Our internal soundtracks can be irreverent sometimes. As I read this familiar passage, a Dionne Warwick song started up in my head. It was that thing about “Jesus looked at him with love” that did it. Here we have a man who’s come to Jesus asking “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” After establishing that he knows and keeps the commandments:
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’
The man is shocked and dismayed by this message – as most of us would be. But it’s not given in a vacuum. It is a message grounded in great love, delivered to someone who is already close to God. If only the love had rung louder for him than the audacity of the demand. But all the love in the world cannot redirect us if we cannot let it in, and for whatever reason, that man’s love for his wealth and goods, and maybe the security they afforded him, blocked out the love Jesus directed to him.
What keeps God’s great love from infiltrating and transforming our interior landscapes? Sometimes it is blocked by alternate messages we’ve received from the world, family, school, careers, or by a self-sufficiency which comes hardwired in members of deeply individualistic cultures. The lure of worldly success and short-term gain can also impede the flow of that love to us.
And what can help us to lower our barriers and let it in? Sometimes we need to see how short that short-term gain really is before we’re ready to open ourselves up to something deeper, less immediately accessible. And sometimes it is because someone comes along and insists on loving us despite our barriers. Jesus invited that man to part from all his wealth and success and follow him so he could offer him transformative love in relationship. That’s the offer he makes us, too – the invitation to follow and draw near, love and be loved in a way that changes us.
Would it be easier if Jesus was standing right in front of us and we could feel his gaze of love? Maybe Jesus sends representatives to bear his love to us, and we’re missing the offer. We cannot fail to miss the needs around us – that can be another way God invites us to release our grip on our wealth and supposed security. But only out of love. In love.
The gospel writers never tell us what became of this man. Did he reconsider Jesus’ offer and take him up on it at a later time? Did it change his relationship to his wealth and power? I imagine that could only happen if he was able to take in the love Jesus offered him in that look. Only that look of love can change our hearts. Only that love can change the world. It already has.
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