As my Lent reading continued its theme of personal sacrifice through the lives of Celtic saints (tonight it was Cuthbert), it included this passage from Matthew:

Matthew 19:16–22 Wrote:Then someone came to [Jesus] and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honour your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these; what do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

I've always found this passage interesting, not because of what Jesus says, but because of what He leaves out. He lists 5 of the commandments given to Moses after the exodus, plus another given later, but, as most know, there are famously 10 (although when you get into translating the Hebrew the actual number is debatable and so is whether or not they should be called 'commandments', but that's for another time, maybe). The ones missing are, succinctly, 'Worship no other god than Yahweh (the LORD)', 'Do not create and worship idols', 'Do not misuse Yahweh's name' and 'Keep the Sabbath holy'.

Jesus would have known these by heart, I'm sure, as, most likely, would the man he was speaking to, so it's interesting that Jesus offers an edited list when answering the man's question. One could take it to mean that Jesus values these commandments less than the ones he mentions, that somehow eternal life is earned through the others and not through these. But that doesn't fit the message of the rest of Matthew's gospel, let alone the rest of scripture, so what else is happening?

The key, I think, lies in the second half of the passage, after the man has blithely claimed to have kept all the mentioned commandments. Jesus confronts the man with an impossibility. It might not be impossible for everyone to give everything up and hand it to the poor, but it seems it was for this man. As a result, he goes away sorrowful. We do not get a happy ending.

But what if he had said yes? Would that truly have earned him eternal life? Well, the rest of scripture says that it would not, in and of itself. The Bible is quite clear that we cannot earn our salvation. No matter the good we try to do in this life, our sinful nature will always be too great to be reconciled with God's perfection.

But if doing things doesn't save us, what, exactly, does? Relationship is the key: relationship with God. The Jews were taught to recite the Shema from memory:

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Wrote:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

And elsewhere in the gospels Jesus cites this as the greatest commandant, along with the bonus commandant he throws in with the list given to this man, 'love your neighbour as yourself'. The commandment contained within the Shema is crucial, because it is so impossible! We're always making idols in our hearts and prioritising things other than or relationship with God, even those of us answering His call on our lives. That's why Jesus became human in the first place. It's the reason for the crucifixion and the resurrection. It's our only way in.

And the commandments Jesus leaves out are the ones that, like this, are the hardest to keep - the ones that very directly connect to our relationship with God. Through Jesus, that relationship can be restored and our inability not to look away to other things in the place of God can be overlooked, because God, ultimately, sees the perfect Christ - His Son - in our place. I think Jesus leaves those commandments out to help make that point - if not to the man, then to us!

If the man had been willing to give up everything, to sacrifice the things he valued most, it wouldn't have earned him eternal life, but it would speak of a heart ready to accept Jesus, to follow Him and be saved through Him and thus to have his relationship with God restored.

What do you value most in life? Would you ever be able to give that up for a relationship? What about that relationship, then? Could you give that up for some higher meaning? Where does the line get drawn? At what point have you truly given up your heart, soul, mind and strength? Could you give all that, unwaveringly... to God? Could you, at least, want to? Or want to want to?