Obtaining Eternal Life

If you wanted an account from the gospels that speaks to our culture today, and if, in order to do so, you could choose only one parable from the four accounts of the life and ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ during the time between His Theophany and His resurrection from the dead, the reading today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew might be the best choice. The parable of the rich young man in the Gospel according to St. Matthew captures who we are in this time and place, shaped as we are by the society in which we live. He has everything that anyone could want: comfort, ease, and the ability to obtain whatever he wants. Yet, having all this, he is still unsatisfied, and he knows he is missing something – he does not have eternal life. It is this that draws him to our Lord, and to ask what he must do to obtain this life that will not end.

Our Lord begins with the basics: He says, “Keep the commandments.” Remember that this dialogue is taking place in a culture that considered itself to be God’s chosen people, to whom God had given the Ten Commandments, and other detailed aspects on what was acceptable to God, and what was not – over six hundred “laws” within the Law. Presumably, this young man, being well off, would also have been well educated, and so would have known this. Now, you would think that this answer would have been enough – keep the commandments – but the young man wants to make the task less difficult, and so he asks, “Which ones?”

Jesus takes him to the next step, listing that portion of the Ten Commandments dealing with our relations with others: do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; and honor your father and your mother. He adds as well the second part of the summary of the Law He taught to His followers: love your neighbor as you love yourself. The young man says, I have lived this way since I was a child. What do I still lack? Putting that another way, he is asking, I have done these things, so why am I still unhappy?

He is then given the final instruction: Go, sell what you have, and give it to the poor, and then come and follow Me. He departs from the scene, deeply troubled because, we are told, he had a great many possessions. We never learn what decision he made as he struggled with his desire to live eternally and with his attachment to his possessions.

The truth is, each one of us is the rich young man. Even though we may think of ourselves as being followers of Christ – and we are, to one degree or another – we live today more comfortably than most other people on the face of the earth, and with more comfort and ease than even emperors and kings of old enjoyed. We look around, see the mansions on the hillsides with their luxury cars and people dressed in the finest clothing with jewelry and rich food and all the amenities that wealth can provide, and we think to ourselves, “Oh, if only I could live like that, I would be happy!” We should already know, based on this Gospel reading, that wealth by itself, nor any of the things that wealth can obtain, can truly make us happy. We should already know that the only true source of happiness is to be developing our relationship with God, and living in that relationship with each other. But we don’t usually think about these things, not nearly as often as we think about what we want to obtain – even as we already have so much! We need to stop focusing on what others have, stop thinking about what we think we lack, and instead give thanks to God for blessing us with so many good things. We need to remember that the greatest gift of all is the gift the young man was seeking: eternal life, which is freely offered to us through our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

Each one of us is the rich young man, asking, “What good thing must I do to have eternal life?” The answer is, nothing. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve eternal life. We do not have the strength or power to do so, apart from the Lord. The good news is that He has already completed the task; He has already obtained eternal life for us. Our part is to believe that this is true; and in this belief, this faith, this trust, to follow Him, which is done best by living the Orthodox way: praying, fasting, struggling against our passions, giving from what God has given to us to support the work of the Church and to help those in need; by loving and forgiving, by being patient and gentle.

What of the command to sell all that we have and give to the poor? Consider this: If you had nothing, no possessions, you have nothing to lose. No thief or robber can disturb you by taking anything away. If you have no possessions, even the government is no threat, apart from your life. And if you have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that He died on the Cross and rose to life without end from the grave, then even those who would threaten your life have no power over you, because you know that the life we have here in this world is nothing more than a prelude, the threshold to life without end. To have no possessions – not even considering your life to be a possession, but belonging instead to God alone – you are truly free to follow Christ. So, brothers and sisters, let us ask our Lord for the grace to be set free from the things we acquire in this life, seeking nothing in this world, but working instead to set aside for ourselves treasures in heaven; and for grace to be faithful followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, rather than followers of the world and of wealth.