A Kingdom Shaped Life

Speak, O God, for we are listening.
Speak, O God, to shape our hearts.
Speak, O God, to fill our beings,
that your Word may be lived this day.
Amen.

Chances are you’ve heard our gospel story before, or at least a version of it: a man with significant wealth comes to Jesus and asks how to inherit eternal life.

It’s worth pausing here to note that while the man asks about eternal life, Jesus changes the conversation. Eternal life isn’t what he wants people to strive for, it’s the kingdom of God. For Jesus, eternal life is participation in the kingdom of God—and that starts right here, right now, on earth.

Jesus responds to the rich man by telling him to get rid of it all. Sell all that he has, give the proceeds  to the poor, and follow him. “What?!” The rich man must have thought.  But think about it—from the rich man’s perspective, he’s done everything right, and he has the riches to prove it. As one commentary notes, “In the ancient world (Greek, Roman, and Hebrew), material prosperity was widely seen as a reward or byproduct of spiritual virtue.”¹ He’s even most likely a generous benefactor to the poor in his community.

He’s followed the commandments, and he’s been blessed with wealth. Surely this is a sign that he’s on the right path.

And if we’re really honest, don’t we even do this today? We might have a more nuanced view, recognizing that wealth isn’t necessarily a sign of God’s blessing. But we are often guilty of thinking that when life is going well we are blessed by God, and when calamity hits it’s because we’ve lost God’s favor. There’s a reason the so-called “prosperity gospel” took off like wildfire. We want to believe that if we’re quote “good,” following God’s commandments, we will be blessed with riches.

However, as is always the case when it comes to Jesus, living a life shaped by the world isn’t what is valued in the kingdom.

But how does the story actually end? We never hear what happens to the rich man after he departs. Christian tradition tells us that his life remains shaped by the world, and even Jesus turns to the disciples and addresses them as if there is no hope for him saying, “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.”

But what if our assumed conclusion of the rich man’s story isn’t the end? What if we used midrash, a Jewish technique of seeing between the lines of scripture, to imagine the rest of the story for the rich man?

There are three parts of the passage that I want to highlight for our midrash.

First, Jesus looks at the man and loves him. Did you catch that in verse 21 when the gospel was read? When Jesus looked at the rich man, there’s no way the man wasn’t changed by his gaze. The One who is the embodiment of love looked at the rich man and loved him, and that has to shape him.

The second part to highlight is that the man walks away grieved. If the man walked away apathetic or hard-hearted, there would be no hope. But grieving speaks of a broken heart, it speaks to knowing that his life has to change. And once something is broken—be it a bowl or heart, it can’t ever be put back together in the same way. Grieving changes us, it molds us into a new shape, often into a shape that’s  more loving and compassionate to those who suffer in the world.

And finally, as Jesus himself says, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” It is only through God’s grace that the impossible can be made real.

If we add these three passages together—Jesus’s love, a heart attuned to the needs of the world, and God’s ability to make the impossible, possible—we may have underestimated the rich man all these years.

Change doesn’t always happen in an instant, and Jesus is asking for nothing less than a full identity shift. Writer and habit specialist James Clear notes, “True behavior change is identity change. You might start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason you’ll stick with one is that it becomes a part of your identity.”²

Jesus asks the rich man to change his identity from one shaped by what the world calls good to one shaped like the kingdom of God. I imagine the rich man going home, and picking up his life where he left off before this encounter with Jesus. But it’s not the same as it was before. He can’t go back to being a benefactor and using his money in the usual ways, even if they are generous. Jesus’s love and God’s grace have begun to work in the rich man’s grieving heart, and what once filled him with pride— giving bits of his wealth away—now rings hollow because it’s not enough. The rich man’s world-shaped life no longer fits him, so how will he be moved to reshape it?

Jesus states that it’s easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than it is for one who is  rich to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus uses this hyperbole for a reason, because there is absolutely no way for a thousand-pound animal to squeeze through the silver of an opening. There’s just no way to make it happen.

And he’s right. There is simply no way for us to fit our world-shaped lives into a kingdom-sized aperture. Jesus knows the rich man’s life, for all the good that he’s already doing, is far more shaped by the world and not by God. The rich man cannot reshape his life using the standards he’s been following. He has to do something radically different.

In his book, The Way of the Heart: Connecting with God Through Prayer, Wisdom, and Silence, priest and writer Henri Nouwen draws on wisdom from the desert elders for how to go about life and ministry as the world around us rages. The desert fathers and mothers were those who heard Jesus’ instructions today and did just as he asked. They sold all that they had and retreated from the world.

Abba Anthony was one of the desert fathers. Nouwen tells us, “He moved away from his family, lived in poverty in a hut on the edge of his village, and occupied himself with manual work and prayer. But soon he realized that more was required of him. He had to face his enemies—anger and greed—head-on and let himself be totally transformed into a new being.”³

Nouwen goes on to note, “Anyone who wants to fight his demons with his own weapons is a fool.”⁴

Abba Anthony could not fight his demons without radical change. The rich man cannot fight his demons without transformation. For them, and those like St. Francis of Assisi, the radical change meant a full one-eighty—selling everything and living in poverty.

While that is the most literal way to follow what Jesus commands, total abandonment of money and the world is not realistic for most of us.

So what are we to do with this passage? I struggle with these words too, because if I’m honest, I see a lot of myself in the rich man. I give to the church and other charitable organizations. I strive to do good with my life and to serve God in all that I do. Is that enough? That’s a question only each of us individually can answer. For myself, the answer is no.

From the outside it may look like it is—just like the rich man’s life. But if I’m truly honest with myself, and well, now you, I can’t say that my life is fully kingdom-shaped.I know there is more transformation needed within me for that to happen.

Because while the outward signs of a kingdom-shaped life look like giving money and caring for others, it’s not about doing those things in a performative or effortful way. Jesus doesn’t want us to do these acts to earn his favor.

We already have his love, just as he showed that love to the rich man. Jesus wants the identity change, the total transformation, because it’s out of that transformation that abundant generosity flows.

St. Francis is quoted as saying, “Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received – only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.”

That is the measure of a kingdom shaped life. Friends, my prayer for us this day is that we may all know Jesus’s love, have a heart attuned to the needs of the world, and draw on God’s grace as we reshape our lives.

Amen.

¹ Feasting on the Word: Year B, Proper 23. “Theological Perspective” by James J. Thompson.
² James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, as quoted on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DA53WPqt-hq/
³ Nouwen, Henri. The Way of the Heart: Connecting with God Through Prayer, Wisdom, and Silence. P. 15
⁴ Nouwen, Henri. The Way of the Heart: Connecting with God Through Prayer, Wisdom, and Silence. P. 19