Dear brothers and sisters! What must I do to inherit eternal life?

Is this a question people still ask? Most people are busy enough to keep on top of the demands of every day life: to find a job and keep it secure, to make enough to provide for a family and to be able to retire one day, or to pay education loans, health bills, etc. Who would waste any time pondering eternal life other than maybe in church once in a while?

What must I do to inherit eternal life? It seems that in our time as in Jesus' time this question is asked mainly by those who can afford it. By those for whom it is easy to say that one does not live by bread alone because they have plenty. By those who understand their own success and accomplishments as a gift of God that keeps on coming. They want to continue to climb the ladder and be good, become even better. In the process religious feelings well up and there seems evidence of a direct connection between their own ability for accomplishment, economic success, and the degree of religious devotion. To be friends with the clergy is natural and beneficial. It is no wonder then, that the rich man seeks out Jesus.

It is interesting to note how the rich man starts out the conversation: "Good Teacher," he says to Jesus. He is pleasant in his manner. But Jesus refuses to be called good.

"Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone."

Jesus refuses the rich man's attempt to put him with the good and the righteous. He also refuses to play the religious leader who has a brand new 12-step-program (ready to be published next month and a sure #1 New York Times best seller title). He does not teach how to achieve religious perfection or fulfillment. To the contrary, Jesus destroys a commonly shared religious illusion: We cannot achieve the perfection, the fulfillment we crave. The "good" does not exist. Jesus replies in a harsh tone,

"No one is good but God alone."

Jesus points away from himself. For that matter he points away from any religious leader, any clergy - and turns the focus to God. If someone wants to pursue the good and find what is good, it can be found only with God. The good that God has in mind we know from his commandments: You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.

Now, listen carefully. Jesus does not say to the rich man, you are good if and when you keep the commandments and as a consequence you will inherit eternal life. All Jesus says is,

"You know the commandments."

God did not give the commandments so that we would become increasingly better step by step over a lifetime. They are there to help us who are not good to get along with each other in at least a minimal, tolerable way. So, the gift of God's commandments is good, very good indeed. But their fulfillment by us can never be good in the same sense, no matter what a good a job we might do. It is necessary to keep God's commandments, but keeping them will not promote us eternal life.

This understanding of the commandments as God's good gift --but not a means for promotion to eternal life --is not yet available to the rich man. His reply to Jesus' reciting the Ten Commandments is:

“Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.“

Well, this rich man must be a good man after all, actually quite admirable. If he kept all the commandments (and probably tithed as well!), he could not be a cold, calculating businessman having only his own advantage in mind. No wonder,

Jesus, looking at him, loved him.

The rich man sees the expression of love on Jesus' face; therefore, Jesus' next words strike him like lightning:

"You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

The rich man can't possibly do that! Sell everything?! Jesus must be cynical: to first look at the man with love and then demand such a thing?! He should be glad to find one rich man like him who has kept all the commandments since his youth.

We do understand the rich man's response:

"When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions."

Jesus wants his money - for the poor.

In the same way we understand the disciples' perplexed disbelief at Jesus' treatment of the rich man. As if Jesus hadn't been harsh enough already, he adds yet more to his equation for goodness and eternal life:

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

What a provocation! Who at all can stand before this judge? Was Jesus' purpose to show that it is impossible to be good? Or did Jesus want to turn the rich man's question about eternal life toward the absurd, that is back toward this world?

Jesus confronts the rich man with his fundamental misunderstanding of his own good.

"No one is good but God alone."

He and we will not make it to the kingdom of God by becoming better and better, little by little, in the course of our lifetime. The rich man views his wealth as an expression of his own goodness and God's goodness toward him. Jesus tells him that with such understanding, he has blocked out the kingdom of God and his own participation in it.

Jesus tells the rich man also, that with his exclusive focus on "What must I do to inherit eternal life?", he has blocked out those from the kingdom of God who have not acquired the same riches as he has. Those who with the same amount of hard work and effort have not retained their job; who did not graduate from the right school; who were not born into the right family; did not have equal opportunities being first generation and maybe illegal immigrants; who were thrown behind by personal crises, mental illness, or lost their home because of medical bills. They will never make it as high on that ladder of goodness as the rich man has.

Yet, Jesus' message is clear. The poor are part of the kingdom of God that Jesus represents. This is why Jesus says,

"You lack one thing."

You lack the person who has not what you have. You lack meeting and knowing the person who has not what you have, you lack friendship and trust beyond the limits of your own social class that would open up a new view on the world, that would give you an understanding of the complex economic, societal dependencies and injustices in which you live. Jesus looks at the rich man full of love and says: You are devout and full of good will. Yet you lack one thing. Get out of the prison of loneliness that wealth and possessions have become, and follow me, become a disciple of the kingdom of God.

By ordering the rich man to sell all he has and give the money to the poor, Jesus wants to restore the rich man's life to a fullness he has not known in a long time. He wants him to meet people who are different, who lack what he has. He wants him to learn to trust, and to experience simple human relationships that celebrate the dignity of human life given to all by the Creator who created all people in God's image.

It is obvious that our situation is not much different from the rich man's, not simply as individuals, but as a society. The gap between rich and poor is ever increasing. There is ever more accumulation of wealth. There is ever more poverty. To think about this and our own involvement - conscious or unconscious - can be overwhelming: How do my decisions impact others? To which degree am I responsible for or at least contribute to injustices? In which way does my way of life impact the disadvantaged and largely invisible poor, elderly, unemployed, and under-nourished members of our society and in the world?

If we were to translate Jesus' advice to the rich man into our context maybe it could be something like this: Use your money and power to influence the distribution of the riches of this world. Make it your first priority that the poor do not go hungry and have fair jobs and a fair income; make it part of your life to live in relationship with marginalized, disadvantaged people. A glimpse of the kingdom of God might be caught in the discovery of dignity and grace in a life lived in the image of God.

The disciples witnessed the whole scene. They are perplexed, exasperated. They know the rich man is not going to sell all his possessions. And isn't he a good man after all? Yet if Jesus demands poverty as a condition for discipleship, then no one is going to sign up for it. The rich will not do it. The disciples know this as much as we do, and their question is ours:

“Then who can be saved?"

Jesus' answer is clear: For mortals it is impossible to save themselves. Neither rich nor poor can earn any credit or merit points towards acceptance into the kingdom of God and the gift of eternal life. Yet, for God all things are possible. Jesus' way led him to death on a cross, a death out of which God created new life.

The door of access to the eternal life seemed slammed shut to the rich. Then it opens again and through the crack of the opening door a new light shines. God enters the life of the rich man again, crosses his path, allows him to quit the deadly competition for money, power, and possessions. Jesus modeled this for humanity to its deadly consequence. By doing so he brought back into our midst and to our tables the poor, the lost, the last, all created in the image of God. In community around the table of the Lord and around our tables, we experience the foretaste of the feast to come.

And the peace of God which surpasses our understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.