On Riches and Discipleship

A rich young man approached our Lord Jesus Christ and asked a ques­tion: what shall I do to have eter­nal life? Our Lord responded to him and listed the com­mand­ments that lead to life: “‘Do not com­mit adul­tery,’ ‘Do not mur­der,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false wit­ness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” (Mark 10:19) The young man then told the Lord that he had done all of these things since he was young. Our Lord looked upon him with love and told him: “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell what­ever you have and give to the poor, and you will have trea­sure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and fol­low Me.” (Mark 10:21) Not being able to give up his earthly pos­ses­sions and riches, the young man left sor­row­fully and did not fol­low the Lord.

As we con­tinue our prepa­ra­tion through fast­ing and strength­en­ing our spir­i­tual life, let us ask our­selves how much we are will­ing to give up to fol­low Christ.

The rich young man was a reli­gious Jew who was most likely a fol­lower of the Phar­isees, because he believed in eter­nal life. For the Phar­isees, the king­dom of God was linked with mate­r­ial wealth and power. Suc­cess in the world was con­sid­ered a bless­ing from God for the right­eous. As we know, the Jews rejected Christ because they expected–and still expect–the Mes­siah to come in worldly glory and power. The Jews did not expect Christ, Who is the King of Kings, to come in all humil­ity and low­li­ness, and accept to be cru­ci­fied for the life of the world.

In light of this belief that the King­dom of God was linked with mate­r­ial wealth and power, the rich young man did not fol­low our Lord’s com­mand­ment to sell every­thing he owned, give to the poor, and fol­low Christ. Instead, the rich young man selec­tively chose the aspects of faith that he would fol­low. He believed in the exis­tence of eter­nal life, as the Phar­isees taught, but he rejected our Lord’s teach­ing as to how he might inherit this eter­nal life. We see in the rich young man an exam­ple of how we should not pick and choose the aspects of our faith that we will believe or fol­low. Instead, we must fol­low Christ with all our hearts, as the Mid­night Praise hymn “Tenoweh Ensok” reminds us.

The rich man pre­ferred to live his life accord­ing to rules instead of faith. This is some­thing that many of us strug­gle with today. We view reli­gion as a check­list of things to do. We think that, if we go through the list every day and every week, we will have eter­nal life. Our Lord is not ask­ing us for a check­list. Instead, He asks us for our hearts. Our Divine Liturgy is not a check­list of read­ings and hymns that we must endure until the dis­tri­b­u­tion of the Mys­tery. Rather, it is a spir­i­tual pro­gres­sion lead­ing to the par­tak­ing of our Lord’s Body and Blood. We must there­fore under­stand the read­ings, pray the hymns, and fol­low along in all of the prayers with our hearts, not sim­ply as items in a check­list. This is why, in the Mid­night Praise, as we pre­pare for the Divine Liturgy, we chant the hymn “Tenoweh Ensok,” which is trans­lated “We fol­low You with all our hearts” and later, in the Anaphora of the Divine Liturgy, the priest calls upon all of the peo­ple to “Lift up your hearts.”

The rich man did not give the Lord his heart, but instead, chose the love of the world over our Lord Jesus Christ. We see here the dif­fer­ence between the wis­dom of the world and the wis­dom of God. For the young man, the wis­dom of the world, which told him these pos­ses­sions were valu­able and pre­cious, was more impor­tant. How­ever, had he under­stood the wis­dom of God, he would have real­ized that our Lord was offer­ing him some­thing much more valu­able than wealth and earthly pos­ses­sions. Notice how our Lord told the young man that if he sold every­thing he had and gave it to the poor, he would have “trea­sure in heaven.” It is very sig­nif­i­cant that our Lord used the word “trea­sure” here. St. John Chrysos­tom, in his hom­i­lies on the Gospel accord­ing to St. Matthew, teaches us that the Lord used the word “trea­sure” to show us the kind of reward that He pre­pared for each and every one of us in the King­dom of Heaven. He did not tell the young man that he would have money, because money might be valu­able today and worth­less tomor­row. Trea­sure, on the other hand, is some­thing that is more per­ma­nent. He used the word “trea­sure” to teach us about the per­ma­nent nature of our reward in the King­dom of Heaven.

The com­mand­ment of our Lord – to go, sell every­thing and give to the poor – is given to us today as well as the rich man. The Lord does not say suc­cess and wealth are bad in and of them­selves. Instead, our Lord is teach­ing us not to be enslaved by pos­ses­sions; not to be enslaved by the power of suc­cess and wealth; and most impor­tantly, not to allow wealth or any­thing else pre­vent us from fol­low­ing Him with all our hearts.

What the Lord is ask­ing us today is to renounce our self­ish­ness and own desires so that we may bet­ter serve the com­mu­nity and fol­low Him with all our hearts. These three things go hand in hand. This is why, when you read our Lord’s com­mand­ment, you will see that the Lord did not sim­ply tell the rich man to sell every­thing he had, but instead, to sell every­thing he had, give it to the poor, and fol­low Him. We are called to renounce our self­ish­ness and serve the poor. When­ever we renounce our self­ish­ness, we will be free to fol­low Christ and pur­sue the glory of God.

There­fore, today, let us make a com­mit­ment to fol­low Christ with­out any hes­i­ta­tion. Let us make a com­mit­ment to keep the poor in our minds and hearts always. Let us make a com­mit­ment to bear our crosses and the crosses of oth­ers with love.

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