What if the rich young ruler really is about money?
You may be familiar with the story of the rich young ruler, which appears in Matthew (19:16-30), Mark (10:17-31), and Luke (18:18-30). I have participated in three large churches throughout my life and attended a private Christian university, and the near-unanimous message I received from other Christians was that the story of the rich young ruler is not about money, not really. I have typically heard some variation of one of these two interpretations, or a combination of the two:
1) “The story is about commitment and sacrifice for the sake of following Jesus. Notice how Jesus ends the story by talking about how we should be willing to leave our families, if that’s what’s required, because our highest allegiance should be to him. Jesus tells the rich young man to sell his possessions because he knows that’s the one idol the man isn’t willing to give up for the sake of becoming a disciple, and ultimately, the story ends sadly because it shows us that sometimes Jesus lets us choose our idols instead of choosing to follow him. We all have different idols—for some, it’s money, but for others, it’s sex or addictions or ambition. Regardless of what our idols are, we have to be willing to surrender them if we want to follow Jesus.”
2) “The story is about grace and our inability to earn what God gives us. The man comes to Jesus hoping to earn God’s favor through his obedience to the law, but Jesus tells him to do the one thing he knows the man cannot do in order to demonstrate that the man cannot possibly live perfectly and earn God’s grace. Ultimately, the story ends sadly because it shows us we have to come to Jesus on his terms; if we try to earn God’s favor rather than accept it as an undeserved gift, freely bestowed, we cannot follow Jesus.”
To be completely honest, I think these are both pretty solid interpretations of the story. I doubt that the requirements Jesus places on the rich young ruler are universal, simply because we don’t see any similar requirements throughout the rest of the Bible.
What’s interesting about both of these interpretations, though, is that they brazenly ignore a direct, red-letter quote from Jesus. Matthew’s version records it thus: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (19:21). Even if we can dodge that statement by claiming it’s specifically aimed at the man in the story, we have a much harder time dodging the statement that follows, which seems more blanketing: “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, 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” (19:23-4).
I’ve often heard this story—and specifically, the first interpretation—used in discussions about homosexuality. Essentially, the message (even if it is delivered gently or indirectly) is: “Just like Jesus told the rich young ruler he could not follow him unless he gave up his idol of money, you cannot follow Jesus [or join our church, or join our small group, or work at this Christian institution, or be my friend] unless you are willing to surrender the idol of your same-sex relationship/identity/behavior.”
What bothers me is that never, ever in my entire life of growing up in the United States (literally one of the richest societies in the history of the world) and participating in three middle-class churches (which each included many wealthy members) and attending a private Christian university (with a hefty price tag), never, ever, not ever have I heard anyone apply this passage to a rich person. I honestly cannot think of any time in my life when a congregation or Christian institution rejected someone because s/he loved money too much. And I’m not talking about embezzlement or any dishonest use of money; I’m talking about the simple adoration of wealth and possessions.
This is not an attack on the wealthy, and I know a person’s financial status does not determine the state of his/her heart. It just staggers me to think that while I have seen people apply this specific passage to the issue of sexuality, I have never once seen someone use it in its most original, specific, clearly defined application: the idolatry of money. And I cannot believe that every rich Christian’s heart (including my own) is purer than the heart of the man in this story. Surely someone (probably many someones) alive today needs to hear the same words the rich young ruler heard in regards to his or her finances.
I can anticipate one criticism for where I’m headed here, and it goes like this: “Yes, okay, we probably don’t give money the attention it deserves in our North American churches today. But that doesn’t mean we should just start accepting all kinds of behavior. The fact that we’re soft on money doesn’t mean we should be soft on sexuality, too.” My problem here is that, once again, we’re giving much more weight to homosexuality than to anything else considered sinful—we’re essentially saying that we don’t mind getting other things wrong as long as we get sexuality right, even if those “other things” are issues that receive much more attention throughout the gospels and the scriptures, or if the New Testament even describes those “other things” as “the root of all evil” (I Timothy 6:10). If we’re going to prioritize sex above all other issues of morality, we had sure better have a strong scriptural reason to do so.
Because if the rich young ruler really is about money, then a lot of us are in deep trouble.
