When we
hear today’s story about the rich man, it is easy to strip down the story to a
simple moral lesson: namely, that in order to be in heaven, we have to sell
everything and be poor.
That
misses the point.
The total
bring-us-to-our-knees moment comes right
before Jesus tells the man to
sell everything. The bring-us-to-our-knees moment is when it says:
Jesus, looking at him, loved him.
The end.
Jesus
loved Him. He looked at him and saw His child, His one for whom His heart ached
and for whom He would go to the Cross. Jesus, looking at him, loved him.
*
* *
Lovers,
when they are in love, can gaze into their beloved’s eyes for what seems to be
forever. They gaze, they look upon… and the moment is eternal. Words too deep
for even the greatest and most able of poets are spoken there. Heart speaks to
heart. Lovers know of this. Adorers know of this. It is why, when a priest came
to St. Andre Bessett and asked him, “Andre, what do you say to Jesus in your
long hours here in the chapel?” Andre simply responded by saying, “I look at
Him and He looks at me.”
There is
a union there, a gaze which is so completing and so total that nothing else
matters.
*
* *
When
Jesus asks the man to sell what he has, it is not simply a formal, legalistic
requirement in order to merit eternal life. How bland and sterile!
No, Jesus
is inviting the man into a level of intimacy surpassing the man’s upside-down
perspectives of what constitutes treasure. In other words, Jesus is saying to
the man: “I love you. You are my treasure. Am I your treasure? Do you love me?”
You see,
a man could keep the commandments without necessarily loving God and neighbor.
To fulfill the commandment “thou shall not kill,” for example, leaves a whole
lot of room for anger and violence. The law was the bare minimum of justice.
Jesus wants the man to love.
This is
why Jesus tells the man not only to sell what he has, but to sell and give to
the poor. There is something going on here. Jesus could have simply told the
man to sell everything and follow. But he tells the man to sell AND give to the
poor. Why?
In that
moment of giving to the poor, the man would have come face to face with those
who have always been totally dependent upon the treasures he has possessed. And
perhaps he would be moved, moved by love, to look upon them and love them—to
gaze—to not simply be face to face, but heart to heart.
And
maybe, just maybe in that moment, the man would have realized that this is
exactly what Jesus has done for him: that Jesus entered into this man’s life
and was bestowing the real treasure. The rich man isn’t the rich man; he is actually poor, for he has no eternal treasure. Jesus is the rich man. And the treasure
that He is bestowing is the love that never ends.
And as amazing as that is, it is not what stuns me this morning.
*
* *
What is
stunning is this.
The man walks away
sad. He has lost the gaze. (Literally, his “face fell.”) And as he walked away,
I couldn’t but help think of Jesus still looking at him with love, even unto
the horizon—like the Father for his lost son.
You
remember that story, right? The son came to his father and said, “Father, give
to me my inheritance.” And the father gave his son half of the inheritance—that
is, many, many possessions.
And the man went away sad, for he had many possessions.
The identity
of the rich man has now become the Prodigal Son.
*
* *
Children,
go, sell what you have and give to the poor. May Jesus be your treasure, may
His love be your greatest possession!
And if
your life has been that rich man, turned away from Jesus and awash in the stuff
of this life, our merciful Father wants you back. It’s not too late!
Jesus, looking at him, loved him.
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