The story of "the rich young ruler" (or "the rich young man") appears in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke). It also challenges one's ability to do theological math.

The Beginning of the Story

In the Marcan version of the tale, a man runs up to Jesus, knelt before Him, and asked about inheriting eternal life. Some preachers spend a lot of time assaulting the young man’s character because of the word “inherit.” They usually say something along the lines of 'He was a rich, lazy guy, who never worked a day in his life, got all his money from his father, and now is looking for an easy path to heaven. We all know people like that, and they suck! Amiright, or amiright? Can I get an amen!'

This reading of the text is based completely on supposition, is unfair to the young man, and also skips over something much more important to understanding the text: Jesus apparently can't count to 10!

The Rest of the Story

After the young man asks about inheriting eternal life, Jesus only lists six (6) of the commandments in The Decalogue as a blueprint for what the young man should do (Note: we are going to show our Protestant bias in our enumeration of the Ten Commandments. Don’t know what we’re talking about, click here)

You shall not murder
You shall not commit adultery
You shall not steal
You shall not bear false witness
You shall not defraud
Honor your father and mother

In reply, the young man tells Jesus that he has kept all of these commandments since he was a child. Hearing this, "Jesus, looking at him, loved him" (vs 21a). Pause there. Jesus heard his answer and accepted it. Jesus loves the young man and his response. Loves him. Loved his response. We can assume Jesus knew this to be a genuine answer reflecting the man’s moral state. (Sorry bootleg preachers)

However, Jesus, knowing the young man’s heart intimately, claims he lacks one thing. So Jesus gives him a command:

“You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (vs 21b)

The math here is a pretty simple: (Sell everything + Give money to the poor) / (finding Jesus + following Jesus) = treasures in heaven. Given this equation, the man can acquire the eternal life he seeks. Instead he leaves, sad because he had great possessions. (vs 22)

Math is Hard

But let us return to previous mathematical dilemma: Jesus only listed six commandments, but said the man was missing “one thing.”

Wouldn’t the man be missing four things? 10-6 = 4.

So what gives?

One of the classic separations of The Decalogue is to divide them into two topical categories which, for simplicity sake, we will call the Vertical and Horizontal commandments. The former deal with heaven and earth interactions – up and down—, while the latter are about how humans interact with each other— left and right.

Vertical

Exodus 20:3-11
No other gods, no idols, respect The Name, honor the Sabbath day
Heaven focused
Divine relationship
Loving God

Horizontal

Exodus 20:12-17
No murder, adultery, stealing, false witness, or defrauding your neighbors, & honor parents
Earth focused
Human relationships
Loving neighbor (and/as) self

Jesus lists the horizontal commandments, the things related to loving our fellow humans. This is another reason the aforementioned preachers should shut up: the rich young man was a pretty nice guy, which is part of the reason Jesus loves him. He was someone who loved his neighbor as himself. That was not the young man’s problem; however he was still missing "one thing."

Here are the four commandments Jesus “forgot,” the vertical commandments:

You shall have no other gods before YHWH.
You shall not make any idols.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of YHWH, your God.
You shall remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.

The “one thing” is about God, or more acutely stated, the young man had a god that was not God (YHWH). His wealth, his status, his money was his god, not YHWH.

His problem was not loving his neighbor as himself, his problem was loving God as God.

This is further captured in Jesus’ words to His disciples afterward:

“How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! … Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (vs 23)

The End of the Story(?)

What happened to the rich young man after he left Jesus? We have no idea. His story is lost to us.

Perhaps on one Sabbath in the synagogue, one morning in the bath, one night of restlessness mulling over Jesus’ words, all the commandments fell into place for him. Perhaps he figured it all out and changed his life. Changed his "god."

Perhaps he learned that we cannot fully love God if we are not loving others.

Perhaps he learned that we cannot fully love others if we are not loving God.

Perhaps he recognized, understood, and did what Jesus asked one good Friday morning.

Perhaps.

But perhaps we should be focusing on a more important question: what is MY “one thing?”

Perhaps this is something that Good Christian Social justice warriors don’t want to hear.

Perhaps the cause we serve— which began as caring for God’s children or creation, which began as an outgrowth of God’s own love and call— has become a god onto itself, worshiped when we forgot our purpose. Servants so far downstream we have forgotten our source.