The Rich Man Lacking One Thing
Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
October 14, 2018
So I want to start off by setting the record straight: there is no gate in Jerusalem called the eye of the needle. In the medieval ages that was the way some churchmen tried to explain away this hard saying in today’s Gospel – like a camel could get through the Jerusalem gate called the Eye of the Needle if the camel came in or out of the city unencumbered. That’s not true actually. The real history on that saying is that it was a commonly known type of phrase to indicate impossibility – like the one employed by the Jewish writers of the Talmud who similarly talked about the likeliness of an elephant walking through an eye of the needle. It is hyperbole, a common rhetoric device in our scriptures. Like we might say – I got absolutely no sleep, I have a million things to do, I’m so hungry I could eat a horse. It is an exaggerated phrase that grabs our attention.
And this hyperbole functions as a call to wake us up – to remind us that all that we have is by God’s grace alone. But the previous part of the story, the story of the rich man tells us that that is not the end of the story. That there is an equipoise, a balance of forces that our lives of faith rely on a balance between God’s abundant grace and our human responsibility.[i]
This story is not about wealth. Well, it’s not only about wealth. It is really about attachment to wealth. The way I understand it is what Jesus is concerned about is the Rich Man’s heart. The Rich Young Man comes up to Jesus and kneels before him, knowing that there is something lacking in his life. He’s done everything faithfully – followed all the commandments since his youth but he can’t help feel that there is something that is keeping him from eternal life. “What Jesus must I do?” he pleads. Jesus says – this is what you “lack” – your attachment to your wealth is keeping you from the kingdom. And I don’t know if you noticed – it says Jesus loved that Rich Man. He loved him. Loved him. Just as he was – he loved him. That’s God’s grace right there. Jesus was doing as much as Jesus could to reach out to the Rich Young Man, but now it is the Rich Man’s turn – he’s got to loosen his grip on his wealth because in his case, he can’t have both his tremendous wealth and eternal life.
Now is this an absolute? Does Jesus mean to tell us we all need to give all of our possessions away to follow him? Well no – and here is Biblical proof. In Luke’s Gospel there is a lovely, charming story in chapter 19 about a short man called Zaccheus. We learn he’s so short that he has to climb a sycamore tree so he can get a good look at Jesus. Zaccheus is a very wealthy tax collector from Jericho – and when Jesus sees him at the top of that tree, Jesus tells him “hey Zaccheus – I’m spending the night at your house.” And Zaccheus of his own free will, with no suggestion from Jesus, says that he will give away half his possessions to help the poor, and if he says if he has cheated anyone, he will pay them back double what he owes them. And Jesus does not tell him that it is not enough – rather he commends Zaccheus’ faith. And that is because what Zaccheus does is what he needs to do to follow Christ.
And this all goes back to what Jesus said: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6.21). Our treasure consists of three things – it’s your time, talent, treasure (i.e. money). Where you invest these three things – your heart’s there too.
And so what I think this reading of the rich man invites us to think about is what we are attached to, what we are connected to, and does that represent our priorities and our values. He invites us to consider where is our heart?
Last during our 10am service I mentioned in passing the life of St. Francis. And I would just like to refer to him once more – it is something I read about just this last week. Almost 50 years ago a film called, “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” directed by Franco Zeffirelli, came out and was about the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis was born and raised in a wealthy and privileged (and religiously observant) family who were involved in the lucrative fine fabric trade. And in a major turning point in the film, Francis stands before the entire town, including his parents and the local bishop, and he strips off his clothes, and then walks off into the mountains to live among the poor as a beggar. Francis is responding to a call that has troubled him since he returned, ill with fever, from the adventure of fighting in a war between petty nobles.
Francis realizes that his life before the war no longer makes sense. He feels his soul being pulled toward a different way of living, a radical giving up of everything that could have been easily his, a turning away from the comfortable path that has been laid out before him. Francis was not just ill; his heart was hungry and thirsty and lost. [ii] His conversion comes from a lack, a hunger for a different life.
And so what the story of St. Francis asks us, what the story of the Rich Man invites us to ask ourselves what are we lacking.? The Greek word in this passage is: what are you ὑστερεῖ· What are hungry for? What do you lack?
In this passage ὑστερεῖ· does not mean complete lack – it means is “the unfulfilled remainder to complete the correct observance of the commandments”. [iii] I love this nuance. It invites us to consider – what is the unfulfilled remainder that is being called for in us – to be able to receive God’s grace more fully. Is it a more discipline of prayer? Is it church attendance? Is it your finances? Is it your fear? Is it guilt or anger? Is it the need to always be in control and always to be autonomous?
And so I invite you this week, just for a moment, to imagine what might Jesus say to you if you said to Jesus “I’m a pretty good person, I try to be and be good and do good, I pray, I go to church and I give of my time, talent and money. So what’s the next step Jesus – what do I need to let go of, take on, or take up to be more aware of your grace in my life?”
[i] Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol 4, C. Clifton Black, 2009, p. 169
[ii] These two paragraphs are a near quote from Sermon Seeds: http://www.ucc.org/worship_samuel_sermon_seeds_october_14_2018
[iii] Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Kittel, 1968, vol 8, p. 593
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