Tuesday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, August 17, 2021

Matthew 19:23-30

Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

“It will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven.”  The sense of the Greek text is “next to impossible”.

In the Mosaic Law, the Lord says, “If you walk in my precepts, and keep my commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase: and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear” (Leviticus 26, 3-5).  Other verses follow these in which the Lord promises peace and victory over enemies.  At the time of Jesus, the Jews believed from this that the possession of wealth signified God’s blessing and future salvation for that person.  However, while God does promise blessings to those who obey his commandments, it does not follow that all who possess wealth are righteous or are destined for a happy eternity.  As the Lord said, “[The Father] makes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad; and rains upon the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5, 45).  Wealth comes to the good and the wicked and can be gained honestly and dishonestly.  Nevertheless, the belief had become so deep-seated that the Apostles reacted strongly when the Lord contradicted it.  He seemed to them to say that no one, not even those whose salvation seemed assured by the evidence of their prosperity, could be saved.  “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, ‘Who then can be saved?’ ”  The Greek text actually translates as, “They were exceedingly thunderstruck.”  Jesus answered them, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”  He is telling them that a person cannot buy eternal life with his riches; only God saves.  Peter, deeply shaken and confused, asked, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?”  He is saying that if the wealthy — those whose wealth seemed a sign of their future blessing — could not be saved, then what chance did they have, who had become poor in order to follow the Lord?  Jesus assured Peter, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  While Peter would have felt glad to hear these words, his confusion remained.  Was the Lord saying only the poor would enter heaven?  But poverty was a sign of God’s displeasure.  How could this be?  

We ought to understand that it is not wealth itself that condemns the rich, but the attitude and actions that very frequently result from it.  We see in the Parable of the Rich Farmer (Luke 12, 16-21) that the farmer brings in an enormous harvest.  He thinks he is set for life, and he plans to enjoy himself.  He does not thank God, nor does he intend to use any of his new wealth to attend to the needs of the poor.  His motto is, “Take your rest: eat, drink, be of good cheer” (Luke 12, 19).  The Lord comes to him that night and judges him.  Jesus concludes the parable, saying, “So is he that lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God” (Luke 12, 21).  If the farmer had been zealous in the service of God as all believers are called to be, he would have given thanks, and then decided how his wealth could serve the Lord.  Indeed, he could have given the bulk of it away and simply planted another crop the next Spring.

We should also consider the word the Apostles use, “to save”, as in their question, “Who then can be saved?”  They equate the Lord’s “enter the Kingdom of heaven” with “to be saved”.  The Lord’s phrase and that of the Apostles are two ways of saying essentially the same thing, but there is a different emphasis in each.  In the Lord’s phrase, the Kingdom of heaven is a proper destination that a person can arrive at.  When the Apostles say “saved”, they are supposing “to be saved from” something, in this case, hell.  They might also suppose “to be saved for”, which would be the Kingdom of heaven.  The Lord speaks of the reward, the Apostles speak of being saved from punishment, with those being saved entering the Kingdom.  To be saved from hell we must be free from the blindness and complacency that wealth brings in its wake, and to enter the Kingdom we must use the wealth with which the Lord entrusts us for his purposes.