Rich Young Ruler
This morning’s gospel reading (Mark
But these three things are all tremendously relevant to the point Jesus is making. First of all we are told that the man is rich. More often than not at those times riches came from taking advantage of the poor. For someone to have money generally meant someone else did not.
Today material wealth is gained in many ways, and often I am pleased to say, not at the direct expense of others, but, and this is where even today things get very uncomfortable – there are many people today living in poverty. There are many people born in the wrong part of the world or in the wrong family who are really struggling with life and who are unable to help themselves.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Bob Geldof speaking at the labour party conference and his comment that 90% of children will go to bed hungry tonight and tomorrow, just as they did yesterday. Many people in the world today are starving – many even closer to home are struggling with all kinds of battles.
So there is a huge responsibility on the rich to help those less fortunate than themselves… Recently I did a little exercise on the computer where you had to input your salary into the computer – I guarantee you faithfully that a clergy salary is not wonderful, but within the whole world that put me into the top 6% of richest adults.
I know statistics need to be analysed in more depth but the general principle is that within this country we are rich compared to so many others in the world. We have huge responsibilities. As Christians we must be acting as stewards of God’s world, we must be acting as his body on earth working for all who are less fortunate than ourselves.
We can ignore the plight of those in need because we think we can’t do much to help, but if we help one person in one small way, then we have done something.
And our riches are hopefully not restricted to material riches. We also have the wonderful gift of knowing Jesus and his good news and that is another thing that we have a responsibility to share with others – rich or poor, young or old… By ourselves we will not solve all of the problems in the world, but we can offer hope, we can offer comfort, we can offer life changing good news…
And so Mark concentrates on riches, but Matthew makes more of the man being young. In the days before premiership footballers and pop stars people who were rich and young generally were people who had inherited their wealth.
And this is particularly relevant as he asks Jesus, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life.’ Somehow the man is expecting that he will able to just pay something or do something which will lead him directly into heaven. But with Jesus it was never going to be that simple. Actually there was nothing that the man could do other than to put his complete trust in Jesus – turn his life over to him in effect, and Jesus sensed that this was not something the man was prepared to do.
In fact the account is a little bit like the story about Father Michael who walks into a pub one day, and asks a man, ‘Do you want to go to heaven ?’ The man replied, ‘Yes’, and so the Priest said, ‘Well go and stand over there then’. And then the Priest asked another man the same question, and he replied, ‘Yes I do Father’, and now this man was told to stand against the wall as well.
And then the Priest approached another man who said, ‘I do not Father’. The Priest surprised said, ‘you don’t want to go to heaven when you die…’ ‘Oh’ the man replied, ‘I do want to go when I die – but I thought you were getting a group together to go now.’
The rich young ruler seems to be a good man, but he wasn’t ready – he really wanted to follow Jesus, and he did all the right things in terms of keeping the law – he didn’t break the commandments, but his possessions meant more to him than his desire to follow Jesus. He was not ready to commit his life fully to Jesus.
Maybe the man was immature, maybe he wasn’t quite ready to give up his wealth, maybe he didn’t really want to commit himself to a new lifestyle, and so often within the kingdom of God we show immaturity – not ready or not willing to depend on Jesus, to trust all of our lives, including our talents and our possessions, over to him.
The young man couldn’t simply wait his time and inherit the gift of eternal life – he had to be active in serving God as well as in serving other people.
And then Luke adds another dimension to this account by describing the man as a ruler. This also gave the man a large degree of influence over others, and Jesus was suggesting that he had to set an example for others to follow. Within the Church today we often talk about the lack of influence we have, or the lack of people who come other than for special occasions.
But this account reminds us that we have responsibilities too – God, wisely or unwisely, has put us in charge of his Church – there may be Archbishops and Bishops, Archdeacons and Deans, and many other people in authority within the Church, but we are all rulers on earth of the kingdom of God, with only God as our supreme head.
We have responsibilities to offer opinions to the secular leaders of our community and the country. We have responsibilities to live out lives worthy of leadership within God’s wonderful kingdom – lives based on a concern for all people, wherever and whoever they are, lives lived praising and glorifying God, united as one family under him, and offering a message of hope for all people…
This story should make uncomfortable reading for us all because whether we recognise it or not – we are often very comfortable… comfortable in our homes, and comfortable in our Churches. Jesus, who said ‘take up your cross and follow me’ never meant life to be comfortable but a fulfilling journey of joy and peace lived in fellowship with him and in service to others.
The writer to the Hebrews summed up much of our need to examine ourselves as he wrote (4:12,13), ‘The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.’
The word of God exposes every one of us – our intentions and our thoughts, as well as, more obviously, our actions. When Jesus spoke to the rich young ruler he was asking him to be honest in his heart, to lay his life open before him and decide his real priorities in life – he was challenging him to a life of service, maybe even suspecting that he was not ready to accept that challenge.
A beggar in
He then returned, with the beggar's small pouch of corn, and put it in his hand. "His royal highness returns your gift." That night, after the whole affair, the beggar went home to his space beneath a bridge, angry. He muttered curses about the maharajah. He took his small sack of corn out and began to prepare his supper. But then he noticed a glint in the corn. He went through the corn and drew out a nugget of gold. Now he looked more frantically, and he drew out another nugget of gold ... then another, and another till he had five nuggets of gold.
He looked for more, but no .. there were only five pieces of gold. Then the beggar slapped his forehead. "He gave me one piece of gold for each piece of corn I gave him. Only five. What a fool I am. I would be a rich man if I had given him all I had."
And God challenges each one of us to give all we have to him – to think beyond just obeying the rules and the commandments, to think beyond the absolute necessities and devote our lives to him using those lives for his glory and for the extension of his kingdom, and recognising that it is in him and him alone that we can find true peace and everlasting joy. AMEN
Comments