Mt 19:21 - do we believe Jesus?

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fred_conty said:
I believe that the young man wanted to advance closer to God.
Jesus presented him with that opportunity, He gave him a special higher calling.
Happens all the time even today. No one is obligated to answer that higher call.
He turned it down. Other people turn it down for all sorts of reasons.
It doesn’t sound like Jesus was condemning him for refusing. Being rich
is not wrong but there may be some disadvantages at times. But just think,
he may have been invited to be the 13th apostle.

Just a thought.
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I find this post to be somewhat troubling.
While I agree that Jesus did not condemn the young man, why would he since the young man might still change, I think that you tend to downplay the dangers of riches in view of what follows the encounter…Jesus states…
“Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
This seems to indicate a bit more than just some “disadvantages at times”…

That said, I must agree that Jesus is constantly calling us to something higher and that many of us fail to answer this call - are unable to - for whatever reason.
What Jesus calls us to is perfection (Mt 5:48) and that is what he offered the rich young man…a path by which he could pursue that perfection.

Peace
James
 
JRKH said:
What Jesus calls us to is perfection (Mt 5:48) and that is what he offered the rich young man…a path by which he could pursue that perfection.

Peace
James
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I keep thinking it comes down to a fairly straightforward choice: what do we want more? Jesus or stuff? I know it sounds too simplistic, but…

We want it all. We want comfort here and freedom from suffering and respect of others and and… we want to go to Heaven. Money can buy us a lot of the first set of things we want, and if we have wealth we try to convince ourselves we can have both.

But in my experience earthly wanting is never satisfied. And while it’s very big, the earth is a closed system, the resources are limited. That means: the more I have, the less someone else has.

Advent is almost here. As we wait for the Lord, how do we want Him to find us? What gift can we give Him?
 
First, I would like to comment on the reading about the ‘Rich Young Man’ (Mt 19:16-30), which we recently discussed in our bible study (‘Matthew’ - Great Adventure Series). Jesus is addressing the man’s question, what good thing must he do to gain eternal life. Jesus responds first by questioning the man’s understanding of goodness as only external obedience. Jesus reminds him that goodness has to do with who we are, our heart attitudes, not just what we do. Then, he proceeds to tell him to keep the commandments.

He lists these commandments:

‘You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother’; and ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

To which the man replies that he has kept all these commandments. Notice, though, how Jesus does not list all of the commandments? Which ones does he leave out that are pertinent to the Rich man?

Jesus leaves out these 2 commandments pertinent to the man’s situation:

“You shall have no other gods before me”
“you shall not covet”

Why did Jesus not mention them?

Jesus may not have mentioned them so as to draw attention to them and emphasize what was lacking in the young man. His heart was fixed on his possessions, so much, that he could not bring himself to part with them, even for eternal life. Wealth has become his god and is holding him back.
 
The second thing I wanted to share was my thoughts on Jesus’ call to share with the poor, his sense of justice. The more I read the gospels the more I see this sense of justice. Take for example the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Jesus speaks of the injustice of the rich man who had everything he wanted to live a comfortable life, yet would not share with the poor beggar that lived on his steps. This wounds God’s sense of justice to see this unfair treatment.

When you think about it, doesn’t it wound our sense of justice too? Here is a man who has everything and he lives beside a man who has nothing. Why doesn’t the rich man share with the poor beggar? For whatever reason he is selfish and thinks nothing of the injustice he is committing. We see in the parable this injustice being righted in the next life where the rich man is suffering in Hades while Lazarus is in the ‘bosom of Abraham’.

The readings of the gospel today at church (Mt 25) - ‘whatever you have done for the least of my brothers…, etc’, again show divine justice at work. I don’t think this is a call for us to go out and try to ‘earn’ our salvation by doing good works as it is a call for us to learn how to love others. Fear of punishment can get us moving in the right direction, but it is really love that sustains us. And, to realize God’s sense of justice which means treating others fairly.

When Jesus says it is difficult for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, I take that to mean that it is difficult because the rich man is often rich because he has lived his life oriented to the acquisition of wealth. He has made money his god. So he breaks the first commandment. And, secondly, he does not share this wealth with his neighbor. He covets his neighbors goods.

You might say how does he covet his neighbors goods? Those possessions are his own. The rich often get rich off the backs of the poor. The rich man did not help Lazarus because he was not willing to help the poor, to give what was due to him. He was hoarding his wealth. This flies in the face of our culture which says ‘its mine. i earned it. i don’t have to give it to anyone.’ Jesus shows us that the stuff we own is not really ours to keep for ourselves alone. We can’t take any of it with us when we die. We are meant to share it with others so that we will have treasure in heaven.
 
“2443 God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them: “Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you”; “you received without pay, give without pay.” It is by what they have done for the poor that Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones. When “the poor have the good news preached to them,” it is the sign of Christ’s presence.”

"2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.”“The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity”:

When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice."

scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a7.htm#VI
 
I believe we are being too down on that young man. He was being called to a vocation
to follow Jesus. He simply said I can’t do it. Admittedly it was because he had
money, that is what a higher vocation calls for: poverty, chastity, obedience.
Nothing wrong with what he did for turning down a higher vocation. Jesus gave
him a call and it was the young man’s choice to accept or refuse. Don’t we all the time
pray for more vocations? And that means so that more will accept his call.

If he had to do it out of obligation, that is to give up his money, then how many of us
are giving up all our money to follow him? Is it that that demanding of everyone? Apply this principle to ourselves and then we will see it differently.

Besides it did say that Jesus looked upon him with much love. And in addition, the man was observing all the commandments. How many of us are doing that?

Maybe we should think of him as the uncanonized saint who loved Jesus anyway.

Just a thought.
 
fisherman_carl said:
First, I would like to comment on the reading about the ‘Rich Young Man’ (Mt 19:16-30), which we recently discussed in our bible study (‘Matthew’ - Great Adventure Series). Jesus is addressing the man’s question, what good thing must he do to gain eternal life. Jesus responds first by questioning the man’s understanding of goodness as only external obedience. Jesus reminds him that goodness has to do with who we are, our heart attitudes, not just what we do…
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If we take the version of the story in the older book of Mark, and the version in Matthew, the references are quite short and specific:

**Mark 10:17-18 **As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good?*No one is good but God alone.

Matthew 19:16-17 Now someone approached him and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?”* He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good.*

I don’t think that Jesus means anything but exactly what He said: only God is good. The young man asked what good he could do. The simple answer is: none.

Neither I nor any other human person is good or ever was or will be. All the good is of God, from God, through God. If we manage to be used to effect some good, it is our privilege to be witnesses to God’s work through us.

We can stop the good, we can put things in the way of the good, but only God is good.
 
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