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Nicodemus and the Rich Young Ruler

Shane Claiborne loves to quote his friend, the late singer and songwriter Rich Mullins, on the way Christians read the Bible.  Mullins used to say that it was as if we had highlighters for certain verses.  Jesus says, "you must be born again", so we must all be born again. But didn't Jesus also say, "sell all you have and give to the poor"?  Why don't we all have to do that too?

Since I read that, the story of the rich young ruler keeps coming up in my reading.  It features in two of Walter Brueggemann's collected sermons, as well as in the first two of the Second Series of George MacDonald's amazing Unspoken Sermons, where once again he is contrasted with Nicodemus.

All this started me thinking.  Are these stories alternative visions of Jesus - one 'spiritual', one 'political'?  Or is there something that holds them together?

The story of the rich young man is found in Matthew, Mark and Luke, with only slight variations.  Here is the version from Mark 10.

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.”

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

This is perhaps the earliest version of the story, and identifies the man as neither young nor a ruler - Matthew adds a reference to his youth, Luke describes him as a ruler but not as young.  What they all agree on, however, is that he was rich.  In first century Palestine, wealth and power went together.  This is someone who was a member of the Jewish elite, whether a young, up-and-coming leader or a mature established one.

Nicodemus is a similarly elite, powerful figure.  Here is the beginning of the story of his encounter with Jesus, from John 3.

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?..."

John often provides more detail than the other gospels, so we see Nicodemus placed more precisely - a Pharisee, a member of the 'Jewish ruling council' (perhaps the Sanhedrin or ruling Jewish religious body) and a person who at least thinks of himself as 'old'.

So what ties these stories together at the most superficial level is that they are encounters with members of the Jewish elite - a man who is at least rich and possibly occupies a formal leadership position in the community, and one who occupies a powerful position in the Jewish hierarchy.  In addition, both seem to be devout, observant Jews.  Nicodemus is a teacher of the Law.  When Jesus provides a short list of commandments for the rich man, he replies, all these I have kept since I was a boy.

Of course Jesus has many encounters with the Jewish elite, but they mostly involve conflict. The Jewish leaders criticise Jesus, or attempt to trap him into self-incrimination.  In his turn, he accuses them of hypocrisy and of betraying the legacy of Moses and the prophets.  Jesus is the friend of outcasts and sinners, and the enemy of the hierarchy.

These two men are rare exceptions.  Both seem to be approaching Jesus in a spirit of openness and inquiry.  Both men seem to genuinely want to hear what Jesus says.  With Nicodemus, the night-time visit gives a sense of something clandestine, as if he is taking a risk and wants to avoid his fellow councillors knowing about the visit.

It seems that both can see that there is something lacking in their lives.  Both have wealth and position.  Both are also attempting, by the standards of their time, to be followers of God, keeping his commandments and in Nicodemus' case teaching others to do so.  Yet both come to Jesus.  The rich ruler wants to know how to find eternal life - he obviously has not found it in his wealth or his commandment-keeping.  Nicodemus doesn't say what he wants explicitly, but his visit itself speaks volumes.

So what is the content of Jesus' message to these two men, and how can the different messages be reconciled?  The answer is that both are asked to do something which seems impossible to them.  They are asked to give up their core identity and start again.

In the case of the rich man, Jesus tells him that in order to inherit eternal life he must give up his wealth (which may similarly be inherited) and then come and follow Jesus.  He must exchange one inheritance for another.  For the rich man this seems impossible and he goes away grieving 'for he had great wealth'.  Does this man's wealth cut him off from the life that comes from God (which is what 'eternal life' means)?  Well clearly it does, otherwise why would Jesus command him to give it up?  He confirms this by walking away sad - he sees the truth of what Jesus says, but is unable to comply.  Jesus' follow-up comments to his disciples reinforce and clarify the point: 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. That is to say, it is impossible.  But then he adds a caveat: all things are possible with God.

Nicodemus is also set an impossible task - to be born again.  This is not unlike the task given the rich man.  Just as a camel can't possibly fit through the eye of a needle, so a full-grown man can't fit back inside his mother's womb.  But Jesus makes it clear he is not referring to physical rebirth but to spiritual rebirth. Nicodemus must be 'born of water and the Spirit' - in other words, through baptism and spiritual inspiration.  But to do this, he must start at the beginning.  He must exchange his current deep learning for a new learning in which he is a rank beginner, a novice, a mere infant.

So what we see here are two steps these two pious and well-connected men must take to begin their spiritual journey.
  1. They must renounce the things they most value and which define them.  The rich man must renounce his wealth, the very thing which provides him with security and position.  Nicodemus must renounce his status as a teacher and leader.  
  2. They must begin again by following Jesus.  The rich man must do so as someone who has nothing, reliant on others for his daily food and shelter.  Nicodemus must do so as someone who knows nothing, who is as a tiny child and must blindly trust his elders and learn the basics all over again.
A big part of this message is that we shouldn't underestimate how hard it is to follow Jesus.  Elsewhere he warns those who want to be his disciples that they need to count the cost.  Later on he tells them that they must take up their crosses to follow him.  The road to the kingdom of God is not easy.  It is not simply a matter of obeying some commands, as the rich man seems to believe.  It is not even just a matter of carving out a successful religious career, as Nicodemus did.  Rather, it involves confronting and changing who we are.

So is it OK for some people to keep their wealth?  Was it simply because this particular man idolised his wealth that he was told to give it up?  Maybe, but the thing is, you don't know how hard it is to give something up - how much you idolise it - until you are tested.  If you asked the rich man what he valued more, his wealth or God, he would almost certainly have said 'God'.  But when put to the test it became clear that he valued his wealth more highly.  Let's not fool ourselves.  How many of us rich Westerners would do differently?  Jesus has no doubts at all about how hard it is.

But it is just as hard to be humble, especially when you are perfect in every way.  After all his labouring over dusty manuscripts and memorising huge chunks of Scripture and interpretation, how easy was it for Nicodemus to accept the role of elementary student and relearn the very basics of faith?  His whole identity is bound up in being the one who gives instruction.  How prepared is he to receive it, especially from an uneducated Galilean peasant?

It is worth us focusing on this, as privileged Westerners, because by and large we are the rich men and women and the rulers of the world.  Our battles are not with poverty and suffering (although all of us will suffer at some point) but with wealth and status.  The challenges faced by Nicodemus and the rich man are those faced by most of us. 

Walter Wink says:

...rebirth is not a private, inward event only.  For it also includes the necessity of dying to whatever in our social surroundings has shaped us inauthentically....

Those born to privilege and wealth may miss life by having been installed at the centre of a universe revolving around their own desires.  Others, born to merciless poverty and the contempt of the ruling class, may miss life by never feeling really human at all.  If the advantaged must die to their egocentricity the underprivileged must die to their hopelessness, fatalism and acquiescence in their own despoiling.

Rationalists may need to die to idolatry of the mind; dominating personalities to their power; proud achievers to their accomplishments.....Even those whose lives have been stolen from them must lose their lives to find them.  They must die to what has killed them.

This is not an easy road.  Not for any of us.  If we had to do it alone, we would soon give up.  Fortunately God does not leave us alone.  After his encounter with the rich man Jesus assures his disciples:

With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.

More cryptically, he tells Nicodemus:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

You don't control the wind (the Greek word 'pneuma' means 'wind', 'breath' and 'spirit') it blows where it will, it is greater than you are.  And in his coda to the story John assures his readers, in the words we were all taught to memorise as young people:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

We don't know anything more about the unnamed rich man, but later in the story John has Nicodemus assisting Joseph of Arimathea in Jesus' burial, and Christian tradition names him as a believer.  He held rebirth to be impossible, but this did not prevent him from at least trying to follow that path.

We are assured again and again that we are not alone, that this is not our fight but God's.  So however difficult the way, we know he is with us on it and will not leave us to struggle alone.

Comments

Hermit said…
That's interesting, mate.