From the Daily Lectionary for Tuesday in the Fourth Week after Pentecost
Matthew 19:23-30
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
One of the more incisive symbols of our culture is my favorite oxymoron: “the gated community.” It speaks of our post-modern isolation; and of the illusion that we are better off living with “our kind,” apart from the underprivileged who, if they had the chance, would do us harm. The gated community smacks of racism, classism… just about any “ism” one could imagine… and arrogance. It feeds the lie that we can live apart from the rigor of our world, which, in turn, nurtures perhaps the greatest sin of our culture… indifference.
This passage in Matthew makes those of us who are privileged and relatively wealthy squirm, and for good reason. I’ve read commentators that struggle mightily in an effort to soften this condemnation issued by Jesus (and this is one of those “red letter” lines of scripture Jesus probably actually said). These commentators say that “the eye of the needle” is actually a narrow gate in the walls of Jerusalem through which one, if they had a loaded animal with them, a camel or a donkey, would have had to navigate carefully… but certainly not impossible to enter. No, Jesus meant what he said: One can’t enter the kingdom of heaven when one’s “master” is wealth. Wealth has the seductive potential to engender a sense of invulnerability. And Jesus calls us into a radical vulnerability, open to the wounds of the world.
So, two points about this passage, recognizing that Jesus talks a lot about wealth as being a stumbling block to the true way. First, the kingdom of heaven is not about a future utopia, a place where we go after death. The kingdom of heaven is about life on earth as God envisions it. So this is not a polemic about heaven or hell. This is a teaching about living into our true nature on earth, here and now. And second, this is not addressed to the individual; this is addressed to the community. If the community values wealth above all else, then the community will suffer from greed and envy and coercion, which divide and isolate. Remember, salvation is not about a person, but about people. A fixation on wealth as a community’s chief end will result in the dissolution of that community.
We, of course, see this dynamic in our own time. Our government operates under the aegis of wealth and power. Corporate profit is the master of our common life. Taking care of the vulnerable among us is no longer a priority, as if it ever were, and we are seeing the violent results.
With the confluent crises in our midst we have been given an opportunity for repentance. The force of our troubled history cries out for healing. We see now the results of a society driven by the desire for wealth and power. We see now how that ethos is unsustainable. We see the victims in its wake. The question is whether we, as a nation, have the moral will to reorient towards empathy and vulnerability, our true humanity…. The healing of our collective bodies and souls depends upon it. Pray that it may be so, and act as if it is imminently possible…. At least, bury your indifference.
A Prayer for Cities (BCP p. 825)
O God, in your Word you have given us a vision of that holy city to which the nations of the world bring their glory: Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth. Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life. Send us honest and able leaders. Enable us to eliminate poverty, prejudice, and oppression, that peace may prevail with justice, and justice with order, and that men and women from different cultures and with differing talents may find with one another the fulfillment of their humanity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
