“…Keep the Commandments."
12th Sunday after The Trinity / Pentecost
1 Corinthians 15:1-1; Matthew 19:16-26
When the young man sought to gain eternal life, Christ said to him:
"If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matthew 19:17)
This seems clear, but the young man asks Jesus:
"Which ones?"
And Jesus replied:
"’Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness. You shall honour your father and mother, and, Love your neighbour as yourself.’" (Matt. 19:18-19)
The young man said to Him:
"All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?"
And so, Christ decided to confirm what else the young man lacked, to help the young man realize it for himself, and so He suggested to him:
"If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me."
Did the young man do so? No. "When the young man heard this, he went away, sorrowful, for he had great possessions." (Matt. 19:20-22)
And so, this young man was not perfect. He was not a thief; he seemed to live according to the Commandments of God, but he was far from perfection, from accomplishment. Christ called him to be one of His disciples, but before that, He set a condition that the young man should reveal what was most precious to him...
If Christ had agreed to take him as a disciple while retaining his possessions, he would have gone, but he would have been an imperfect disciple: under the threat of losing his possessions, he would have betrayed the Truth of God, Christ. The Lord, as a seer of souls, knew this, and He only wanted to reveal this imperfection to people and to the young man himself.
Essentially, the young man sinned against the first Commandment of God: "I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other gods before me." (The Second Book of Moses. Exodus 20:2-3) He loved wealth and possessions more than the true God. Additionally, the acknowledgement of the one God might be acceptable only with the continued possession of one’s worldly goods...
Let us not deceive ourselves and our children, as Taras Shevchenko said. Let us not think that only uncivilized populations or primitive tribes in New Guinea or Africa or the virgin forests of Brazil believe in many gods and have idols.
Whatever we give primacy to in our hearts, in our aspirations, is our god, our idol.
The young man could not accept Christ's prescription for healing because he loved his possessions above all else. That is why the Lord said:
"Truly, I tell you, it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 19,23)
Obviously, it is not wealth itself that is evil, but the trouble is that wealth often possesses a person, takes over human aspiration, and then it is not the Truth of God that takes precedence in a person, but the desire to possess, to use wealth, assets.
Even the lowliest beggar, a poor man of ordinary means, can have this idol-god in his intentions: the first priority being the acquisition of material treasures. It also happens that people with education or even great social (including governmental) responsibility, in their imagination and aspirations, give primacy not to the true God, but to things subordinate. Even though these people may be formal confessors of the one God, the place of that God in their convictions is somewhere secondary. Here are several life examples:
1. When the Americans landed on the moon for the first time, the president of the United States said:
"This is the greatest historical event since the creation of the world."
As great as this event is, we Christians realize that the statement of the President of the United States is a great mistake.
2. A 100-year-old judge in Pennsylvania, when asked by a reporter about the greatest event in the world, said:
"The greatest event in the world is the invention of the automobile."
It should be clear to all Christians who are conscious of their faith, and even to all thinking historians, that the coming of the Son of God to earth is the greatest event in the world. The coming of the Son of God to earth, his incarnation as a human being, changed the course of human history in most countries of the world.
Neither the landing of people on the moon, nor the invention of the automobile, nor the invention of an airplane, a rocket for flying into space, nor the invention of any other machine or apparatus can be compared to the coming of Christ the Saviour to the earth.
A person can reach the Moon and other planets of the solar system, or even the stars, if God wills it, but this will not make him happier or more spiritually perfect. The greatest happiness for man is when he achieves unity with his Creator through the Lord Jesus Christ, when he feels that his spiritual perfection is approaching the all-embracing perfection of God.
There is a true story about a scientist who traveled to the north of Saskatchewan to study nature, minerals, and so on. He planned to explore many rivers and lakes in the north. He was being transported by an indigenous guide in a boat, and the scientist asked the First Nations man if he had ever studied geography, botany, zoology, or geometry, and he sincerely admitted that he had never studied those sciences.
Suddenly, the boat hit an underwater snag or rock and capsized. The professor screamed in fright. The indigenous guide asked him:
- "Do you know how to swim?"
- "No," the scientist answered.
The guide rescued the scientist, pulled him to the shore, but told him that if he was going to a place where there were many unexplored rivers and lakes, he would have to learn to swim first, and then study all kinds of sciences.
Indeed, it is true: the scholar knew a lot of things, but he did not know the most essential for preserving life on water. We travel the road of life; most people do not know how their life will turn out, what stones or snags they may encounter, what traps and pitfalls lie ahead, how many hidden and open temptations there are on that road.
But the main thing is that we always stay, live, and travel with Christ, with His light, so that we always have a support in Him. The Lord Himself testified:
"I am the Light of the world." (John 9:5)
In His divine teaching lies all the truth of life for achieving perfection, to be worthy of "having eternal life". (Matt. 19:16) In this sense, we also perceive Christ's figurative expression:
"I am the way, the truth, and the life." (Jhn. 14:6)
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
