Today a certain ruler asks Jesus what he must do to
inherit eternal life (Luke 18:18-25). For now, let us define eternal life as an unconditional companionship with Jesus which survives our death.
Jesus starts with the basics: You know the commandments. Today’s embarrassing truth: Jesus could
not assume we Christians know these basics. To refresh our memories, these are
the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17): (1) no other gods, (2) no idols, (3) no
misuse of the name of Yahweh, (4) keep the Sabbath, (5) honor father and mother,
(6) no murder, (7) no adultery, (8) no stealing, (9) no false witness, and (10)
no coveting (wanting what others have). Let us note that the first four
commandments concern our relationship with Yahweh; the second six, our
relationships with our neighbors.
Jesus, however, didn’t start with all the basics. He
didn’t, for example, mention any of the first four commandments concerning our
relationship with Yahweh. Instead, he started with five of the six commandments concerning
our neighbors and did so in this order: no adultery (7), no murder (6), no stealing (8), no false witness (9), and honoring parents (5).
The ruler assures Jesus that he has kept the
Commandments. He has rightly ordered his relationships with other humans ever
since he could. This is saying something. This ruler is saying to Jesus that,
as ruler, he has never used his greater power to have sex with a woman, to have
a political enemy murdered, to cheat laborers out of wages, or to gain
advantage over another person by lying. He has even honored parents who might
well have been understandably proud of their surprisingly virtuous son. Jesus
disputes none of this.
But where’s his heart? The first Commandment is to have
no other gods. Jesus himself is the incarnation of the one true god. Is this man’s heart with him? If
it is, if he’s serious about unconditional companionship with God,
then he will happily rid himself of the many obstacles that keep him from
walking with Jesus.
But no, this man’s heart is not with Jesus. It is with
Pluto: the very conventional Olympian god of wealth. This man is very rich.
Through those very riches, Pluto has taken control of him. Through the words come, follow me, Jesus has freed this
man from Pluto’s control. This man, however, nonetheless reaffirms his devotion
to Pluto by being too sad about losing his possessions to freely affirm any
devotion to Jesus without them.
The more we have, the stronger our Olympian personality
grows. The stronger it grows, the weaker our Christian personality becomes.
This applies to groups (like churches) and societies as well as to persons.
So much for conforming to even a biblically-based moral
code. The ruler apparently had rightly-ordered relationships with his neighbors
but his heart was still far from Jesus.
Copyright © 2015 by
Steven Farsaci.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
