Matthew 19:16-26
At that time, a young man came up to Jesus, kneeling and saying, “Good Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you call me good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which?” And Jesus said, “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, “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.” When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In our Gospel reading today a young man respectfully asks Jesus what he must do in order to have eternal life. And our Lord responds by telling him that he must keep the commandments.
So far, so good, you may think. We all know what the commandments are; indeed, Jesus even helpfully lists some of them, in order that there may be no doubt. All the young man has to do – and, therefore, by implication what we must do – is obey the commandments and eternal life shall be his.
One might expect the young man to be delighted with this answer. After all, as he immediately tells Jesus, he’s already doing that. But instead he presses our Lord further, asking ‘what do I still lack?’
We may pause here and wonder why it is he asks this question. A few of the Fathers, Saint Jerome for example, suspect him of hypocrisy, of trying to trick Jesus into giving an answer that can be used against him in some way, just as the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees so often tried.
But most, such as Saint John Chrysostom, believe that he is sincere. They point to the fact that elsewhere in the Gospels when this story is told that Jesus, when the young man asks this question, looks at him and loves him. This is not something that He would have done if the person asking the question was deceitful.
So, why the question? Clearly the young man recognises there is something lacking in his spiritual life. He plays by rules, he keeps the commandments, but even so he understands that this is not enough. Because of this, he asks the question; and because he asks, Jesus loves him.
Alas, the answer he receives in response to his inspired question is one he never expected. We do not know, of course, exactly what he thought Jesus might say to him. Perhaps visit the Temple or Synagogue more frequently and for longer. Perhaps devote more time to studying the Scriptures and the various commentaries written about them. Maybe even that he should become a scribe or a Pharisees himself.
Whatever he thought that Jesus might say, His actual answer came like a slap in the face: “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
And the young man goes sadly away. For he is rich, very rich. And he does want to sell everything he owns. He does not want to give away all his money. He does want to give up the kind of life he is living, the kind of life that requires a lot of money to fund it, and instead join Jesus as he travels from town to town, never knowing where he would sleep that night, never knowing where the next meal might come from.
The Fathers assure us that there is nothing sinful about being wealthy per se, so why does Jesus ask it this man to give everything away? And again looking to the Fathers for an answer, we find that while there is nothing wrong with wealth itself, when we love it above all else then we do indeed sin.
This young man wanted to know what he needed to do to gain eternal life. But when he learned what he had to do, he walked away. When he had to make the choice between earthly wealth or treasure in heaven, he chose earthly wealth. He chose that which doesn’t last over that which was eternal.
The young man may have kept the commandments, but our Lord revealed to him where Satan, by way of the passions, had him in his grip. The young man of course did not know this until Jesus told him. But once he knew, he refused to take action to free himself.
This young man’s secret passion was love of money, in other words avarice. We must consider deeply what is our own secret passion, or even perhaps passions, praying constantly forGod’s guidance. We must seek the guidance of our confessors and spiritual fathers, and listen to their counsel.
And we must not be like the young man, preferring our passions to eternal life. He was sorrowful when he heard our Lord’s answer, knowing that he would reject the path to salvation Jesus was laying out before him. I pray that it is not a sorrow you will never choose and never know. Amen.
