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[Note: This is one of a series listed under the heading: Wordie Post." It was originally posted on the Word Press blog entitled "Our Daily Bread," found at rtippett97@wordpress.com. The changes at Word Press are similar to those on Twitter and Facebook, where I was posting to an empty space. That was because I began and maintained that blog as one of their free offerings. When their force to change to a paid blog website did not move me, they cancelled their "Reader," so posting on Word Press has become like a caged animal at the zoo, where only workers occasionally toss the animals a bite to eat. Word Press [et al] is like what I imagine life was like in the satellite countries of the Soviet Union: meager, bleak, spiritless. So, I am transferring those forty articles here.]
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In Matthew 19:21, Jesus told a rich young man, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” [NRSV]
That caused the young rich man to go “away grieving, for he had many possessions.”
This whole encounter began by Jesus being asked what “good deed” needed to be done in order to ensure eternal life. The only part of anyone that is capable of “eternal life” [“zōēn aiōnion“] is a soul. A soul that inhabit a body of flesh takes on the essence of that flesh, which is death.
Matter [or flesh] is lifeless and inert. A soul enters dead matter at birth, but dead matter can only provide form to a soul for a limited amount of time, meaning a soul’s flesh is bound to die at birth. Thus, a soul in a body of flesh cannot experience eternal life when in a temporal body. Because death was known to come at some time, the young rich man asked how he could avoid reincarnation, which meant coming back into a dead body of matter and having to start all over again from scratch.
When Jesus said, “If you wish to be perfect,” that was setting the bar for gaining eternal life high. Perfection means being without sin. Sin always comes from falling in love with dead matter. Thus, the word translated as “you wish” [“theleis“] is better grasped as “you desire,” which is implies what oneself thinks is best. For a soul to “desire perfection,” then that goal typically demands some significant changes that have to be made, in order to eliminate sin from one’s life in a body of dying flesh.
Jesus then told the young rich man what those changes for becoming “perfect” would be. The problem is the NRSV translation [as well as all other English translations] obliterates what Jesus said. The concensus opinion says Jesus told the man to “go sell everything you own and give that to the poor.” That assumes owning things and not being poor is bad, which then assumes not owning anything and being poor was good. To think Jesus said that would serve no purpose other than turning a bad young rich man into one who made some poor schmuck who was good, then a bad rich man.
Here is what Jesus said to do, in the Greek text:
“hypage , pōlēson sou ta hyparchonta , kai dos tois ptōchois“.
Without translating anything, notice how the comma marks break this into three steps.
Notice also how I have placed “kai” in bold type, so that the word is a marker word for what comes after being important to fully understand.
With that said, here are the three steps:
bring under, depart, [figuratively] die. That, rather than a simple “go,” says Jesus told the young rich man he was addicted to sin as he was; so, he needed to kill off his lusts for dead matter. He had to “die” of self, in order to begin to walk a path of righteousness, which can then put one on the road to “perfection.”
exchange of yourself those who possess you. By following up an instruction that says “bring under” your self-lusts, or “die” of self-ego and self-will, this second step says Jesus could see the soul of the young rich man was possessed by unclean worldly spirits, which made him worship lesser gods, like money, power, and influence – all the worthless things that draped around the soul of a youn rich man. While the young rich man thought that was what he wanted, it was really the unclean spirits of Satan that had grown like choking vines around his soul, controlling him like a puppet on a string.
AND [this word is much more than a conjunction, as it indicates the most important step of these three] offer these poor. Here, the importance leads one to focus intently on “poor,” as if giving to the poor only makes for lines of poor, all with their hands out, expecting to be given something for free. In reality, the importance says the young rich man was “poor,” because when his flesh died, his soul was not going to receive eternal life. His soul was coming back to start all over again, penniless and with an impoverished soul, having learned nothing fro a previous life [or series of lives]. Thus, the first two steps said the young rich man needed to stop thinking he was young and rich, when his soul was eternally old from being impoverished Spiritually. Jesus then told him to stop dwelling in a material world and begin dwelling in a spiritual world, where his renewed soul would then lead others like he had been to stop selling their souls for dead matter.
It was at that point that Jesus said “AND [more importance to catch] you will possess treasure that is Spiritual [“heaven” is when Yahweh lives with one’s soul, through divine marriage].” There is no treasure greater than being one with Yahweh.
Then Jesus added [after a semi-colon mark], “AND [more importance to note] come to where I am , to follow as me.” That says, if you do these things, you will be “perfect,” like Jesus. So, what was once lost and bound to reincarnation, due to sins, will then be found and able to become another Jesus in the world, whose soul has been given the greatest reward possible – eternal life.
The young rich man [who I believe was Nicodemus] was so caught up in his own world of sin that he could not see the forest for the trees. He was poor, when he thought he was rich. People with lots of things see the poor and know poverty makes one more inclined to sin than does having some degree of wealth incline one in that direction. People praise God for wealth, thinking money keeps them from being sinners. When everything about the material world becomes important – when measured in how much and how many things – that reflects on god worship, which makes one become spiritually impoverished.
Money is nothing more than any tool. It serves a purpose. Jesus’ ministry could not have existed without funds to support that. People like Nicodemus offered financial assistance that funded that ministry. Never did Jesus worship anything worldly. It was simply a tool that Yahweh provided for him, so his soul coul be shared with those starving from a lack of spiritual food.
That is what Jesus told the young rich man; and, that is what Jesus tells every soul in a body of dead matter now and forevermore. When Jesus sent his disciples out into intern ministry, he told them, “Freely you have received; freely give. Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts— no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff.” (Matthew 10:8-10) All of those things were tools that would be provided as needed; and, then when the need had been met, those things would be left behind. Ministry is not about having so many things that you can barely move.
When possessions get so burdensome that they possess you, that is when you build a house around you can call it a church. You put a sign in the front yard that says, “All donations welcome. I don’t care how much sin you have on you. I take all major credit cards.” A church is a home for a young rich man to dwell in. Lots of room there to store things.