The ruler in today’s Gospel has kept the major commandments of God. In the eyes of the world, this is a ‘good,’ upstanding man. He’s got all these things checked off his list; he’s not outwardly committed any of the ‘big sins.’ He comes to Jesus to be reaffirmed in his own thinking, his self-reliance, his thinking that he’s already ‘arrived,’ and that his attitude of having done his ‘duty’ and kept himself from these ‘big sins’ is all that’s expected of him.
Now before we delve into Christ’s answer to the ruler’s question, “what still do I lack?” we can acknowledge his outward keeping of the commandments, i.e., he’s not stolen, he’s not committed adultery, he’s not defrauded his neighbor, etc. This is what we’d like to see in other people, that is, to meet someone ‘moral’, ‘God-fearing,’ right? But this is not all that God desires for us; keeping the commandments outwardly, doing our ‘duty’ before God is only the start and not the finish line of our ‘race of faith,’ of our relationship and communion with God.
So why does the ruler elicit such a response from Christ? Because he comes confidently, even pridefully, before Christ, as if to flatter Him but without acknowledging Who He really is. He entrusts to Christ the ultimate question, that of eternal life, a question only God can answer for Him, but without acknowledging Christ’s power to answer that all-important question: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer he gets startles him: he’s not told, “Oh, you’re already so good, you’re already set.” No, instead, Christ shakes him to the core, saying, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God.”
Now, Christ isn’t saying that He’s not God here. Rather, He’s correcting the man’s first error, in which he addresses the God of creation, the Word of God incarnate, as, simply, “Good teacher.” If Christ is merely a “good teacher,” or prophet, or moral figure, as some think of Him today, then He cannot answer that ultimate question, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Only God can answer a question of such eternal significance. If you fail to recognize who Christ God is, the Ever-Existing One, if you fail to grasp the priority of following Him, of putting Him first, of communion with Him, then you have nothing: no amount of civility, “goodness”, or self-improvement can save you because you do not know God as we must to be in His near presence.
Wrapped up in Christ’s challenge to this man is Christ’s revelation, the fulfilling of the Gospel, the teaching of the truth of our new life in Christ: salvation isn’t a duty, but a gift of grace, a gift of God’s mercy towards us and our cooperation with that grace. This is why the correct response and attitude toward God is one of thanksgiving, of gratitude, coupled with repentance, a hallmark of the virtue of humility working in us. We cannot save ourselves; we aren’t saved by our deeds, however ‘good.’ Rather, our following of the commandments is meant to be the fruit of a heart, a soul, submitted to God, thirsting for God, desiring life with God. As Christ points out to us, if goodness—doing one’s ‘duty’ toward God, were the criterion, no one would be saved because One alone is good and that One is God. This is the point of Christ’s response to the ruler, saying, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God.”
In one fell swoop, Christ debunks a philosophy still prevalent in our own day: that one is going to heaven if one is ‘good,’ if one has done one’s ‘duty,’ as we subjectively decide this for ourselves. This false notion continues to be one of the greatest heresies to this day. But this same philosophy is at work when we seek to minimize our sins: justifying ourselves, e.g., “Oh, it’s only a ‘white’ lie” or “I wasn’t really sinning in my impatience and anger because he had it coming.” Or, I really haven’t committed any ‘major’ sins.
No, it isn’t a question of insufficient ‘goodness’ that is God’s criterion, as much as one of trying to put a square peg in a round hole—it just won’t work; it’s not what’s necessary for us to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven; it’s the answer of the Pharisee and not that of the Publican.
We remember that King David, an adulterer and a murderer, one who did not keep the ‘outward’ commandments, nevertheless found forgiveness and mercy from God because, as he relates to us in Psalm 50, “a contrite and humble heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” For this reason, the Church’s morning prayers prompt us to pray Psalm 50 every day, to remind us of this disposition of heart you and I so desperately need to be with God and inherit eternal life with Him.
Without honest acknowledgement of sin, without a firm commitment to repentance and growth in communion with Christ, and the accompanying contrition and humility of heart, one cannot draw closer to God, one cannot find salvation. Why? Because it’s this repentant, open and humble heart that is God-pleasing, that’s compatible with life and communion with God. Such a heart is truly hungering and thirsting after more of God and building up treasure in heaven.
The problem of the ruler, then, is not what he’s done or not done, but what he neglects: the conversion of his soul, a change of heart through repentance. He has another god: it’s not as is sometimes thought only his riches, but rather, his self-justification, his own erroneous thinking that he’s ‘good enough’ as he is. Christ God sees into his heart and for that reason, addresses the very thing that will keep this man from being able to follow Him and be with Him: his self-reliance. His riches are what feeds this self-reliance and self-righteousness. So, to enable the ruler to depend on God for His salvation, his needs, his very life-breath, Christ admonishes him to give away his possessions and, then, to follow Him. The Lord makes it clear to us, as He does the First of the Ten Commandments, that we can have “no other gods” but Him. He alone is God. In his heart, the young man has another god: his self-reliance and his riches. His heart is not converted and is not thirsting for more of God, for life with God.
We cannot embrace the life in Christ, communion with Him, if our treasure is not in Him but is, rather, in our own self-reliance or self-righteousness. If we follow the ‘externals’ of God’s commandments and the Orthodox Faith, and stop at ‘doing our duty’ before God, if our treasure, our yearning, our reliance, our priorities, are elsewhere, then we have no room for Christ to be our God and Savior, we have no real desire to grow in communion with Him. Simply put, we too make of God Incarnate, simply a “good teacher.” It’s in this context, that Christ affirms, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.” The problem isn’t the man’s riches, per say, but his dependence on them, on himself, rather than on God.
The Lord knows how much of a hold our sense of material well-being, our self-righteousness can have on us, and, how it can insulate us against the need to put our trust and our faith in Him, to possess that contrite and humble heart we need to be in Christ God’s near presence, to realize Who it is alone Who can save us, heal us, and grant us eternal life with Him.
The young man departs in sorrow from his encounter with Christ because he realizes that the very thing that defines him, his ‘treasure’, is, in reality, his material well-being and self-reliance: this is precisely what he’s asked to give up in order to free his soul and inherit eternal life.
And so, we too are cautioned and given the opportunity this Sunday to ask ourselves: Do I have anything in my life that I love more than God, that I rely on in my self-reliance and control instead of trusting in God? Have I put any other gods before him: My time? My priorities? My work? My reliance on self? My earthly possessions? My passions?
Whatever that something may be that seems impossible for us to relinquish because of the false sense of ‘control’ it gives us, we remember Christ’s other words today, “The things which are impossible for men are possible with God.” Repent of all such prideful self-reliance and pride of heart, of those attitudes of heart, vices, false controls, or indifference that may keep us from putting Christ and His Holy Church first in our lives. May we learn to possess to a greater extent that “contrite and humble heart” so pleasing to God and so necessary for us to follow our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ into His Eternal Kingdom.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, 3 December 2017
Epistle: Eph. 5:9-19
Gospel: Luke 18:18-27
