concerned wealth, not lust, angry words, or even pride, or even evolution. I'm not convinced that the point of this story is quite the point you wish to place upon it.


Steven,

I'm quite convinced that the point of this account is not the point you wish to make of it.

Jesus identified something that the rich young man placed priority on before Jesus. The young man was unwilling to put Jesus first. The man placed his first priority on his material possessions. Jesus was pointing out that following him required the rich young man to re-order his priorities.

The account tells us that the man came to Jesus wanting to know what he should do "to inherit eternal life". The man knelt before Jesus, and called him "good teacher". It wasn't described in the account as the kind of confrontation ("when Jesus confronted") that you make it out to be in your retelling.

Jesus tells the man what he must do: "follow me".

Before Jesus says "follow me", he first points out that no one is "good" except God. He also points out that the commandments are the guide by which we can evaluate whether we can consider ourselves "good" or not.

Jesus lists five of the commandments. (The same five commandments are listed in the three gospel accounts, Matthew's account has one additional commandment, as does Luke's account. Clearly, the point is not that there are exactly five or six commandments that must be kept.)

One commandment Jesus does not list verbatim here the "greatest" commandment of all: "Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind." (Matthew 22:37), the whole of the Law summed up: "You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind." (Luke 10:27)

This is the commandment that the rich young ruler sees that he cannot keep. He goes away saddened, not because Jesus has not told him what he must do, no, but because he has chosen to break this greatest commandment by putting something else first before his obedience to God.

Jesus remarks about this event to his disciples was not a comment about "wealth" as you suggest.

Rather, if you read the account a little more carefully, you will see that Jesus is actually commenting on the difficulty that rich people have in making Jesus their number one priority. The rich young ruler chose first to hold on to his accumulated material possessions, rather than first choosing to follow Jesus.