The Rich Young Ruler 3/9/49
Scripture: Mark 10: 17-27
During these Wednesday Lenten services we are considering some of the faces that appeared before the Master. We chose this theme in the belief that a thoughtful examination of those who appeared before our Lord then might give us guidance as we try to come more closely before Him again in our time.
Last week the Rev. Mr. Feldt presented a character picture of a tax-gatherer, a Publican as such were called, named Zaccaeus. The notable thing about the character of Zacchaeus, painted as it is with just a few swift artistic strokes in the book of Luke alone, is that he became a radically changed man. This week I want to discuss with you the account of a man who appeared before Jesus but, pathetically enough, was not changed. I refer to that rich young ruler whose story is told in all three of the synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
The picture of this young fellow, though his name is not given, is painted in greater detail than is that of Zaccaeus. Unlike the universally hated Publican, this young fellow was a highly respectable person, a man of position, a synagogue ruler. He seems to have been a man of wealth. More than this, he was a man of great earnestness and enthusiasm. Further, he seems to have been devoid of that pride which ruins some people of his position and to have had some of that wholesome humility which characterizes free, democratic people.
Instead of designating an appointed time when he would give audience to the carpenter’s son, he went to see the Nazarene himself. He even ran to meet Jesus on the way, knelt to Him, called Him by the unusual name, “Good Teacher,” and asked sincerely what he might do further than he was then doing to inherit eternal life.
His earnestness appealed greatly to Jesus. It was such eager men that Jesus wanted greatly at that hour. They must have been singularly attracted to each other; the young man of ability, earnestness, and strategic position and the also young Nazarene teacher. It was a beautiful meeting of fair, frank youth with a wise, calm teacher. Yet the charm of youth in no wise changes the judgment of the Teacher. Precisely because He immediately loved him, Jesus made an exacting demand. Having examined him as to the Commandments, which the young man knew and scrupulously kept, Jesus told him that he lacked one important thing. He ought to sell his possessions and give to the poor, find his treasure in heaven, and then come and follow the Master. The story says that the young man’s countenance fell and he went away sorrowful. He was not changed.
Now this is not an easy story to read. Especially is it not a tasty morsel for most of us Americans, Christian and otherwise. For we are a people of considerable possessions. And we wince painfully when someone seems to suggest that we all - at least those who would like to be sincerely Christian - get rid of what we own and become as poor as Francis of Assisi or as the Master himself seems to have been. And in this frame of mind we find the reading tougher yet in the comment which Jesus is reported to have made after the young man had gone. The disciples were frankly surprised that Jesus had not been so tactful as to enlist such a promising and influential fellow among their number. And they were surprised at Jesus’ remarks concerning riches.
Luke says that Jesus went on to exclaim, “How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And then all three of the gospel writers report Jesus’ saying that “It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Should not we Americans tremble before the judgment of such a saying!
Well I think we should. Wealth is a power. And power is something to be handled on our knees! The appalling thing about power is the way it is used for the selfish interest of those who wield it- to their own ultimate destruction. The glorious thing about power is the selfless way it can be used for the glory of God and the good of all, to the ultimate salvation of all. But this latter, hopeful and glorious use of power is possible only in the hands of people who are changed from worldly self-concern to a passionate Godly concern.
Now let us look at the picture of Jesus and this rich young ruler again. For one thing, let us observe what is not in the picture. There are simple and impulsive minds whose first observation on this story is that wealth is evil and the person who has it is an evil person. Didn’t Jesus say that it is harder for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through a needle’s eye? Any simpleton knows that even the tiniest new-born camel couldn’t do that! So doesn’t that conclusively place all wealthy people outside the kingdom of heaven?
Some literalists are so concerned over this that they clutch eagerly at the notion that one of the tiny gates in a city wall of that day, through which it was hard for a loaded camel to squeeze, was called the “needle’s eye.” And so they concede, the rich man’s lot at this point is hard but if he really pushes hard enough and doesn’t try to get through too heavily loaded he may make it yet!
Personally I am of the opinion that this entirely misses the point of what Jesus was teaching and still tries to teach us today. Like any other Oriental, particularly of that time and place, Jesus expressed some of His most powerful ideas in poetic form. The business of trying to estimate how much wealth a man must have to be hopelessly rich and doomed or how little he may have to be hopefully poor and saved is beside the point, and I for one do not see it in the picture we are now examining.
Furthermore, Jesus did not say that it is hard for a rich man to get to heaven. He said: “How hard it is for them that trust in riches - whose dependence is on their material wealth - to enter into the kingdom of God.” Now the picture takes on a more vivid, realistic quality! Now it has a lesson for everyone, rich or poor. They that trust in wealth, that depend on riches - why that might mean anyone! And as a matter of fact it does mean anyone.
The world of individuals and of nations writhes continuously in the struggle to get wealth, to get power, to achieve the comfort, the position, the attention, the pleasure that someone else has, or may have. Unhappy China has largely repudiated a party which represented a great hope 20 years ago, but rotted with selfish corruption. And large portions of that land have already consented to try another party whose record is becoming more and more clearly seen as power-thirsty and ruthless rather than democratic at heart. There is no salvation in either! The only salvation I see for China or her people is in the Christ-spirit of those who are willing to live as sacrificially as necessary in love.
Now consider another aspect of this portrait of a rich young ruler. Jesus himself by this time was having to work swiftly. He was moving about from place to place. Unlike a University professor or a church pastor who can be found in a certain place for some time while people come and go to and form classroom or study, Jesus was moving about over great distances. How could a man follow Him, learn from Him, have the companionship with Him which was absolutely necessary, if he had to keep running back home to supervise his property? Jesus was looking for a group of devoted “called” followers who could be remade into apostles for God in a short time. His closest disciples - the men who ultimately became so changed as to build the fires of His Church in the hearts of others - had to be nomads with Him. There might be a practical slant on Jesus’ requirement of this particular young man - “Go, sell and come, follow.”
But the most important thing in the picture for us to perceive is a sense of proportion. If we are to enter into the kingdom of heaven - that realm of well-being and happiness which under God can be here and now as well as hereafter - we must get our preoccupation with wealth and power, possession and influence, changed. We must be changed until we see what is more important.
Last night I was tired and so for the first time this year I went to a motion picture show. I took the picture “blind” without the slightest notion as to what it would be like. Fortunately for me it turned out to be a very good story about a young couple who were going to school - a GI and his nineteen-year-old bride, and their life in the attic apartment of a retired professor’s home.
While they were at table talking with the breeze and speed of youth about things philosophical, the young man wanting to prepare for teaching but annoyed over having so little to live on and support his wife while studying, the wife asked him for a half dollar. Holding it close to one of his eyes and demanding that he close the other eye she asked him, “What do you see?” “My half dollar,” he replied. Moving about 4 feet away she continued to hold the half dollar in view and again asked him what he saw. “Still my half dollar,” he said. “What else?” asked his wife. “Well, you and the professor here and the chair over there and the windows and the walls.” “Exactly,” piped the shrewd little woman as she flipped the coin into her blouse pocket. “When you get it far enough away from your eye you can see a lot of other things with it in its proper place.”
How he got his half dollar back is another part of the story which followed immediately! The point which the young wife made is the one pertinent to our purpose here. The perspective in which we see our dollars, our wealth, our possessions is the important thing. Do we see all of life and goodness whole, with the dollar doing only its part to promote the importance of living? Or do we stand so close to it that we can’t see around it?
I heard a good speech this noon in which a doctor called attention to the fact that the Negro of our South has to live on a fraction (perhaps no more than a third on the average) of the return on which we Caucasians of the North may live. The Negro consequently has more disease, higher infant mortality, fewer doctors to care for him and so on through the rest of the story. If we like our dollar so well and stand so close to it that we can’t or won’t see the need of God’s people down there we just pass the ammunition to our Communist enemies. For they thrive on our foolish and selfish shortsightedness. I have great respect for those doctors who see that thing clearly, who take practical steps to assure the training of more doctors for the Negroes, and take the steps that will keep medical service there available for all.
Now the reason that I have talked about changed people and have lamented the fact that the rich young ruler was not changed is that the only truly effective use of our possessions for ultimate good is their use in love - no so-called “enlightened self-interest,” but in love. And when it comes to our possessions most of us have to learn love.
An Oriental Christian of our time has this very thoughtful word to say, and I commend it to your attention: “I am profoundly convinced that aside from the practice of redeeming love, there is no way to dedicate our capital, our machines, and our social order to God. This love alone can build an unexploited economic order. The consciousness of this love alone can create a cooperative community and a national and international life where there shall be no sense of color. Therefore, even though the nations of the West turn their backs on Christ, I stake my all on the adventure to realize Christ’s redemptive love in the total life of my land.”
I do not see that Jesus directly attacked the general order of His day, except that He did long to see the house of prayer purified of men’s greed. But he unrelentingly demanded that total change in men’s lives which can free all of their powers for good. Through changed people the order at length becomes transformed. And in blessed, loving freedom, men then find the kingdom of heaven.
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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, March 9, 1949 (Wednesday Union Lenten service).