At any rate, it got me thinking about it.
The story of the Rich Young Ruler is found in three of the four gospels, as well as the apocryphal text "Gospel of Hebrews." It was apparently an important enough incident to reference multiple times. Each of the traditional three tellings are also extremely similar - a few changes in words, a few details added here and there, but overall, the message is the same.
The rich young ruler approaches Christ, and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Christ reviews the commandments with him. This rich young ruler states that he has done those things. He has kept the commandments. The Gospel of Mark, at this point, adds a detail the others do not. Verse 21 reads, "Jesus, looking at him, loved him..."
Here we have a young man who has kept the commandments. Rather than a "rich young man," could we not call him a "righteous" young man? (We obviously don't, cause the Bible's full of those, and it would be hard to know what righteous man people were talking about.) But for the sake of my telling, I'm going to call him the righteous young man, because it makes him real. It helps us see why Jesus loved him.
Of all the people to seek out to ask a question of the soul to, this young man finds Christ. Mark additionally adds the detail that the young man "ran up and knelt before Him." This young man knows who has the words of eternal life. He is going to the correct source to find knowledge and an answer to the question that matters the absolute most. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" This is a RIGHTEOUS, discerning man, who genuinely cares about doing what is right.
It's easy to love him. Jesus loved him. Something in this righteous young man's eyes when he reported that he had kept all the commandments since his youth, and still wanted to know what more he could do, made him lovable. Perhaps it was his sincerity.
Christ's answer to this young man was not what he expected, however. "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
The young man goes away grieving, and Christ's disciples are a little freaked out. "Greatly astounded," would be the translation the Bible likes, but my interpretation is "freaked out." This righteous young man who has kept the commandments all of his life walks away, obviously bummed. Something about the way he walked away likely made it clear that he had no intention of following Christ's suggestion. Did he let out an almighty "Pffff!" and roll his eyes? Or was it an "Ugh..." with a casual shoulder shrug and slinking away embarrassed that he'd even asked? Something about his walking away made the disciples who watched become "astounded."
Christ speaks, telling His disciples that it is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." Perhaps he mutters this, still watching this righteous young man trudging away, kicking the dirt up at his feet.
The astounded disciples ask Christ, "Then who can be saved?" If a righteous young man who has kept the commandments his entire life is not on the "saved" boat, how does a former tax collector for the Romans stand a chance, they wondered. Is ANYONE going to be saved, if not this righteous kid?
Verse 26 reads, "But Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible."
The disciples, ever worried about their own standing in heaven, begin to worry about their own treasures and repayment for their worldly sacrifices in the eternities, but you can pretty much end the story here. The rest of Christ's words are for the disciples. This is the end of the story for the Righteous Young Man, however.
Often, when we talk about this story, we like to focus on the camel bit - the riches bit. It is difficult for rich people to make it to Heaven, we tell each other. Perhaps to fit the camel through the needle, you discuss the need to unburden the camel of its load, so it can kneel and fit through the needle - which is, in fact, a door. You talk about this at length - the symbolism of unloading money off your back so you can be humble enough to get to heaven, despite being rich.
But I think we focus on this one righteous young man's weakness so much that we fail to recognize that the one thing this young man lacked might not be the thing that we lack. We might, in fact, lack something else. Focusing on the difficulties of riches, we have missed a very important message.
Christ's ultimate suggestion, for this young man, was to "come, follow me." Getting rid of his riches was just the one thing that would have prevented him from following Christ. This man was righteous. Money (and likely position) was the only thing stopping him from fully committing his life to following Christ. But his trials do not represent all of our trials?
I've been asking myself what it is that stops me from committing my life, wholly, to following Christ, and being a true disciple of Him. I don't think I'm doing half bad, to be honest. I don't have major sins, and like the righteous young man, I think, with a little pondering, I could answer that I have kept the commandments. (I might say, "And repented when I haven't," but God's already forgiven those.) For a lot of us, we're really not doing half bad, if you look at it sincerely.
I mentioned that this account is also given in the apocryphal Gospel of Hebrews. It's pretty much the same, with some more specific chastisement about the man not using his riches to help those dying of hunger. The question that the righteous young man asks of the Savior is different, however, and I love it. He doesn't ask what he must do to have eternal life. In the Gospel of Hebrews he asks, "What good thing must I do really to live?"
What stops ME from living? What stops ME from experiencing the freedom, peace, and power that comes from truly living in Christ? What lack I yet?
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