The “Rich Young Ruler” is a sermon interpretation of Mark 10: 17-31.  Wealth and generosity.   Money and abundant sharing.  Riches and giving it away.  The combination of these concepts are at the very heart of Jesus’ teaching.

The richest person in the world is the person who gives it away. Jesus teaches us to give away love, to give away time, to give away yourself. St. Francis said it well when he wrote:  “for it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born again to Eternal Life.”

In the gospel story for today, Jesus is inviting us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. How do we do that? Jesus answers that question very clearly: by giving to the poor, sharing your “wealth.”  Repeatedly in the gospels, Jesus invites us to share our resources with the poor and hungry in our midst and around the globe and thereby lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

Sell everything (what) you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.  Focus on and underline the phrase, “give to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven.” That is the way you lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven: by giving to the poor. Jesus also said that earlier in his Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus was asking for a positive action from the young man: do something positive for poor people. In the Ten Commandments, people were commanded by God to avoid doing bad things to others. We should avoid doing bad things to others but that is not the same as doing good for others, especially poor people. Avoid doing bad to someone is not the same as doing something good for them. We expect people to avoid doing bad to others…killing them, committing adultery with them, stealing from them, lying about them, defrauding them.

It is something else to do something beneficial for them. That is what this text is all about. The young man was Mr. Respectable, Mr. Honorable. Mr. Upright. He didn’t do anything bad to people but he didn’t do anything good for people, to make their lives better, to share with those poor people the enormous financial resources that he had.

Sell everything. It is important that you understand this passage and not take it literally. It is part of Aramaic hyperbole or exaggeration in order to make a point. You don’t take these words literally or you get in trouble. Other examples of Aramaic hyperbole or strong exaggeration in language is “anyone who does not hate your mother and father and brother and sister cannot be my disciple.” Or, “if you hand sins, cut if off. If your eye sins, cut it out. If your foot leads you astray, cut it off.” These are all illustrations from the gospels where Jesus used Aramaic exaggeration to make a point. The point is: we are to generously share our economic resources with the poor and hungry of the world. There are three examples of Aramaic hyperbole in this text.

Similarly, Jesus did not ask Zaccheaus, who was the richest tax collector in town, to sell all he had and give it to the poor. Jesus did not ask Joseph of Arimathea, who the Bible says was rich, to sell all he had and give it to the poor. Jesus did not ask Nicodemus, the wealthy man from the Jewish Sanhedrin or Senate, to sell all he had and give it to the poor. Nor does Jesus ask us today to sell all we have and give it to the poor. To think such a thought would misunderstand Jesus and the text.

Think of it like a test. Jesus was putting the rich young ruler to a test to see whether he loved God and his neighbor more than money. It may be similar to God testing Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, to see if Abraham loved God more than his son. Similarly, Jesus was testing this rich young man to see if he loved his wealth more than God. Think of it as a test, a challenge.

God is testing us to see if we love our money and material possessions more than God.  We remember Jesus’ teaching when he said: where your treasure is, there will be your heart. The man’s heart was in his treasure. What about you?

Edited from a sermon by Rev. Edward Markquart