A Humbled Resistance

A Response to The Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President

 

Biblical Texts Evaluated

 

 

The Rich Young Ruler

 

One of the key passages in Claiborne’s gospel theology comes from the accounts of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man or rich young ruler.  I’ll provide Matthew’s account below.  Luke’s and Mark’s accounts are found in Luke 18:18-30 and Mark 10:17-30 respectively.

 

 

^ESV Matthew 19:16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" ¹⁷ And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." ¹⁸ He said to him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, ¹⁹ Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ²⁰ The young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" ²¹ Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." ²² When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. ²³ And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." ²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" ²⁶ But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." ²⁷ Then Peter said in reply, "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" ²⁸ Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰ But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

 

 

Claiborne often refers to this story in TIR.  Below I will provide those sections of the book where he describes his understanding of the text.  These quotes are long because it is important to see them in context.  I will hold off on evaluating the statements until after presenting all of the texts.

 

He recalls a chapel service where Rich Mullins spoke while he was at Wheaton College: 

 

Rich stood up in chapel and said, “You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great.  We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus.  But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too… [And he paused in the awkward silence.]  But I guess that’s why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.”  (TIR  98-99)

 

He then goes deeper a few pages later:

 

 

I heard one of the teaching pastors at Willow Creek speak on the rich young ruler text that Rich had talked about in Wheaton’s chapel.  The teaching pastor said, “Now that doesn’t mean you have to go sell your rollerblades and golf clubs,” and he went on to “contextualize” the teaching to show that we just need to be careful not to make idols of our things.  I wasn’t so sure about that.  Jesus doesn’t tell the man to be a better steward, or to treat his workers fairly, or not to make money an idol.  He tells this highly educated and devoutly religious young man that he lacks one thing:  giving up everything he owns to give to the poor.  Rich Mullins used to say that’s because there are a lot of people coming to the Banquet, and God doesn’t want all the luggage to deal with.

 

THE UNCOMFORTABLE CROSS

I decided to look a little closer at some of the rich young ruler text, which appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  After Jesus’ teaching that you must enter the kingdom like a little kid, a wealthy man comes up and asks Jesus what he needs to do, and Jesus tells him he lacks one little thing. (“Lacks” is an interesting word to use, since the rich man thought he had everything.) And what might that one thing be?  You can almost see him get excited.  Then Jesus drops the big one: “Sell everything you have and give it to the poor!”  The man’s face sinks and he walks away with his riches.

 

I think it broke Jesus’ heart to let the man walk away. The text says that Jesus looks at him and “loves him” as he walks away.  But Jesus doesn’t run after the man saying, “Hey, it’s a journey, just give half,” or, “Start with 10 percent.”  He simply lets the man choose his wealth.

 

In our culture of “seeker sensitivity” and radical inclusivity, the great temptation is to compromise the cost of discipleship in order to draw a larger crowd.  With the most sincere hearts, we do not want to see anyone walk away from Jesus because of the discomfort of his cross, so we clip the claws on the Lion a little, we clean up a bit of bloody Passion we are called to follow.  I think this is why the disciples react as they do.  They protest in awe, “Who then can be saved?”  (“Why must you make it so hard?  We need some rich folks here, Jesus, we’re trying to build a movement.”)  And yet Jesus lets him walk away.

 

Jesus doesn’t exclude rich people; he just lets them know their rebirth will cost them everything they have.  The story is not so much about whether rich folks are welcome as it is about the nature of the kingdom of God, which has an ethic and economy diametrically opposed to those of the world.  Rather than accumulating stuff for oneself, followers of Jesus abandon everything, trusting in God alone for providence. (TIR  103-104)

 

He continues to apply his understanding in a later section:

 

No wonder it is easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom, as Jesus said to the rich young ruler.  That doesn’t mean rich people are excluded or not welcome.  It means that it is nearly impossible for them to catch the vision of interdependent community, dependent on God and one another.  Rich folks, while they may be spiritually starving for God and community, still believe the illusion that they are self-sufficient autonomous individuals, and that belief is incompatible with the gospel that says wherever two or more are gathered, God is among us.  And yet, “nothing is impossible,” as the text in Mark 10 says. Rocks can cry out, donkeys can talk, dead people can come to life, and rich people can release their riches and enter the kingdom of God.  Yes!  (TIR  181-182)

 

The Comparison to Nicodemus

These quotes tell us quite a bit about Claiborne’s definitions of the cross, the gospel, and rebirth.

 

When Rich Mullins compares what Jesus said to Nicodemus about the necessity to be born again to what he said to the rich young ruler, is that an appropriate comparison?  Here is the story of Nicodemus from the gospel of John:

 

^ESV John 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." ³ Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" ⁵ Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'

 

When the rich young ruler approached Jesus, he asked, “…what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  He sought, as is our human tendency, to accomplish his own salvation by doing whatever was required.  Claiborne leaves out an important part of the story as he recalls it. Jesus refers the man to God’s Law. We see this pattern39 throughout the New Testament: Law to the proud and grace to the broken, contrite, and humble.  The Law was given to lead us to Christ (Gal 3:24) by removing all pretense of self-righteousness and revealing to us our sin (Rom 3:19-20; 7:7) and need for a savior.  When the man claimed to have kept all of God’s law since his youth, Jesus knew the man needed a clearer understanding of God’s law, for he had not been broken and he still thought himself righteous before God.  Jesus exposed the man’s devotion to his other “god” (his wealth) by telling him to go and sell it all and give it to the poor.  It was a specific command to a specific individual that was given to expose his sin.

 

Nicodemus came to Jesus in a much different way.  He came to Jesus by night, probably so that his fellow Pharisees would not see him, and he simply made a statement that he believed that Jesus must be a teacher from and with God.  To borrow a phrase from Claiborne, here is where “Jesus drops the big one,” and notice to whom it applies: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God… unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."  Here Jesus is speaking a universal rule; it is not until verse seven that he applies it to Nicodemus individually.

 

In Claiborne’s rush to disagree with the Willow Creek pastor on the extent of the action Jesus required of the man (sell it all, not a part…), he failed to grasp what the pastor was trying to tell him.  By “contextualizing” the text (putting it in its context to see what the writer was talking about—usually considered a good idea) the pastor was (hopefully) demonstrating that this was a specific command to a specific individual for a specific purpose, and we can learn from it that no matter how self-righteous we may be, we are all sinners.  The rich young ruler had another god and was a violator of God’s Law.  It is important to understand that he was not “just barely missing the kingdom.”  It’s true that he lacked one thing and it was a big one: perfect righteousness (apart from Christ we all lack that one thing).  This man could no more go and sell his possessions and give them to the poor than he could flap his arms and fly.  It wasn’t in his nature.  It would have required a miracle, a new nature.  It required a new birth.

 

Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus teaches that a person must be born again40 to enter the kingdom of heaven.  This is a universal truth.  No one will enter the kingdom of God who has not been born again.  On the other hand, Jesus commanded the rich young ruler to go and sell his possessions and give the money to the poor. On another occasion he told a woman to “go and call your husband and come here” (John 4:16).  Neither of these is a universal command, nor was either ever intended to be a universal call.

 

From this point on in the book, we see that Claiborne applies the “go and sell all that you have and give to the poor” as a universal requirement41 .  We begin to see this in some of the texts quoted above.  He follows through with the rich young ruler application: “He tells this highly educated and devoutly religious young man that he lacks one thing:  giving up everything he owns to give to the poor.”  As if this would have been his ticket to heaven, that one act that would have completed his self-justification.  If he were able, being dead in trespasses and sins, to raise himself to spiritual life, then he could have saved himself.

 

When the disciples saw the rich young ruler turn away dejected, they were blown away.  In their culture this man was no doubt considered the best of the best.  The wealthy were considered to be worthy of more honor than the poor (something Jesus proved to be wrong by his life and teaching).  He was also a well-respected righteous (by human standards) man.  When the disciples saw that he could not be saved, they were stricken with the realization that if he wasn’t good enough, they were all in deep trouble. “Then who can be saved?”  Jesus doesn’t answer that it is “hard,” nor does he answer that it is “nearly impossible.”  With man it is impossible.  Thanks be to God that is not the end of the story: “but with God all things are possible” even the salvation of a rich man.

 

Claiborne continues to show his belief that the wealth is the issue when he says “Jesus doesn’t exclude rich people; he just lets them know their rebirth will cost them everything they have…  Rather than accumulating stuff for oneself…” He also strongly implies it where he states “and rich people can release their riches and enter the kingdom of God.”

 

The Disciples

 

Claiborne attempts to demonstrate how the command to the rich young ruler is the norm for all followers of Christ.

 

Rather than accumulating stuff for oneself, followers of Jesus abandon everything, trusting in God alone for providence. The disciples start to get it, saying, “We have left everything to follow you.” (TIR  174)

 

What we see here is a false assumption about the disciples applied to all followers of Christ.  When Jesus called the disciples, they just dropped everything and went; this is true.  There is no indication that they “sold everything and gave it to the poor.”   Besides never saying that they did, we find reasons why they probably didn’t.  For instance, James and John were with their father.  There is no reason to believe they went home and sold everything out from under him leaving him destitute (and the local economy with one less fishing business).

 

^ESV Matthew 4:21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

 

When Jesus called Peter and Andrew, they immediately left their nets and followed him, but we see only a few chapters later that they still have a house (Matt 8:14). Here it is also in Mark's gospel:

^ESV Mark 1:16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." ¹⁸ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. …

 ²⁹And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

 

The bottom line here is that it wasn’t about the money; it was about the gospel.

 

---

 

<< Back to the Outline >>