Bonhoeffer (yes, again) says that we should always read scripture against ourselves...as individuals and as communities. Um, read Matthew this way. We are the tares, brothers and sisters. Matthew was serious. He was not kidding around. The gospel leads to suffering and death. It is not a place for shiny happy people. It is a place despised by the world.
It is poverty, itenerancy, preaching, teaching, prayer, love, gentleness...it is all this. No extra robe. No extra sandles. "Peace be unto this house." It is a hard life with little room for cowards. Is this the cup you wish for?
It is interesting to read Matt now that I have been given the "all clear" sign from my congregation. Dear God, save me from myself. Give me a staff. Help me preach peace. Lift me up when I stumble for I surely will.
Salvation and Discipleship
-or-
What Would Jesus Do?
Matthew 19:16-30
For Matthew, Christ is the fruition of the Law. He is the will of God incarnate. Matthew is calling his community into a radical and salvific transformation of life. It is not enough that they simply comprehend the theology that Matthew espouses. It is that membership in the community is now central to Matthew’s understanding of faith. Membership is defined by obedience to the Law who is Jesus the Christ. Not one jot or tiddle of the Law will be changed. Instead, it will be lived, it will be revealed in its fullness in the life of Christ and the lives of those obedient to him…namely the Matthean community.
Judgment or salvation depends upon the community’s ability to live into this proclamation. Anything short of this is a failure to proclaim the Gospel. It is not to be a set of theologies that give us ways of thinking profound thoughts. Instead, it is how we live. It is real. It is poor. It is love. It is gentle. It is profound denial of worldliness in the midst of the world. It is obedience, pure and simple.
Luz states the following: “Discipleship means life in Christ’s pattern (p 48 Matthew in History).” Poverty, itinerancy, Jesus’ teaching, preaching and suffering were all hallmarks of the Matthean community. This was the goal of discipleship. This is the proclamation of the Good News. “Not only what the disciples say but what they do and what they suffer – what they are – has proclamatory character (p. 49).”
This is what is salvific about the proclamation in Matthew’s gospel. It is not that we espouse a dogmatics, or participate within a liturgical or ecclesial structure. Our salvation depends solely on our ability to be Christ in the world. This is who we are. We should question any ecclesial structure that denies this truth. This is what is so deeply alien and troubling about the Gospel of Matthew.
Is the story of the rich young ruler about salvation, discipleship or both? In Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer wants to say that this is not an issue about salvation. It is about obedience alone. According to Bonhoeffer, Christ is interested in the man and not the man’s wealth. The response Jesus seeks is one of obedience. For Bonhoeffer, this is the radical truth of the Gospel: obedience to Christ. Nothing else matters (Bonhoeffer p. 71).
According to Harrington, Matthew is trying to underscore yet again the differences and the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Here we have a rich young Jew who is curious about the teachings of Jesus. He is met with a radical response that challenges his assumption about the Law (Harrington p. 280). There is more to following the commandments than keeping clean. This is not a radical notion in that Jesus is presenting something new. No, it is a Jewish notion held by multiple historically Jewish communities. So, one could wonder if the young man expected this answer or hoped for something different thus his dejected posture following Christ’s pronouncement.
Neyrey wants to speak to how this created for the young man a certain social tension. In Honor and Shame, Neyrey suggests that this pronouncement both shames the young man’s current status and asks him to loose whatever positive community status he possesses. He is to give his wealth to the poor, the stranger. He will lose his own status, one of prosperity, in the process (p. 62).
In either case, neither interpreter suggests that the decision of the young man has anything to do with his salvation. By Harrington’s interpretation, Jesus is suggesting that keeping the commandments is enough to insure salvation. Salvation through the Law is a reality. The question reframed by Jesus is about discipleship. He is not concerned with salvation.
Often I have heard this passage used as an outline for a works-righteousness approach to salvation. The young man would not follow Christ, thus his salvation is lost. Is that what Matthew is saying to us? He says something else. Following Jesus has nothing to do with salvation…at least not for the young man. For the young man to give up his wealth to the poor is simply a response to Jesus’ call. It is not a salvific act. It is a Christian act. This story both underscores the Jewish-ness of the Christian community for Matthew as well as stating the difference. The difference is obedience to Christ. Where that obedience leads is what is salvific. It leads us to the judgments seat where God alone deems us worthy.
This is a hard call to the Baptist church who tries to straddle the line between charity (right Christian action) and the autonomy of the individual. The former can lead us into relationship with one another and the world. The latter can lead us into a spiritual narcissism that can deaden our faith. Perhaps, as well, the middle way of the Baptist church, though it seeks to embody the teachings of the earliest Christian communities, is also mistaken. It may be overly human. The Baptist middle path asks for God to rest in our context and not we in God’s. Matthew is stating the exact opposite. We find ourselves only in the context of the life of Christ. This “patterning after Christ” that Luz states is more radical than “How do we see God in our own cultures.” Instead, it is how we are transformed through obedience into something entirely new, something of God and not of ourselves. We are transformed into Christ. There is no other calling for Matthew. There is no other embodiment.
I have been asking myself about why I find Matthew so difficult to read. I really do not like Matthew. I find him frustrating and alien. I find that he tells a story in which I cannot locate myself. Now I see that this is exactly the problem. He is not asking me to see myself. He is not asking me to devise some polite stratagem to engage in a Matthean ethic. He wants all of me. This is alien to my experience of Church. This is alien to my experience of Christian community. In light of my recent “licensing” at North Shore, I must admit that the call that I have responded to is more difficult than I knew. It is more difficult than I can predict. Am I willing to drink of the Lord’s cup? Do I want a throne in heaven? If I do wish to follow Christ, to be a minister in his Church, then I must be willing to love, suffer and die for Christ and as Christ.
