Jesus is an amazing man and the best teacher I have ever met.  But some of his expectations are completely unreasonable.

Just a few moment ago, I got home after visiting him with a serious question.  You see, I have always wanted to be a righteous man, the sort of man who walks with God and deserves the reward of eternal life.  However, I also know that I continue to fail in many ways and that I need to do better.  So I went to Jesus to ask what I should do.

The conversation didn’t get off to a good start.  I asked a straightforward question: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  But Jesus never seems to answer questions as you might expect him to, and this was no exception.  “Why do you call me good?” he asked me, and proceeded to remind me that the only one who is good is God.  Now I suppose he is right, in a way, because we only get our knowledge of what is good from God, and he was reminding me of that too – look at scripture, it gives you the answers!  But we do use “good” in a relative way too and Jesus is good compared with every other man I have ever met, hence my initial greeting.  Nevertheless, Jesus didn’t like it, so I just called him “Teacher” from then on.

I still think he is good – the best man I have ever met – but I got the point.

Anyway, he went on to tell me to keep all of the commandments, and listed a few of the ten commandments that we all know, and that I have paid particular attention to all of my life.  I have been blessed with a comfortable life, and I have tried to use it to give glory to God by obedience.  I am in quite a position of power in society despite being relatively young, and have always taken this as a responsibility given to me by God.  I could not let him down by disobeying his commandments.  It seemed obvious to me that Jesus must feel the same, or else he wouldn’t behave how he does.

But he is also so good at answering questions and has such amazing wisdom that I felt he might be able to give me more hints about what else God would want from me.  What could I do to guarantee that eternal life would be mine?

I love God’s law and I think about it constantly.  Jesus made it clear that this was a good way to act, and it is certainly what he does himself.

It seemed to me that it was a matter of “so far, so good.”  But was there any more to do?  Keeping the commandments was fine, but I could think of the words of various prophets asking questions like “what does the Lord require of you?”  How important were those questions and their answers?  Were they essential for eternal life?  I really wanted to know what to work on next, or whether it was just a matter of keeping going as I was.

So I said to Jesus, “All these I have kept from my youth.”

Jesus looked at me, and his face was a mixture of joy and sadness, even before he replied.

“If you want to be perfect,” said Jesus, and I nodded before he continued, “go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”  Jesus paused a little and looked at me hard before finishing with, “And come, follow me.”

It was like being hit with a log and it stopped me dead in my tracks.

Sell what I own?  Give it to the poor?  But if I do that, I won’t have it any more.  And how can I keep living a godly lifestyle if I don’t have any money?  Lots of people depend on me for help and I give lots of money to the poor.  I can’t become one of those lazy good-for-nothings who relies on everybody else to look after them!

I was so disappointed.  I had expected Jesus to give me the ultimate answer for salvation, but instead he gave me a clichéd and simplistic answer that glorified his own lifestyle.

I have always been grateful for my wealth and used it for good.  Throughout history, God has always blessed righteous people like Abraham, David and many others with gold and silver and immense riches.  I want to use my wealth in the same way as they did.

But Jesus demanded that I give it all up: give my wealth away to people who won’t use it for God at all!  How can that be a good answer?  Surely God wants my money used for him?

I know that the time may come when I do need to leave it all behind as Lot and his family did, and I have always tried to make sure I could do that in such a situation.  But now is not the time.  There is no disaster to avoid, and no catastrophe to assist with for which my money is needed.  Everyday life will continue, and Jesus was demanding that I throw it all away and become dependent on others.

Ridiculous.

And if I started to sell everything, how long would that take?  I don’t like to boast at all, but I am a very rich man and all of those properties and goods would take months to sell, if not years.  Does Jesus really want me to concentrate on nothing but money for the next year or two?

I came home, walking slowly, fairly sure that Jesus’ demands were unreasonable, but wanting to make sure that I was right.  And I thought of all the passages in the Psalms and in the wisdom of Solomon, and the message there is clear: blessings from God come to the righteous.  How can it make sense to give all of those blessings away?  Surely that is going against God’s plans for the world, isn’t it?

It’s not as if I think of the money as mine anyway.  I use it for God’s work.  I use my money for doing good things that God would want done.  No question about that.

As soon as I got home, I sat down and started to write down my thoughts.  I am completely committed to loving God and keeping his laws – yes, and loving my neighbour too – but I don’t think it is a good idea to go against God’s work by throwing away all the blessings he has given me.

I really like Jesus’ teachings and feel that he has so much to offer to help straighten out all the wicked people in this world – they need his teaching so much.  And he agreed that my keeping the law was good, so we agree up to there.  But selling everything I have and giving the money to people who will squander it?

If only I had never gone to ask.  I just can’t do what Jesus wants.  Did he know I wouldn’t be able to?  Was that why he looked a little sad before he told me what I needed most?

It’s alright for poor people like his disciples.  They had nothing much to lose anyway.

But, I ask you, could you do it?

Would you?