I am pleasantly struck this morning by another insight after reading about the “Rich Young Man” or the “Parable of the Rich Ruler” that I have missed in the past.
If you are familiar with the story documented in at least three places in the bible (Mathew 19, Mark 10, Luke 18), it is a memorable moment when this “rich guy” walks away sad after hearing Jesus response. I gather from Mathew, Mark and Luke’s perspectives, this man was everything most humans on earth would want to be. He was a good man. He was young. He was rich. He was a Ruler, so he had power. Nothing is written about his looks except his general age….but if you have all that, there is plenty of evidence to show he doesn’t necessarily need to be handsome. I think it is safe to assume, most of us would see this person, and think I want to be and live like him. We can also cipher from their response that people nearby were impressed. If this guy can’t be saved, “Who then can be saved?”
Now let’s set up the scene. This rich man was standing in a crowd listening to Jesus teach people how they can obtain eternal life. After He was done he starts walking on His way, and this guy runs up to Him, falls on his knees, and asks Jesus, “Good teacher! What must I do to inherit eternal life?” I would love to see the faces of this man and the people nearby when Jesus responds with, “Why do you call me good? No one is good-except God alone.” I can see the blank, questioning look on each of their faces. That would have been my expression too for that matter. Huh!? You are not good!? Then Jesus says in so many words, “God has these commands see…and no one can follow them all see…” And the rich guy’s eyes get wide as he looks up with excitement and proclaims, “Teacher! I have kept all these commands since I was a boy!”. Jesus replies, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” This is the pivotal moment where so much is happening. Jesus is feeling a deep sense of love for this man, because he knows his response will be sadness and rejection of His instructions. The people nearby will be drop-jaw’d because they don’t understand why this good man can not meet the requirement for eternal life. This is where I as the reader in the past have thought, “Hmm…I am a Christian, but sell everything, and give it all to the poor? Wow. That would be tough for me to do.” This is where suddenly it hit me!
Jesus did not say how much to give. Jesus asked the rich man to change his lifestyle.
In my mind, I often thought Jesus asked him to give ALL his possessions to the poor. If you did too, then look again. The instruction was simply, “give to the poor”. The amount was not specified. The second part of Jesus instruction was, “follow me”. It is an important point that Jesus loved the rich man, and wanted to be together in relationship with the rich man. He wanted to live life together, both in the present and eternity. The rich man’s response revealed his true desires were for his current lifestyle and everything that went with it. He was excited by Jesus’ teaching how to obtain eternal life. He thought he had passion for God. He had followed God and been good his whole life! He looked like a sure candidate, just ask the people nearby. In my opinion, the rich man was sad because he could not have it his way. Jesus was sad because he cared for this man who rejected his love and things of eternal value.
Though this is a sobering story that challenges all of us to test our own desires and heart, I want to bring us back to what I believe is an insight about giving. Jesus’ instruction was simply, “give to the poor”. Again I point out, the amount was not specified. In our on-line discussions we have seen the questions repeated that we are all wrestling. How much should I give to the orphans and widows in distress, brokenhearted, wanderers, and strangers? For clarity, let’s state the word “giving” implies gifts of time, money, energy, love, compassion, etc. I think we all understand that God wants us to give all of our life to Him. What that means in practical daily life is the challenge. There are many scriptures about giving, and how God feels about it. Yes, God wants us to give our entire life to Him. But how we work this out on a daily basis is not spelled out explicitly in God’s word. I believe He wants each of us to seek this instruction from Him. We do have explicit guidelines at the extremes. For example in Mark 25:31-46, the parable of “The Sheep and the Goats”, and I paraphrase - if we “didn’t give to the least of these” we are rejected, and if we “do give to the least of these” we are given eternal life with Him. This parable can stress us out unless we realize that salvation is freely given and received. No one can earn it, so no one can boast. Once one understands salvation, works and giving are part of Jesus plan for our lives (Ephesians 2:8-10). Now that the extremes are stated, I think most of us believe we are somewhere in between. Again, we come back to the question of how much? To explore one answer to this question, let’s go back to a story that I learned as a child through a Sunday school song.
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he…” Remember that song? Because of this song, I have always pictured this little wimp with Jesus scolding him, “Zacchaeus! Get down out of that tree! We are going straight to your house young man!” 
Brings back memories of my parents shouting, “Donnie! Cut that out! Go straight to your room!” As a child, I also learned Jesus loves everyone - even little, dirty rotten tax collectors - so he must love me too. Judging by my parents reaction to the word, I also figured he was probably extra bad since he was associated with the word “tax”. Recently, my picture of this guy has changed. Let’s review the story. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, was wealthy, and most everyone hated him. We probably wouldn’t know he was short except to explain why this guy was up in a tree so he could see over the crowd. It probably should be added to Jesus list of miracles that Zacchaeus didn’t fall out of that tree when He turned His head and said Z’s name. Boldly, Jesus invited himself to little Z’s house in front of everyone. The people were shocked and appalled Jesus would talk to this guy and even go to his house to eat with that dirty tax collecting thief! Zacchaeus was all those bad things, but look at his response to Jesus. Luke 19:8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Zacchaeus got it right away. Now I choose to call him BIG-Z. He decided on the same day he met Jesus to change his lifestyle. He gave more than half of his possessions, but more importantly, he understood giving his life to Jesus meant acting on Jesus instructions and commands. I believe these are actions of a big man. I would love to know the rest of BIG-Z’s story.
Peter is one of Jesus’ disciples who had a couple wimpy episodes, but eventually turned into a big man himself with the help of God’s spirit. At the end of the story about the rich man, Peter was excited about the disciple’s prospects. Luke18:28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!” 29"I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”
We have God’s love for us, His promises and blessings of life, and we have many inspirational role models for “giving” in the Bible, history and in the world today. As part of my current prayers I seek the works I am supposed to do, and I trust and see He is working in my life to lead me this way. Some days are routine and “uneventful” and I have to decide to trust and have faith anyway, but He gives me opportunities daily to act on my faith in seemingly small and some bigger ways. Other days He has given me insights to show me He is leading me toward the answer to these questions. How much should I give? How should I live my days? What should my lifestyle look like? I pray that we all be inspired, encouraged, seek and trust that God will guide each one of us to our specific actions and work. Just for fun, let the children’s Sunday school song play in your head, and imagine the collective impact we will have on the orphans, widows, strangers and the world when we all respond like the rich man, Zacchaeus, and change our lifestyles in Christ.
