But eternal life, which is a major theme of St. John’s gospel, is not simply unending life, but an enhanced quality of life, a fuller, richer, freer life which begins in this world though it is consummated in the next.

Christopher Bryant in The River Within

“The goal of the gospel of Christ is the restoration [of the right relation of man to his maker]…This right relation is itself ‘eternal life’: it is here and now, but here and now cannot exhaust or define it.”

Michael Ramsey Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury Pilgrim

Context

We first met in 1968. I was a twenty-year-old engineering student at UCLA. Having grown up in a middle class family in a small farming community in the San Joaquin Valley, I did not have a category for him—rich man. Though I knew a few wealthy landowners, they looked and acted like everyone else—hard working farmers with mud on their boots. The distinction of rich man as someone different from me emerged while in college during the student protests in the late 1960s.

Armed with my brief case, crew cut, and slide rule, I was about as far from looking like a student radical as one could be. But as I toiled typing computer punch cards in the bowels of Boelter Hall, I gazed out the window with envy at the student demonstrators marching by. While I was acquiring the skills to further the cause of THE RICH MEN—the anonymous leaders of the military/industrial complex—my fellow students were challenging the system and pleading for justice and peace. Something in my soul told me they made the better choice. That feeling was reinforced by another thought.

Two years prior, I had become a follower of Jesus. I was drawn by the heroic invitation to become a world changer with him. The artistic depiction of “Jesus the Radical” introduced in the 1960s anchored him squarely on the side of the protestors. So the context for my relationship with the Rich Man and the antipathy that emerged between us during the years that followed were instilled in my subconscious before we ever met.

Our First Meeting

It happened at a Bible study in my dorm room. A group of friends read and discussed his story as found in Mark’s gospel. But what was written and how I heard it were two different things. Here is how I heard his story the first time:

A lavishly dressed Rich Man walked up to Jesus one day and said, “Good teacher, what do I need do to get into heaven when I die?”

Jesus, eying him with suspicion said, “Why Mister Rich Man do you call me good? Are you trying to flatter me so that I will treat you special? Or are you attempting to mask your own greedy heart with a whitewash of goodness? You know the rules. Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t defraud, honor your parents.”

“Sir, I have kept all of these since I was a boy.”

“So you say but did you really? Well, you lack one big thing. Go sell everything that you have, give to the poor, then come and follow me if you really want to prove yourself worthy of my kingdom.”

At that the Rich Man turned and walked away for he was unwilling to part with his great wealth. Jesus then turned to his disciples and said, “It is just about impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

At age twenty, I was without a girlfriend, bank account or direction in life. At that stage it was easier to know what I was against rather than what I was for, which is why twenty-year-olds make better revolutionaries that nation builders. So the Rich Man became a convenient enemy, abet ill defined and one dimensional. And he joined the growing cast of characters who took up residence in the boarding house of my cranium.

Voices in the Basement

Life moved on. The war in Vietnam finally ground to a halt. Students stopped protesting. I met the girl of my dreams and stumbled into a vocation that I hoped might help change the world one person at a time. Mean while the Rich Man stayed locked in the basement of my mental boarding house. Occasionally he would cry out claiming that he had been unjustly accused. I heard him once say, “Not all rich men are alike.”

I wondered, “Was that true or was my youthful fervor beginning to wane as my life became more complex?” I worked for a nonprofit organization that required me to raise funds. As I rose through the ranks, I had the opportunity to meet growing numbers of wealthy donors. Many impressed me as humble individuals who loved the Lord and sought to use their wealth to further the kingdom of God. They were generous, gracious, and responsible people not at all like the fellow locked in my basement.

I thought, “Jesus, these are your people who love you and have your love in them. Why did you say that it was impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of God? Are not my rich friends already part of your kingdom? From what I can see, they possess the faith and virtue that mark true believers. They seek to use their wealth wisely to advance your kingdom. So what do I do with the rich man story in Mark 10? Were you speaking hyperbolically? Were your words “Go sell all that you have” specifically for him and not generally true for the majority of others? Is the Mark passage one of those Robin Hood verses where you take from the rich and give to the poor in order to redistribute the wealth of the community more equably? Are you suggesting that the only way the rich can get into heaven is to buy their way in by selling all they have? That sounds like salvation by works! Or is there a personal net worth definition of ’rich’ where by the rich man in Mark’s gospel is filthy rich rather that just rich. He exceeded some divine benchmark standard of wealth and therefore incurred a more drastic command? Or is this passage one that only the saints among us apply literally—Saint Francis, Saint Anthony, Mother Teresa —while the rest of us languish in the twilight of mediocrity?”

I had no answers that I could apply to my life at that point. In addition, I had plenty of other challenges to occupy my time such as trying to raise a growing family, meet the expectations of my employer, and pay the mortgage. So I filed the story in an ever expanding mental folder that I call The List of Perplexing Biblical Passages. There it sat undisturbed for many decades. Then something unexpected happened.

I Got Old

Like a cat stalking a mouse, old age silently crept up on me. Body parts started getting stiff. Insurance companies sent me letters each day offering to sell me a Medicare policy. Friends began asking about retirement. I could now claim the senior discount on Southwest airlines. Six of our friends that we knew in college had died of cancer. Almost all of the people we know five years older than us must manage some major health challenge. It dawned on me that I have now entered that zone of life where the next major event that the perpetual Boy Scout in me must begin preparing for may be my own funeral.

My wife and I also discovered that most of the dreams we had chased for forty-six years since our youth had been realized. And to our surprise, we had become rich. The Lord had given us one another, wonderful children and grandchildren, meaningful careers, a vast network of friends, a beautiful home in a lovely neighborhood, and a pension plan. So now what?

A Knock on the Door of My Subconscious

I wondered, “Who do I know who is virtuous and rich, has lived a good life, is now thinking about their death, and is searching for a way to live between today and That Day that will honor the Lord?” One night I heard a knock on the door of my subconscious and a distant voice say, “Come on down to the basement and let’s have a talk. I may be able to help you.”

With fear and trepidation I opened the door and made the descent. We talked for the first time in many years and at his recommendation I decided to reread his story. Then I read it again and again—every day for two month. I read the account in all three gospels, searched the commentaries, and filled my journal with my reflections. I would think about him in the early morning hours and again at sundown. During this season of reflection, I noticed three things.

• The lens through which I see a passage of scripture is greatly influenced by my life stage circumstances. As an idealistic religious twenty year old, I wanted to follow Jesus but I was too embarrassed to admit that I also wanted what the Rich Man had—financial security and community respect. But I didn’t know then what those desires would cost me psychologically. At age sixty-six, having achieved the goals and paid the price, I now want what the Rich Man wants—eternal life.
• The revolutionary Jesus of my youth got bigger, more complex, and more attractive. He is more holy and more compassionate. He is good and wise beyond words. And he is much more patient. He still calls me to do hard things such as deny my self-centered self, take up my cross, and follow him daily. But his call is because he loves me and wants the best for me and his world. He speaks not down to me but with me. He speaks to the rich man as a fellow rich man–the richest in all the universe–and Jesus invites the man to join him on the quest for eternal life.
• I felt compassion for the rich man. At age twenty, I failed to notice his humility, sincerity, and honest heartfelt questions. Unlike the religious scholar in Luke 10 who asked the very same question in an effort to test Jesus and got a different answer, the rich man came open minded. I failed to notice his virtue. He is portrayed as a decent man who took his religion seriously and believed in God and the afterlife. I failed to notice the longing and fervor of his question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Finally, I overlooked the fact that he was deeply affected by the words of Jesus. The text says, “He went away sad.” He was not a hard hearted person. Something Jesus said got under his skin. Unfortunately the story gives us only a brief snapshot of his life. That snapshot fits the purposes of the author which is to tell us the seductive dangers of wealth, but it leaves the character frozen in time. Some scholars wonder whether the rich man in Mark’s gospel was Barnabus from the book of Acts. Did the seed planted take root years later? We will never know but I find that viewing this passage from a hopeful perspective creates possibilities for application that I had not thought about before.

What follows is my reimagined conversation between Jesus and the Rich Man forty-six years after I heard it for the first time.

An Older Man’s Version of the Rich Man Story

As Jesus started on his way to Jerusalem where he was to suffer and die, an elegant looking man ran up to him, humbly fell on his knees in the dirt and said, “Sir, you have the words of eternal life. Your Father in heaven has blessed me beyond measure with family, friends, and fields. As I look down the road, like you, I can see my own death approaching. When I get to death’s door, I believe that it is your name and your sacrifice on my behalf that will get me to the other side. My question is this. How do I live between today and That Day in a way that will honor you and reflect the values of your kingdom? I want to begin experiencing more of that goodness with you now.”

Jesus looked upon the man and loved him. He said, “You are right to identify goodness as a quality of my Father’s kingdom for only he is good. The longer that you live in this world the more you will sense that. So keep pursuing goodness in your life.”

“Sir, I have sought to be a good person by keeping the commands. I have not murdered. Though if thoughts could kill, there would be a few dead bodies on my record. I have not committed adultery in the technical sense, but my wandering eyes and vivid imagination often lead me to places I regret. I sought to honor my parents, but I am glad we are talking about this now rather than in my teenage years. I have tried to not defraud anyone but looking back I can now see that I was born with a cultural advantage and I have done very little to give that up.”

“As you now know, keeping the commands is a good and right effort but it can only get you so far,” said Jesus. I sense that you want a life experience with me that is more authentic and free. Here is what you must do. Let me warn you ahead of time though that what I am about to tell you will be hard to do but it will be worth it. Trust me. I want you to figure out what it is that entraps you to the values of this world and keeps you from embracing the treasures of heaven. It is probably those internal drives that create in you a sense of power and security and have made you successful. It is those qualities that insulate you from the pain and suffering all around you. Finally it is those qualities that will pollute your imagination with darkness and keep you from entering the light. Once you figure out what entraps and hinders you from becoming fully the unique person I created you to be, give it up and let it go.”

“Sir,” said the man, “those are wise words, but they sound more than just hard. They sound impossible. I know myself well enough to know that I am blind to what entraps me much of the time.”

Jesus said, “With God, all things are possible. I am giving you three gifts. The first is my Spirit. I will be with you every step of the way. The second is my church. This process of transformation is a team sport. Find like minded souls who can help you. Thirdly, I have made you to be a unique individual. When you are true to my imprint in the depths of your being, you will experience joy and freedom. When you ignore your true identity, you will experience sadness in some part of your soul. Pay attention to that.”

The man smiled and said, “Sir, I suspect this process is much easier in theory than in practice. I need to go home and think about this some more.”

Jesus replied, “You know where to find me if you have more questions.”

After the man wandered off, Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “I hope we haven’t seen the last of that fellow. I really want the best for him.”

What it Means to Me

For two thousand years, beginning with the first disciples, this story has shocked and intrigued its listeners. It speaks to those who hunger for a deeper and more meaningful life filled with the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty. It has spoken to me in two ways so far.

My Outer World

After sixty-six years on the planet, like most Americans I have acquired stuff, way more than I need for the journey ahead. All that stuff—house, cars, books, lawnmower, artwork, old couch, and sixteen pairs of socks—all need to be cared for, painted, washed, or stored. Added to that is the clutter of meetings, committees, and varied obligations that pull me in numerous directions each day. The word that I hear to both the rich man and me is, “If you want to be free, start simplifying your life.” At some point we may move to a smaller home or condo and now is a good time to start clearing out because it could take a while.

The same principle of focus and simplification applies to my social world. I don’t have the energy to keep up with everything so I am trying to do a few things well rather than a lot poorly. The question that guides us in our decision making is, “How do we use our wealth of both wisdom and material goods to bless the next generation and those less fortunate than us?”

My Inner World

I was given a sensitive physiology at birth. My shyness as a child was the result of feeling overwhelmed much of the time by the world around me. Of the three strategies for dealing with the overwhelmingness of life—take control, run from it, or give them what they want—I chose the latter. Through discipline and hard work, I learned how to meet expectations. That capacity created an internal sense of safety, security, and power. The anxiety that I was not good enough, strong enough, or smart enough, was kept in check though never eliminated. My capacity to meet expectations is my internal wealth.

I hear Jesus say to me and the rich man, “Trust me. I love you both in this life and the next.” On the days when I slow down and get quiet enough to hear those words, I sense some internal part of me start to relax. I feel lighter as I try to let go of taking responsibility of everyone and everything. “God is good and all things are possible with him” is my new mantra.

 

Acknowledgement

I am grateful for the insights of Ronald Rolheiser in his book Sacred Fire: A Vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity concerning this story found in Mark 10:17-31.

Rich Man Artwork: 16×16 Acrylic on Canvas by Steven Stuckey 2014
© Steven A. Stuckey 2014