We live in a culture that is focused on perfection: perfect bodies, perfect attendance, perfect test scores, perfect financial returns, perfect quality of living, perfect job performance, perfect hair. You name it and there is an ideal photograph or standard that is placed in front of all of us.
Perfection and achievement are often paired together. A total number of days that you attend school can be rated to show a level of performance. A certain weight or muscle mass can be rated to meet a standard. A particular quality of living can determine if you are upper, middle, or lower class. If you get fives on a scale of one through five on a job performance evaluation that can mean that you are a good employee. Numbers, levels, and statistics can be easily mistaken for proof of perfection.
It can be a great temptation to feel that we are spiritual if we go to church every Sunday, sing in the worship team, teach children’s Sunday School, read our Bible’s each morning—essentially if we create a check list of things to do which seem spiritual. These kinds of lists hold great danger in the spiritual life—great danger.
The danger in an empirical approach to spirituality is that we can feel self-justified, self-satisfied, superior, and competitive. It can also lead to serious and damaging self-deprecation and feelings of inadequacy. How we view ourselves can be determined then by what we think others think of us or how we measure up to the current standard of perfection. This can lead to hopelessness, depression, and an unsatisfactory and joyless spiritual life. The truth remains that no matter how low the mark is set in one area, another area will have a high mark which we cannot achieve. Thankfully, Jesus Christ gives us a way into wholeness and perfection that no other person or standard can give.
Read Matthew 19:16-30.
Friends, whether we are believers or not, we must understand something very critical—spiritual life is not quantifiable. You cannot measure its worth or its work by keeping rules, dressing in particular ways, or speaking particular words.
A man walked up to Jesus and either wanted to justify himself or find a way to prove that he was good. Jesus led him down into a deep valley, one which we see as dark, if the way of true perfection is not properly understood.
Look at what Jesus did with this sincere fellow (and remember that we can be sincerely wrong). The first thing Jesus did was to redefine goodness. Essentially, he set aside the man’s definition of goodness and put goodness where it belongs. Goodness is in the heart of God alone. Jesus sets out a completely different standard—the necessity of entering into real life with him. That seems very different from a performance track. It is a substantially different value system that Jesus described.
The man did not get it. "Tell me which rules I need to follow. Tell me how to get there, and which steps to take." Jesus answered with the traditional and God-given Scriptures. Jesus listed the human-relational commandments—those having to do with how we live with and respect our neighbors. All of these are fairly measurable items. Don’t kill anyone on purpose. Don’t sleep with someone else’s spouse. Don’t steal anything. Don’t lie. Respect your parents. As you love yourself, love your neighbor.
For most of us these are easy things to respond to. This is quick list to be checked off. But the man seemed to be saying, "I’m still empty. I’m still void of something. Isn’t there something else I should be doing?"
Then Jesus spoke about perfection. Now, who does not want to be perfect?! Jesus reversed the pattern of perfection that the man has mistakenly been walking. It was not a check list of rules that needed to be followed. The path to perfection is found in Jesus himself!
Look at what Jesus told him to do. Go, sell, give, come, and follow—this is the way of perfection. Jesus’ concept of perfection has to do with wholeness and completeness of spirit, not with completion of tasks. He wants all of you, not just a part of you or the things that you do.
This particular man was very rich. In verse 22 we read that after hearing what Jesus said, he went away sad because he had great wealth. Let’s make sure we understand what happened there that day. A man asked for directions, Jesus gave them to him, and the man was confronted with what he valued more than Jesus—his wealth.
How would his wealth be a hindrance to his spiritual life? How would this keep him from experiencing spiritual life? There are certainly many things we might conjecture—money may cause us to think that we are self-sufficient; great wealth may make us proud; riches may distract us from sacrificial living and lead us into complacency or laziness. Whatever the meaning, Jesus knew exactly what was keeping this man from spiritual perfection and wholeness.
Listen again to the instructions that Jesus gave to this man: 1) Go from here, 2) sell everything you possess, 3) give it to the poor—then your treasure will be what it should be and in the right place—in heaven! Jesus did not stop there though. He pushed he matter further—4) come back and, 5) follow me. What seems to be happening is the dramatic and radical redefinition of perfection. Perfection and wholeness come from following Jesus!
And oh, how earthly wisdom can distract us! It causes us to grieve the things that we thought we had. In the final verses of this passage, we read that it is not just great wealth but, many other things that can keep us from true perfection and wholeness. Jesus tells us that following the Way of Perfection requires putting other things in their appropriate place—under the priority of following him. He is not saying that houses, family, parents, work, money or property are wrong. He is simply saying that if he is not first then we will not receive the treasure in heaven. The things that seem to secure us a future in heaven fall far short of the beauty, holiness, and joy of following Jesus today. There are treasures in heaven for anyone who follows Jesus. We do not need this stuff now. We need Jesus now! After engaging in the life-altering relationship with Jesus, it becomes natural to go, sell, give. After Jesus the commandments are fulfilling instead of demanding. After Jesus the wealth is to be distributed, not hoarded. After Jesus there is joy and freedom.
This is so radical and so demanding, like no other demand on us in the world, that it is simply astonishing. We come to know how deeply we depend on things more than depending on God. How can anyone be saved?
Jesus’ answer is clear, simple, and earthshattering—it is with God that this is possible. There is no other way. Jesus assures us that the treasures in heaven will be there and that it is possible to be perfect and whole by following after the Way of Perfection himself. With God all things are possible!
What way are you following?
© M.R. Hyde – Reprinted and revised from Who is Jesus? A Devotional Journey Through the Gospel of Matthew (2020)
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