“Ins and outs”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Matthew 19:13-22 (Forward, p. 30) CEV p. 1007
Jesus has a fine way of ‘overturning the applecart’, disrupting the ways that people habitually thought. Today’s passage gives two examples of this. In the culture of the ancient world, children, even if prized by their parents, were basically nobodies. They had no rights and no say, and were more or less expendable, solely dependent upon the whims and wishes of their parents or guardians.
Furthermore, when some parents brought their children to Jesus for a blessing, the disciples were quite sure that Jesus ‘had better things to do’ than to give time and attention to a bunch of useless and unimportant children. Jesus, however, overturns this thinking, and encourages the children to come to Him. Indeed, He says, it is to people like these children, presumably in terms of their innocence and faith, that the kingdom of God belongs to. What a new way of thinking: who would have ever thought it!
Equally unusual was Jesus’ treatment of the rich young man. There was a strain of thought back then that God directly intervened in people’s lives in a basically direct cause and effect fashion. Thus, if a person was wealthy or prospered, or was healthy, then it meant that God was pleased with that person for being good and righteous and was rewarding him or her accordingly. And, of course, the reverse was also true. And so, with this kind of thinking, that the man was rich meant that he was already doing what God required and was being rewarded for it. That he might have to do something else—and, indeed, sell what he owned—was outrageous—and totally foreign to much of the current ways of thinking.
So, what then might this be saying to us today? It says that many of our notions of who is acceptable, who is welcome, in God’s kingdom are simply inadequate or wrong. Property and performance simply do not ‘cut it’; no one can ‘earn’ one’s place into God’s kingdom. And neither does what might be called an ‘adult’ understanding or grasp of the issues or the truth. What God is looking for is the simple, unadorned, faith and acceptance of a child, a simple willingness to come to Jesus without any fuss or bother or pretence. That is what God is looking for in us. Amen.
Forward notes: ˆJesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me’” (verse 21).
“People have been qualifying, spiritualizing, and trying to do an end run around this saying of Jesus, probably from the moment he said it. So now it’s my turn: while Jesus is condemning the rich young man and his attachment to ‘many possessions,’ the overarching lesson is for all of us. Had Jesus been speaking to me, he may have told me to give up my ideas about what constitutes success, to walk away from it all, and to follow him.
“Social ambition, political power, sexual magnetism—whatever we wish for most is what blinds us most; whatever life we choose for ourselves, in preference to the life of the Spirit, is our idol. Perhaps this is why Jesus says, ‘Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Moving Forward: “What would Jesus ask you to give up? How can you take the first step today in doing so?”