Discipleship as divestiture: the rich ruler in Luke 18

Weakness and Greatness. Humility and Power. Poverty and Wealth. The reversals in Luke 18 are not unfamiliar to us as Luke’s readers, nor should they be. In fact, their familiarity should cause us to pause, listen, and take note– Luke is drilling something home.

This pericope is not unique to Luke. In fact, all three synoptic gospels contain an account of Jesus blessing the children and telling a rich man to give away everything he owns. But Luke’s placement is unique, following right after the reversal parables in 1-14. According to Green, the lessons of “value-transposition” in the first half of the chapter are made alive in the second half. Jesus embodies and proclaims his parables by prioritizing the humble children over the more important members of his audience, particularly the rich ruler ‘waiting in the wings’.

The pericope opens with people bringing “even infants” to Jesus for healing and blessing.  When the disciples try to put a stop to this, Jesus declares that the kingdom of God belongs to these children, that whoever does not receive the kingdom as a little child will never enter it.” Our modern, romantic notion of children may hinder our ability to recognize the significance of Jesus’ words.  In ancient Greco-Roman culture, children were valued for their future utility but had very little intrinsic value as human beings. Infants especially were vulnerable to the widespread practice of infanticide and child abandonment (Green). Is Jesus calling us to become like these children, economically useless and socially vulnerable?

The rich ruler presents a stark contrast to the infants Jesus welcomes, thus hinting that a Lukan reversal is at work. In response to Jesus’ teaching up to this point, the rich ruler asks Jesus what he himself must do to inherit eternal life.  This scene echoes that of Jesus and the lawyer in 10:25. But Luke gives us no indication that this ruler is trying to undermine Jesus — his motivates seem pure, his interest genuine.  According to the text, he has kept the commandments since he was young, particularly those having to do with “loving thy neighbor as thyself.” But Jesus tells him that there is one thing he is lacking. Jesus says to him, “sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

How does the ruler respond? With deep sorrow. For the ruler, the call to discipleship is met, not with repentance and eager abandonment as modeled by Peter and the other disciples, but with great sadness and disillusionment. Many commentators interpret the rich ruler’s sadness as his refusal or inability to follow Jesus. But unlike the other synoptic gospels, Luke actually doesn’t tell us the end of the story. We are left wondering whether the ruler chose the costly path of discipleship or returned to the security of his possessions.

We must also consider that sadness and disillusionment may have a place in the Christian life of discipleship, especially for those who have something to lose. Could the ‘good news’ to the poor sound a bit like ‘bad news’ to the rich, as the woes in the Sermon on the Plain suggest? As Augustine wrote, “It is one thing not to wish to hoard what one does not have. It is another thing to scatter what has been accumulated. The former is like refusing food; the latter, like cutting off a limb.”Jesus commiserates with the ruler, saying “How hard it is for those with wealth to enter the kingdom of God.” It is as challenging, as impossible as a camel passing through the eye of a needle. But there is a word of hope in the text: “What is impossible for man is possible with God.” Though it will take divine intervention, the ruler may still one day enter into God’s kingdom.

Questions to consider:

• What is the “one thing” the ruler is lacking? Is it obedience? Repentance? Trust? Love of neighbor?
• Are Christians called to welcome children, or become weak, vulnerable and possession-less like children?
• For Luke, are radical acts of hospitality towards the marginalized, financial divestiture and redistribution of one’s possessions on behalf of the poor required of all who wish to follow Jesus, or just those for whom wealth is a “problem”?