Monday, December 14, 2009

A litmus test of grace

Like most Christians, the story of the rich young ruler (RYR) has always made me squirm. He wants to know how to inherit eternal life and is told to give everything away and follow Jesus. The disciples are then scared, since for them the RYR's riches are a sure demonstration of his righteousness and God's favor. If he can't have eternal life, they surely are out of luck.

Jesus comfort for his disciples is that God can do what's impossible for us. Which is a comfort only if you know God is planning to show you that mercy!

In history there's been enough squirming about this passage that by the 4th century Cyril of Alexandria insists that instead of kamelon (camel) the correct Greek word is the similar-sounding kamilon (rope, or cable), which he says is “not entirely pointless (as a camel would be)” but is just next to impossible. An even more heroic effort to blunt this saying came with the myth of a small gate into Jerusalem called the "Eye of the Needle"--which would make entrance into the kingdom hard, but possible. There was no such gate, though! In fact, in Jewish rabbinical literature from Babylonia, where the largest land animal was the elephant, not the camel, an elephant passing through the eye of a needle is a figure of speech for sheer impossibility.

Well, maybe if we can just avoid reading this passage more than once a year, we can cut down on our squirming. No such luck: Jesus' words about counting the cost of discipleship and surrendering all to him appear in various places, notably The Parable of the Rich Fool (who builds storehouses for his crops rather than treasures in heaven), and the conclusion to the Lilies of the Field: "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Well--then it is about priorities, right, and not specifically money? Barbara Brown Taylor says it well:

It seems to me that Christians mangle this story in at least two ways. First, by acting as if it were not about money, and second, by acting as if it were only about money.
R. H. Gundry adds, pointedly,
That Jesus did not command all his followers to sell all their possessions gives comfort only to the kind of people to whom he would give that command.
Well, if it's about money, let's be practical. If I give up all I own, then I am just placing the burden of my support on others--and I am abandoning and dependents I might have. Nor does Jesus ask all his disciples to give up all they own. True. And in fact, Luke tells us of well-to-do women in the early church who "were helping to support them out of their own means" (Lk 8:3). Still, for most of us there's a pretty large gulf between what we currently give, and giving all. Even knowing that Jesus' message is about priorities and idolatry, his warning is dire. How sure am I that I can be the one who makes it through the eye of the needle, even though I share the RYR's reluctance to part with all my possessions?

This wall is just what Jesus wanted the RYR to run into. John Calvin, with an eye toward the book of Romans, sees the rich young ruler as pursuing the righteousness of the law (Rom 10:5), rather than the saving righteousness of faith (Rom 10:6) and believes Jesus answers to suit the question:
Hence we infer, that this reply of Christ is legal, because it was proper that the young man who inquired about the righteousness of works should first be taught that no man is accounted righteous before God unless he has fulfilled the law (which is impossible) that, convinced of his weakness, he might betake himself to the assistance of faith.
In other words, Jesus, hearing the RYR ask what he could do to inherit eternal life, wanted to drive home that there's nothing you can do. And for those who missed it, he drives home the message of grace: we are totally dependent on God's mercy because what is impossible for us is possible only for God.

There can be, though, a key difference between the RYR and us. If you are a baptized member of the Body of Christ, and your love for God and neighbor (however humble) bears witness to Christ's living within you, you have eternal life. The author of 1 John, having emphasized love for neighbor, comforts his flock, says just this: "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." As Paul says in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." No final condemnation from God; and even none from this passage.

Seen rightly, this passage is a litmus test for our understanding of grace. To set our knees knocking when reading this passage is to believe that Christ's sacrifice isn't quite sufficient, and that we have to make up the deficiency with our own monetary sacrifice.

What, then, do we make of this passage? Writing in the fourth century, John Chrysostom says,
And so after Jesus had made eye contact with them, he said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." So with a pleasant and gentle look, he soothed those whose hearts were terrorized and relieved their anguish… Then he uplifted them with his words as he focused on the power of God, and thus gave them faith.

If you also want to learn the way and how the impossible becomes possible, listen. He did not make this statement that what is impossible for man is possible for God merely so you could relax and do nothing and leave it all to God. No, he said this so you could understand the importance of calling upon God to give you help in this rigorous contest and that you might more readily approach his grace.
Jesus teaching isn't meant to make us afraid or guilty, except as way to warn us of the difficulties of leaning on him when we have first-world resources at our command; and it's meant to reassure is that God will take care of us with or without those resources. In fact, ultimately, Jesus calls us in compassion to stop thinking about our needs, and focus on the needs of others. We read this passage and focus on just on the RYR, and ignore the poor standing behind him, whose need he ignores when he turns from Jesus. To read this passage with God's grace in mind, we set aside the fear, the guilt, and focus instead on those in need--what better way to show our love for Jesus? Then we will find joy and peace.

[References: Barbara Brown Taylor, The Preaching Life (sermon "The Opposite of Rich"); Chrysostom: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Matthew Vol 2, and Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew; Gundry: Walter Kaiser, Hard Sayings of the Bible; Calvin: Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke, Vol. 2. Image: Stained Glass Window in First Reformed United Church of Christ, Burlington, NC.]

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