An understanding of Jesus reduced to that of a friend, a philosopher, a prophet, a good teacher, or even the best human that ever lived, is not the same Jesus, the Logos (Word) of God, God incarnate, the God-Man that God in His love for us has revealed to us for our salvation.
This question of Christ’s identity hits us head on in today’s Gospel as well. A rich young man comes to Jesus relegating Him, classifying Him, as a “good teacher.” While at the same time addressing Jesus as a mere man, he asks Jesus a question that only God can ultimately answer: “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
This explains Jesus’ pointed response to the young man, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” Jesus is not, as some revisionist theologians today say, suggesting He is not fully God; instead, Jesus is convicting the young man of his error, as if to say something along these lines: “you can’t have it both ways: If I’m merely ‘the good teacher’ and not Lord and God, then I can’t tell you what your soul lacks. If you can see Me with the eyes of faith, then know that I am the Messiah, God incarnate, who sees into your soul.’
As St. Justin Popovic says of this passage, “No one is sufficiently good to be able to give the greatest good: eternal life. Only the Perfect Good—and that is God, the God-Man—knows and has the Perfect Life, Eternal Life, and can give it…”
Having set the record straight, Jesus proceeds to give the man instruction, referring him to what every faithful Jew would know: to keep the commandments. In his youthful pride, the young man was able to tell Jesus that he had done all this “from his youth,” and ventures to ask the Master, “what do I still lack”? He still does not realize Whom he is addressing.
Here Jesus reveals further to the man that He is the Messiah, that He is the God-Man, for He sees into the man’s soul as to where his true loyalties lie: his great wealth. The young man is looking for legitimacy, looking to be told that he’s arrived, looking for Jesus on his terms. But Jesus reveals to him what he is still holding back from God, saying, “Go, sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me.” And we read that the young man went away from Jesus dejected; for he loved his wealth more than he loved God.
For this reason, Christ gives us this warning, “I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” The Lord is not saying that having wealth is a sin; there’s no Marxist ideology here. Rather, Jesus is reminding us of this truth: “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” There are few greater temptations for us than our reliance for security on our finances, financial well-being. It can easily take the place of God for us; it’s not a question as to how much we have, but how tightly we hold on to that imaginary security, that idol, rather than entrusting ourselves, our families, our well-being, our present, our future, to God. For this reason, the Church admonishes us to freely tithe from our income to help build up the Kingdom of God, to support the work of the Church in changing hearts, in converting and healing souls.
God is not demanding of all of us that we sell all that we have and give it to the Church, but He is reminding us that He and He alone is God. He and He alone can be our Lord, our Master, if we wish to inherit eternal life.
We don’t need a ‘watered-down Jesus’ or a Jesus conforming to our likeness. We reject revisionist efforts to “re-imagine” Jesus the Christ, Who has revealed Himself to us through those who knew Him in the flesh and passed this personal knowledge on to faithful successors. They have likewise come to know Him and have witnessed to Him in the Great Councils. And we know Christ in our ability to say, “Amen!” to that same teaching today by the Holy Spirit.
This is the treasury of Orthodox Christianity: that we come to know the real Jesus Christ, and in knowing Him, may conform our lives to His, setting nothing above His love and communion with Him. We say “Yes!” to God’s invitation to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.” For knowing Him and growing further up and further in our knowledge and love of Him—and Him alone—is eternal life. And truly loving those around us, we desire to witness to the Truth of who Christ is, just as the faithful have done before us century after century, that others too may come to know the true Jesus, our Lord God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and by Him we are saved.
Fr. Robert Miclean
August 26th, 2012
