If Thou Wilt Be Perfect, Go and Sell That Thou Hast - Matthew 19:16-26

 

^{16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?}

^{17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.}

^{18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,}

^{19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.}

^{20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?}

^{21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.}

^{22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.}

^{23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.}

^{24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.}

^{25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?}

^{26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.}

          St. Gregory of Nyssa says the following about this Gospel reading: " The history regards the rich man to whom the Lord spoke this word as young—the kind of person, I suppose, inclined to enjoy the pleasures of this life—and attached to his possessions; for it says that he was grieved at the advice to part with what he had, and that he did not choose to exchange his property for life eternal. This man, when he heard that a teacher of eternal life was in the neighborhood, came to him in the expectation of living in perpetual luxury, with life indefinitely extended, flattering the Lord with the title of “good,”—flattering, I should rather say, not the Lord as we conceive Him, but as He then appeared in the form of a servant. For his character was not such as to enable him to penetrate the outward veil of flesh, and see through it into the inner shrine of Deity. The Lord, then, Who sees the hearts, discerned the motive with which the young man approached Him as a suppliant,—that he did so, not with a soul intently fixed upon the Divine, but that it was the man whom he besought, calling Him “Good Master,” because he hoped to learn from Him some lore by which the approach of death might be hindered. Accordingly, with good reason did He Who was thus besought by him answer even as He was addressed. For as the entreaty was not addressed to God the Word, so correspondingly the answer was delivered to the applicant by the Humanity of Christ, thereby impressing on the youth a double lesson. For He teaches him, by one and the same answer, both the duty of reverencing and paying homage to the Divinity, not by flattering speeches but by his life, by keeping the commandments and buying life eternal at the cost of all possessions, and also the truth that humanity, having been sunk in depravity by reason of sin, is debarred from the title of “Good”: and for this reason He says, “Why callest Thou Me good?” suggesting in His answer by the word “Me” that human nature which encompassed Him, while by attributing goodness to the Godhead He expressly declared Himself to be good, seeing that He is proclaimed to be God by the Gospel."

          St. Nikolai Velimirovich likewise comments on the young man's words, 'What good thing shall I do?' saying, "This question was obviously in the context of his riches, as is usually the case with the rich, who cannot see a distinction between themselves and their possessions, nor think of themselves without thinking of their possessions."

          Our Lord responds by telling the man to keep the commandments, but had in mind a deeper spiritual way to keep them. We do well to consider some of these spiritual interpretations of the commands listed by Christ.

          St. Nikolai says, "'Thou shalt do no murder' means: over much pampering of the body in riches and luxury kills the soul. 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' means: the soul is intended for God as a bride for her husband; if the soul occupies itself with love for worldly riches and brilliance, for luxury and transitory pleasure, it thus commits adultery against its immortal Husband, God. 'Thou shalt not steal' means: do not steal from the soul for the body's benefit; do not steal the time, care or toil that you should devote to the soul and give them to the body. 'Thou shalt not bear false witness' means: do not in any way justify love for riches and the neglect of your soul, for that is the distortion of God's truth, and a false witness before God and your conscience. 'Honor your father and mother' means: do not give respect and honor only to yourself, for it will be to your loss; honor your father and mother, through whom you have come into this world, that you may in this way give honor to God, from whom you came, both you and your parents."

          Commenting on the command to 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' Blessed Theophylact says, "For no one who loves his neighbor as himself is wealthier than his neighbor," calling us to really examine the way in which we use our wealth.

          Commenting on our Lord's words, 'go and sell that thou hast', St. Nikolai interprets it as the Lord saying, "Go and show yourself to be master of your possessions, and not they of you. In reality, your possessions have hold of you, not you of them."

          But there is still even here the temptation to fulfill the works of the law without truly advancing into the Likeness of God.

          Blessed Theophylact warns, "But since there are some who give alms but who lead a life full of every kind of filth, He adds, 'and come and follow Me,; that is, possess every other virtue as well."

           St. John Chrysostom gives advice on how we today can undo the idolatry of worshipping riches saying, "How is it possible for him that is once sunk in such lust of wealth, to recover himself? If he begin to empty himself of his possessions, and cut off what are superfluous."

          He uses a fitting illustration to explain the need to transform our thinking if we are to free ourselves from the delusion of love of riches, saying: "If you have ever had an absurd desire to fly and to be borne through the air, how would you extinguish this unreasonable desire? By fashioning wings, and preparing other instruments, or by convincing the mind that it is desiring things impossible, and that one should attempt none of these things? It is quite plain, that by convincing the mind. But that, you may say, is impossible. But this again is more impossible, to find a limit for this desire. For indeed it is more easy for men to fly, than to make this lust cease by an addition of more."

          May we beg the Lord to deliver us from the delusion of love of riches and pleasures of the world. It is tempting to want both the pleasures of this world and eternal life, but we learn from this account in today's Gospel reading that it is not possible. To gain eternal life, we must begin today in a life-long progression of emptying ourselves as our Lord did out of love for God and our brothers. Then we will be truly rich, beholding the ineffable beauty of the countenance of our God in the divine palace of His glory for all eternity. Amen.

         

Matthew 18:23-35 The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

 

²³ Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. ²⁴ And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. ²⁶ The servant therefore fell down, and worshiped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. ²⁷ Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. ²⁹ And his fellow-servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. ³⁰ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. ³¹ So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. ³² Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: ³³ Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? ³⁴ And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. ³⁵ So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

          When we hear this sad parable, we might wonder how it is that our Lord compared this story to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is amazing how our Lord could teach the whole Gospel with each of His illustrations.

          We can we see the importance of the Church and her Life-giving Mysteries clearly taught in this parable.

          We see a man that has a debt of 10,000 talents which symbolize man's many sins, especially the sins that we Christians have incurred from hearing the thousands of Life-giving words read and sung in Church and not putting these talents to good use.

          But fortunately our Loving Lord calls each of us to Himself, requiring a settlement of accounts. He does this knowing that He will forgive our debt on the condition that we repent and begin to use the Life-giving talents in a useful way, imitating the self-sacrificing example of our Lord, Jesus. He gives us the Mysteries of Baptism for those coming to Christ, and Confession, the baptism of tears, for Christians that have fallen into sin.

          Our Lord threatens us with being stripped of our family and being sold to help us see our miserable condition, that of being stripped of the gifts of God, namely the Holy Spirit.

          But as the great St. John Chrysostom says, this was said "to alarm him by this threat, that He might bring him to supplication, not that he should be sold."

          He also wanted to teach man how great a deliverance was bestowed upon him, so that he would become more mild towards his fellow-servants.

          The story, sadly ends with the man going straight from being forgiven his debt to punishing a fellow-servant for not paying an insignificant debt. We learn that it is a great error to believe the heresy of "once saved, always saved." We must struggle against sin the rest of our lives, but we have the Church and Her Mysteries and the Holy angels and Saints as our aid.

          Up until this point, the illustration was about life currently before our death or our Lord's second coming, but at this point it transitions to the time of our death or the Lord's coming.

          We know that at our death, angels and demons will battle over ownership of our soul, and whether we are more Godlike or Devil-like, we will be claimed by one or the other. Our lord will allow the demons to take away those that did not come to repentance and imitate our Lord's mercy to his fellow man.

          And although God is all-knowing, he allows man and the angels the opportunity to pray to God about these problems to help them to practice their love of good and hatred of evil.

          We see that now, God calls the man wicked, whereas before even though he owed him 10,000 talents in sin he didn't call him wicked or reproach him, but showed mercy on him. How important it is to show mercy to our fellow-servants.

          Then we see the terrifying threat of Hell taught by the words, "The Lord delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him." That is forever; for he will never repay.

          May we always turn to the Lord in repentance for our many transgressions, trusting in His great mercy, while imitating such mercy to our fellow man, so that our Lord will grant us passage to the heavenly Kingdom, the Church Triumphant. Amen.