We're all like this rich young man to some degree. We want the checklist so we can ensure we've ticked all the boxes. We sense that there must be some conformity of our lives with the good but we think we have a sense of what this entails. We assume we probably have most of the list but that perhaps there is room for a little refinement.
He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good?
When we bring this question to Jesus he upends our assumptions entirely. We discover that we are still acting like Adam, insisting that he could know good and evil on his own. Jesus attempts to shift our entire paradigm.
There is only One who is good.
We must begin to think about good things only in relationship to the One who is good. No one besides God is in a position to speak of the good. He alone is perfectly good. He alone makes all things work together for good. Only by considering him as origin and end do particular goods take their proper place.
If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.
The commandments, those boxes we thought we were checking, are revealed to have a deeper meaning. The reason there was a lingering thought that something was missing in our performance of the good is because apart from the One who is good all of our good deeds were external, done insofar as they were convenient, and did not really change us and transform us as genuine encounter with the good would do.
“All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
Jesus tells us to get rid of the things tethering us to those old perspectives so that we are free to follow him. When we follow him we are able to learn from the only One who is good. We learn to give, not just from our surplus, but from our need. We learn to give ourselves away in love. This is not something done once and over. It is a lifetime apprenticeship to Goodness himself.
Let us give ourselves as freely as we find the grace to do. For if we love our many possessions too much it is an act of love for God to allow them to be taken, as he shows through Ezekiel and does to Israel.
I am taking away from you the delight of your eyes,
but do not mourn or weep or shed any tears.
The risk is that without the One who alone is good directing our actions even God's own sanctuary can become "the stronghold of your pride". We are most likely rich in ways that would blow the mind of the rich man in the gospel. We doubtlessly have many more possessions and much more comfort than he. Still, Jesus invites us to leave aside that which hinders us. We need not go away sad. Let us follow him.
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