A Secular Reading: The Parable of The Rich Ruler
On Authenticity, Commitment, Fulfillment,
This past holiday season, I decided to read two books about the moral teachings of Jesus. They were interesting, even though I didn’t finish either.
We’ve all heard the parable of the rich ruler before - it’s the one where Jesus says the famous “camel through the eye of a needle” line. What was brought to my attention in these readings is that there’s an inherent tension in the New Testament when it comes to the accumulation and permissibility of wealth. For example, you have lines like these said by Jesus, yet some books of the Bible (I believe it was Acts) that were written with patrons and portray wealthier people somewhat positively. I’ll write more about this in a future post
I don’t have a good answer for the “objective” meaning of the parable, but the wisdom interpretation is that it’s about fulfillment, commitment and authenticity. Please note: this isn’t the Christian interpretation. Based on my readings of Dr. David Gushee, I don’t think you can separate the intention and wisdom of Jesus’s aphorisms from his eschatological context, but I will nevertheless do so.
Anyway, to the reading. Both Jesus and the rich ruler are both first century Jews and “fulfilling the commandments” should have been good enough for them to be part of God’s kingdom. The rich ruler is asking something more and hoping Jesus can give it to him. The structure of the story reads like Jesus realizing this, as if the “loving him” is him seeing that this man is lost and without purpose or fulfillment.
Christ’s recommendation to sell all of his wealth doesn’t seem to be a categorical statement but in response to the ruler’s clear anxiety and lack of fulfillment. Being rich and fulfilling the commandments isn’t working - he needs to do something else - but the rich ruler can’t make that radical change, and thus he remains miserable.
In this sense, Jesus’s comments about rich people not being able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven isn’t about wealth being evil or rich people being evil, but that to become rich (especially in Jesus’ time), you have to prioritize spiritually bankrupt things that are at odds with following Jesus.
The lesson I learn from this isn’t that wealth is bad, but that pursuing moral righteousness or economic reward won’t make you feel good about yourself. To get to that point, you have to pursue something meaningful authentically. For the rich ruler (and for Christians), it would have been following Jesus. For everyone else, it may be something else.