Perspective: One Story, Three Writers, Many Lessons

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One Story, Three Writers, Many Lessons

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

Mark 10:21 (NRSV)

I wanna love because You loved

I wanna give because You gave

I wanna reach my hand out to the lost

'Cause I know Your hand can save

From "Only You Can Save" by Chris Sligh

I've read a certain Bible story three times over the last few months.

One day, a man approached Jesus and asked, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus responded.  "No one is good but God alone.  You know the commandments: 'You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.'"

"I have kept all these since my youth," the man replied.

"You lack one thing," Jesus said.  "Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

When the man heard Jesus' words, he was saddened, because he owned many possessions.¹

This familiar story from the Gospels is a reminder of how easy it is to allow materialism to distract us from what truly matters in life.  When I say that I've read it three times recently, I mean that I've read three different versions of it.  This singular story is found in the New Testament three times.  Each version is slightly different from the others, because each writer brings a different perspective to the story.

The moniker commonly given to the man in the story - the "Rich Young Ruler" - is, in itself, a testament to the multiple versions of the story.  Luke is the only writer who explicitly describes the man as rich.  In the other versions of the story, we could infer that he is rich from the fact that he has many possessions, but we could also suppose that he is simply a middle-class person who owns a lot of stuff that keeps him preoccupied.  Matthew is the only writer who describes the man as young, and Luke is the only writer who identifies him as a ruler.

Luke is typically known for emphasizing Jesus' concern for the underprivileged in his Gospel.  Adam Hamilton refers to the Gospel of Luke as "The Gospel of the Nobodies."²  I think that maybe a concern for the underprivileged can lead a person to be extra critical of the privileged.  The man who approaches Jesus is vested with more privilege in Luke's version of the story than in either of the other two, for Luke places him in both the economic upper class and the ruling class.  Perhaps the Gospel of Luke could also be called the "Stick-It-to-the-Man Gospel."

Scholars generally agree that Matthew and Luke both used Mark's Gospel as a guide when they compiled their own.  In the past, I've praised St. Luke for his storytelling abilities, but, ironically, I find his version of the story of the Rich Young Ruler the least interesting.  In this case, Matthew actually did more to flesh out the story than Luke.

Matthew, in his version of the story, adds certain bits of dialogue that call to mind other themes found in his Gospel.  When Jesus lists five of the Ten Commandments for the rich man, he also includes what he will later identify as the second greatest commandment, the command to love one's neighbor as oneself.  Jesus claims that this commandment, along with the greatest commandment to love God with all one's heart, soul, and mind, forms the basis for all other commandments.³  The other five commandments Jesus lists all deal with the way we love other people.

Also, in Matthew's version of story, Jesus tells the rich man to sell his possessions and to give the proceeds to the poor if he wishes to be perfect.  This calls to mind Jesus' exhortation from Sermon on the Mount - which found earlier in the Gospel of Matthew - to "be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect."  To be perfect is to love indiscriminately, in the same way that God "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous."⁴  The rich man has done a decent job of keeping the Commandments thus far, but cultivating a love for the poor is perhaps the next step on his journey to perfection.

The version of the story I find most compelling is St. Mark's, which is thought to be the original.  Mark's telling of the story conveys certain emotions we do not see in either of the others, specifically the rich man's reverence for Jesus and Jesus' affection for the rich man.  In this version, the rich man runs to Jesus and kneels before Him when asking his question.  Mark also takes care to note that Jesus says what He says to the rich man out of love for him.  Jesus loves the underprivileged, but it is important to also remember that He loves the privileged as well.  Out of love for the privileged, He challenges them to share His love for the underprivileged.

Many different lessons can be learned from a singular story.  So often, we approach the Bible looking for a single correct interpretation, but, if Mark, Matthew, and Luke employed their insight and and creativity when writing the Gospels, I think we are free to do the same when reading them.  Not all interpretations of Scripture are equally good, so, when reading the Bible, we must keep God's love in the forefront of our minds, as the Gospel writers did.  With God's love as our compass, we will not go off course.

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For other lessons I've mined from the story of the Rich Young Ruler, check out my perspective "The Cost of a Free Gift" and my sermon "The Measure of Success."


Notes:

1. This is based on Matthew 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-22, and Luke 18:18-23.  In my telling of the story, I tried to omit anything that is unique to any single version of the story.  Quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version.
2. http://www.cor.org/content/gospel-nobodies
3. Matthew 22:34-40
4. Matthew 5:43-48 (NRSV)

Christ and the Rich Young Ruler was painted by Heinrich Hofmann in 1889.