The rich young ruler and me
Some of the saddest pictures in the Gospels are of those who liked Jesus but couldn’t trust him enough to follow him. One of the most powerful and arresting stories in this vein is the story of ‘The Rich Ruler,’ as many Bible versions label it. This subhead is unfortunate because it leads most of us to think the story doesn’t have anything to do with us. After all, we’re not rulers, we wouldn’t consider ourselves rich, and we’d never claim that we had obeyed all the commandments, as he did. Accordingly, I always pictured this spoiled and sanctimonious boy-king who gets his comeuppance when Jesus shows him to be the greedy sinner he really is. I thought this until I carefully read the story, and then what I mostly saw was me.
- Gary Haugen, Just Courage
Since reading Haugen’s reflections on the young man, I too have come to see myself in him. He knew who Jesus was, and he adored him. He ran to Jesus and fell on his knees before him (Mark 10:17). He addressed Jesus as ‘Good teacher’. His heart was drawn to the things of God, and he knew Christ had the answers he was seeking; he recognized that Christ could give him eternal life. When Christ told him to obey the commandments – to not murder, steal, or lie and to honor his parents and love his neighbors – he claimed to have kept them, and Christ found no reason to show him where he failed. He was a devout follower of Christ.
I can say with him, “All these I have kept since I was a child.” Yet I know I haven’t entered into the fullness of living eternal life now. I know there must be more than this.
But this earnest, extraodinarily devout believer is restless. He feels he has done what his religious tradition has taught him to do, but in the presence of Jesus it just doesn’t feel satisfying. In fact, after affirming his compliance with the basics of the law, the young man asks, ‘What do I still lack?’ (Matthew 19:20). He knows his own personal piety is not enough. He knows there must be more to truly enter the kingdom of God. The young man asked the question, so Jesus cuts to the chase. He takes the young man right up to his particular boundary of fear and invites him to cross it: ‘If you want to be perfect,’ Jesus replies, ‘go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’ (Matthew 19:21).
The young man walked away sad. He wanted to do more than just obey the commandments – just keep from sin – but Jesus demanded too much. The young man wanted significance, and he could have found it in Christ. He could have really entered into eternal life, but instead he walked away sad.
How often I make the same, wrong decision! I know there must be more than just keeping a few commandments, and I ask Christ what it really means to start living eternally now. Yet when he answers my question with a call to the eternal living I seek, I walk away sad, and find myself at the same crossroads again and again.
I just started Gary Haugen’s Just Courage.
I always thought the phrase about the rich young ruler, “He walked away sorrowful, because he had many possessions,” was a strangely ironic and poignant statement. Would he have been willing to follow Jesus if he had been poor, with little to give up?
But your remarks bring the story close to home, and I can certainly identify with what you say. I fear I come off worse than the rich ruler, for I probably allow less valuable and less important things to keep me from fully embracing the life Jesus offers.