The Rich Young Man
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ÒGood teacher,Ó he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
ÒWhy do you call me good?Ó Jesus answered. ÒNo one is
good Ð except God alone. You know the commandments: ÔDo not murder, do not
commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud,
honor your father and mother.ÕÓ
ÒTeacher,Ó he declared, Òall these I have kept since I
was a boy.Ó
Jesus, looking at him, loved him. ÒOne thing you
lack,Ó he said. ÒGo, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.Ó
At this the manÕs face fell. He went away sad, because
he had great wealth.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ÒHow
hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!Ó
The disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus
said again, ÒChildren, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God.Ó
The disciples were even more astonished, and said to
each other, ÒWho then can be saved?Ó
Jesus looked at them and said, ÒWith man this is
impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.Ó
Mark 10:17-27
To me, this is one of the
most tender, and one of the saddest, stories in the gospels. The story is
familiar. So familiar, in fact, that we sometimes miss the intensity of the
drama, the passion, in this little vignette.
You can feel the deep desire of the young man to follow the Way. He must have heard of Jesus, or seen him before, and felt his heart pulling him. He runs up to Jesus and falls onto his knees in front of him. ÒPlease tell me what I must do,Ó he begs. During their little interchange about the commandments, Jesus sees the young manÕs sincerity. ÒLooking at him, he loved him.Ó The man really wants the kingdom, and Jesus wants it for him.
But the young man is clinging to something, part of him is holding back. Jesus sees right where he is stuck and goes for it. Property, possessions, wealth. ÒSell it all. Give it away. Then you will be free to follow me.Ó
The young man is crushed. He face falls. He canÕt do it. He is clinging and canÕt let go of his wealth. And he goes away sorrowing. And Jesus, also, is sad. You can hear it in his response. ÒHow hard it is.Ó ÒIt is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.Ó
The disciples, on the other hand are dumbfounded. We have been told that in JesusÕ day, being wealthy was a sign of GodÕs favor. But I donÕt think that is any different from our own day. The people who are most admired are the rich and famous. As Lev Tevya says in Fiddler on the Roof:
If I were a rich man,
The most important men in town
will come to fawn on me.
They will ask me to advise them
like a Solomon the wise,
posing questions that would cross a rabbiÕs eyes.
And it wonÕt make one bit of difference
if I answer right or wrong.
If youÕre rich, they think you really know.
ÒIf youÕre rich, they think you really know.Ó Even we, who may wish to think we are not swayed by the fact of someoneÕs wealth, are not really immune, are we? We are more likely to trust the opinion of someone who is wealthy or powerful or who has status or prestige. I, at least, gravitate more towards someone who is neatly dressed than towards the shabbily clad people at the east end of Union Street, whom I try not to see as I drive home from BTS.
I donÕt think that Jesus is merely giving a diatribe against the rich. But money is problematic. It is hard not to cling to it. In my own life, I have noticed that in those times when I didnÕt have any money, I wished I did. And in those times when I had some, I found myself thinking about how to keep it Ð save it for my retirement, whenever that may be.
Money is a problem, but
itÕs not the only one. Anything we cling to, anything at all, is our wealth. A
rich person is someone who is holding on to anything. That is, it is all of us.
We all cling. We are all rich in this way. ÒIt is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of
God,Ó Jesus says. He is speaking to each one of us.
One of the methods of Zen training is the systematic study of koans. A koan is a paradox, a conundrum, which cannot be understood with the rational mind. The most commonly known koan Ð which is nearly always misquoted Ð is: ÒWhat is the sound of one hand?Ó Responding to a koan requires going beyond ordinary thinking. Rather, it requires a leap to another level of comprehension. We tell people to Òjust sitÓ with a koan. DonÕt think about it.
One koan is the question, ÒHow do you step forward from the top of a hundred foot pole?Ó The explanation that is given for this koan is:
You who sit on the top of a hundred-foot pole,
although
you have entered the Way, it is not genuine.
Take a
step from the top of the pole
and
worlds of the Ten Directions are your total body.
Not much of an explanation, is it?
This koan
is actually about spiritual attainment. ÒYou who have entered the WayÓ is the
Zen way of talking about those who have acquired some understanding but are not
yet fully enlightened. They are sitting on top of a hundred foot pole, holding
on for dear life. How can they go
forward? They have experienced some awakening and are proud of it. TheyÕre
clinging to it for all theyÕre worth. And the only way to move on, to actually
enter the kingdom of God, is to step off that pole. To pass camel-like through
the needleÕs eye.
We
seminarians might, just might, be in a somewhat similar position. We might
think that now we really know
something. WeÕve studied the scriptures, and now we understand them. WeÕve
studied theology, and now we know a lot about God. WeÕve learned ethics and
pastoral care and done mentored practice. And now we even know how to preach.
Now we have really found God.
Well, we
may not really think weÕve found God. And seminary can be more humbling than
ego-inflating. Yet, spiritual pride is always a danger in the religious
professions. Those to whom we minister see us as better than we know we are,
and we run the risk of believing them. We represent God to many, and we are
always in danger of believing that we really represent God.
Anything,
anything at all, that we have or have done or are, can be the riches that
prevent us from entering the kingdom. Anything we identify with, any
self-identification, that we cling to. We have to constantly be in a process of
letting go if we wish to enter that kingdom.
It is not
only things that we are proud of that we cling to. My husband and I used to run
a Zen group in a maximum security prison in New York. The guys who came to the
group had sentences of twenty-five or forty years to life. They had all
committed murder or rape or larceny. Stef presented the hundred foot pole koan
to them and had them meditate on it for awhile. At the end of the day, he asked
each inmate to present his understanding without using words. One of the
inmates got up and started digging. He dug and dug and dug. Then he jumped into
his ÒholeÓ and shouted: ÒI donÕt have a hundred foot pole. I have a hundred
foot hole, and itÕs full of my own shit!Ó Then he clawed at the air, as is
trying, unsuccessfully, to claw his way out. He had a deep realization that he
was living in his own excrement and clinging to it. He couldnÕt let go of it.
The rest of us all sat stunned, horrified. He too was a rich young man who
couldnÕt get through the eye of the needle, and he knew it. It was every bit as
sad as the gospel story.
Anything,
anything at all, that we cling to prevents us from entering the kingdom of God.
It is all baggage in our hands that prevents us from passing through the eye of
the needle. The trouble is, we are human. Our inclination is to hold tightly to
whatever we have. Even when we begin to see what a trap that is and start
letting go, as soon as we have dropped one thing, we start clinging to the
next. We hop from hundred-foot pole to hundred-foot pole. Somehow, each time,
we fail to see that weÕre doing it again. And each time, we hold on for dear
life, until something makes us realize that this is just another hundred-foot
pole. And we let go again. Maybe for just a few seconds. But, if we want to
enter the kingdom, we have to keep on letting go. As soon as we see that weÕre
holding on Ð drop it. Until, finally, we run out of things to hold on to.
The
mystics knew all about this clinging. Much of their writing is about stripping
away everything that we think or believe or hold onto, first about ourselves,
and then about God. Any ideas or opinions that we hold prevent us from seeing.
Any thought or belief we may have about God will keep us from experiencing God.
The
German mystic Meister Eckhart, in his radical sermon ÒBlessed Are the Poor in
Spirit,Ó says that the truly poor in spirit neither know nor desire nor have
God. In order to be united with God, we must be empty of knowledge of God or
desire for God. In fact, Òwe pray God that we may be free of God.Ó It is only
when we are completely empty that we are poor enough to be united with God.
This all
sounds very highfalutin, doesnÕt it? But it is not far away or difficult. We
are all given moments of such emptiness. Moments when we are out in nature,
perhaps, and we lose ourselves. All of a sudden there is only bird song. Or
stream. Or sunshine. Moments when we are with someone and we feel their pain as
our own. Our selves drop out of the equation.
To consciously enter into emptiness requires making a choice. Deciding that this is what we want. And then we will begin to notice where we are sticking. What we are holding on to. What our riches are. And we can choose to drop whatever comes up. Moment by moment, thing by thing, we can open our hands and let go.
When we make this choice, grace is given. The grace necessary to carry it to completion. As Jesus said, it is impossible for humans as humans to make this choice, to become empty. But with God, or through Enlightened Nature, it becomes possible. It becomes possible for us to allow our hands, our minds, our hearts to be emptied. To be open. It takes persistence and courage, but it is possible. It becomes possible to sell all that we have, to let go of all that to which we cling. It becomes possible to jump from that hundred-foot pole. It becomes possible for us camels to shed our humps and pass through the eye of the needle. We will be carried into the kingdom of heaven.