If I Were a Rich Man

Jesus said to his disciples, "It's terribly hard for rich people to get into the kingdom of heaven!'" Matthew 19:23

We often feel sorry for the rich young ruler who mournfully left Jesus' presence just before the Master spoke these words.

I can remember how I felt the first time I heard this passage. I understood the response of the rich man who was told to give it all up for Jesus, and I remember being mildly shocked at the the response of the disciples to the statement. It wasn't until I recently sang Tevye's song from the Fiddler on the Roof about how he would conduct himself should he be a rich man-
"If I were rich, I'd have the time that I lack
To sit in the synagogue and pray,
And maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall,
And I'd discuss the learned books with the holy men
Seven hours every day--
That would be the sweetest thing of all..."
(http://www.lyricsdepot.com/zero-mostel/if-i-were-a-rich-man.html)

From the perspective of the Disciples, a rich man had the time to focus on his spiritual habits and learning about God. For the rich young ruler, who was probably well off from birth, he was so good because he went to the best schools, had the time to sit under the best rabbis, and didn't have to be so distracted by immediate needs from the beauty of Godly thoughts.

The American protestant today may not quite identify with this feeling. We tend to see the religious rich as suspect, facing temptations that common people do not even have the chance to have, but in the world of New Testament Palestine it was more common for the religious rich to be seen as the ones who are the most godly because they can spend more time being spiritual because they didn't have so many worries about survival.

Now it makes more sense to me why Jesus told the rich young ruler to give all he had to the poor. If the religious rich young ruler gave up his physical riches, in his mind, he gave up most of his spiritualy identity.

Me again after a bit...

My wife just informed me that she checks my blog every day and I can tell by the way she told me that we our zeek hoofeul is tired of not seeing anything new on it. So here is something new.

I added a link (I think it is above) to show the extent of the flooding. The overhead view of the river overflowing its banks looks very much like the area of Apalachin where my parents live. In fact, I am inclined to think that it is their house on the bottom of the picture.

Thankfully everyone in my family came out ok and I was able to make it up there and see the flooding for myself. Of course just about everyone is dealing with the requisite mold problems in the basements and crawl spaces, but it could have been so much worse.

I am currently gearing up for finals and getting as much time in with my kids before the two oldest take off for school in three weeks (it doesn't seem possible).

Just in case you are wondering "we our zeek hoofeul" is easily translated into "she". Ask my wife. She knows why. ;-)