I am prepared to let the rich young ruler of Matthew 19 off the hook, at least to some level. He came to Jesus and asked him what was needed to get eternal life. Jesus recited some of the ten commandments and was told that the young man did them all religiously. (my attempt at intentional irony) Then Jesus told him to get rid of his stuff and follow Him. As you know, the young man left sorrowfully because he had a lot of stuff.
It is at this point that we preachers get all sanctimonious and condemn the young man for putting his stuff before following Christ. But the young man is not totally to blame because he had never seen that lifestyle displayed by anyong else who had a lot of stuff. I imagine that he thought of all the guff he would receive if he took such a radical step. His parents would accuse him of wasting what they worked so hard to provide for him. The local church would see the lost tithe revenue and would caution him to think through such a major decision. They would be quick to tell him that he could do a lot of good over many years by continuing to "steward his resources" in such a way that they would continue to grow. He was being asked by Jesus to throw away the old model of the solid blessed believer and write a completely new model, and he was scared to do that. Small wonder. There was not an incubating environment for that kind of radical devotion to God.
We have a lot of stuff today. I am blogging on a church owned computer connected to a network and in an air conditioned office provided by the church. Does this stuff enhance or inhibit our effectiveness for Christ? I don't have that answer in this post, but I do have another question. What if we had a clear indication that God wanted us to sell our property and use the proceeds to finance micro-congregations who met specific needs for specific parts of town? Would our response be any different from that of the rich young ruler?
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