Jesus and the rich young man
Jesus and the rich young man is an episode in the life of Jesus in the New Testament. It is the basis of many Christian views on poverty and wealth.
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Quotes
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- Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments."
"Which ones?" he inquired.
Jesus replied, "'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
Jesus answered, "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."
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
- Gospel of Matthew 19:16-22 NIV
- "Rabbi, what good thing can I do that I may live?" He (Jesus) said to him, "Man, fulfill the Law and the Prophets." He answered him, "I have done (so)." Jesus said, "Go, sell all that you have, and distribute to the poor; and come, follow me." But the rich man began to fidget [some copies read, "began to scratch his head"], for it did not please him. And the Lord said to him, "How can you say, 'I have fulfilled the Law and the Prophets', when it is written in the Law: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself', and many of your brothers, sons of Abraham, are covered with filth, dying of hunger, and your house is full of many good things, none of which goes out to them?" And he (Jesus) turned and said to Simon his disciple, who was sitting by him, "Simon son of John, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."
- Gospel of the Nazarenes (as related to us from Origen in his Commentary on Matthew 19:16–30)
Quotes about Jesus and the rich young man
[edit]- The difference between ourselves and the rich young man is that he was not allowed to solace his regrets by saying: "Never mind what Jesus says, I can still hold on to my riches, but in a spirit of inner detachment. Despite my inadequacy I can take comfort in the thought that God has forgiven me my sins and can have fellowship with Christ in faith." But no, he went away sorrowful. Because he would not obey, he could not believe. In this the young man was quite honest. He went away from Jesus and indeed this honesty had more promise than any apparent communion with Jesus based on disobedience.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (1937), p. 80
- One can eliminate possession and yet still crave it in a state of permanent intimate union with riches. One can refuse to use it and, at the same time, find oneself lacking and regretting what one has squandered, grieving for two reasons: because there are no more services available and because one regrets the decision made.
- In the absence of the necessities of life, inevitably - it could not be otherwise - one feels heartbroken and loses interest in higher values, when one tries to obtain the necessities by any means and from anywhere. How much more useful is the opposite: to have sufficient means to avoid unpleasant surprises and to help those in need! What possibility of sharing would remain among men if no one had anything? Would this mentality not be clearly antithetical and in contrast to many other thoughts of the Lord (cf. Lk 16:9 and Mt 6:20)? How could one feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and welcome the homeless, , - yet Christ threatens those who do not do so with fire and outer darkness (Mt 25:35-3;41-44 and Isaiah 58:7 on welcoming the homeless)— if one finds oneself in a situation worse than all of them? But Christ accepts the hospitality of Zacchaeus, Levi, and Matthew, who were rich and tax collectors (Levi: Mark 2:14-15 and Luke 5:27-29; Matthew in Mt 9:9-11), and does not command them to abandon their riches, but imposes their just use, eliminating their unjust use, and proclaims, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Lk 19:9; and Zacchaeus in Lk 19:5-6).
- He appreciates its usefulness so much that he orders it to be shared with this addition: give drink to the thirsty, give bread to the hungry, welcome the homeless, clothe the naked (Matthew 25:35-38; 42.44 in comparison with Isaiah 58:7).
- But if it is possible to perform these services only with riches, and instead the Lord commands us to renounce them, what else would he do but exhort us to give and not give, feed and not feed, welcome and exclude, share and not share, which is the most absurd thing there could be.
- Saint Clement of Alexandria, Quis dives salvetur?, 12,4-13,7, in Carlo Nardi (editor), Quale ricco si salva? Il cristiano e l'economia, Edizioni borla S.r.l., Rome, July 1991, pp. 74-75 (in Italian). ISBN 978-88-263-0837-1.
- Therefore, we must not throw away riches that can also help others, because they are possessions insofar as they are owned, and riches insofar as they are useful and provided by God for men to use: they are available and subject to men as materials and instruments, so that those who are capable may make good use of them. If you use a tool skilfully, it can produce works of art, but if you lack skill, it takes advantage of your lack of skill, through no fault of its own! Wealth is also a tool of this kind. You can use it in the right way: then it is at the service of justice. If you use it in the wrong way, then it becomes a minister of injustice, because by its nature it is at the service, not in command. One must not therefore blame something that in itself contains neither good nor evil, because it is not at fault, but rather what in itself can make good or bad use of things, depending on the object of its choices. This reality is human thought, inasmuch as it has within itself a free capacity for judgement and the faculty of self-determination in dealing with given things. Therefore, do not let possessions disappear, but rather the passions that prevent the best use of what one has, so that, with honesty and dignity, also these creatures may be used. Renouncing everything we have and selling it should be understood as if it were said about the passions of the soul.
- Saint Clement of Alexandria, Quis dives salvetur?, 14,1-6, in Carlo Nardi (editor), Quale ricco si salva? Il cristiano e l'economia, Edizioni borla S.r.l., Rome, July 1991, pp. 74-75 (in Italian). ISBN 978-88-263-0837-1.
- Another observation of mine: there are passions that are within the soul and riches that are outside it. If the soul makes good use of them, even riches are good; if it makes bad use of them, they are bad.
- Now, does Christ, who commands us to make ourselves strangers to the things we have, demand that we reject riches, without which passions remain, before demanding that we reject passions, without which possessions also become useful? Therefore, those who have thrown away the superabundance of this world may still be rich in passions, even if they lack the material to satisfy them, because their inner disposition plays its part, distressing their reason, oppressing them and inflaming them with desires that grow together: they derive no advantage from being poor in riches if they are rich in passions. He did not throw away things that can be thrown away, but those that are indifferent, and severed from himself realities capable of rendering a service, while he ignited the incentive of vice, naturally connected with the lack of external things.
- One must renounce what is harmful, not what is also capable of benefiting, if one knows how to use it properly. What is administered with wisdom, self-control, and religiosity is beneficial, once what is harmful has been rejected; but external things do not cause harm. Thus, the Lord also allows the use of external things when he commands us to remove not the means of subsistence, but those realities that make bad use of them: the diseases of the soul and the passions.
- Saint Clement of Alexandria, Quis dives salvetur?, 15,1-6, in Carlo Nardi (editor), Quale ricco si salva? Il cristiano e l'economia, Edizioni borla S.r.l., Rome, July 1991, pp. 74-75 (in Italian). ISBN 978-88-263-0837-1.
