Each week during our fall pledge campaign [Sep 30-Nov 18] I reflect on a different aspect of love, guided by Scripture and quotations from literature or from prominent figures in history.

In Matthew 19 (16-25) Jesus was teaching, speaking to a large crowd. Out of the audience, a wealthy young man approached him and asked what good thing he needed to do to get eternal life. Perhaps a little exasperated, Jesus told him what should have been obvious: keep the commandments. But the man pressed Jesus: which ones? Jesus rattled off six. I’ve kept these, replied the man; what else?

You know the rest of the story, that uncomfortable moment when Jesus tells the man to sell his wealth, give the proceeds to the poor, and become a disciple. My translation of verse 21 is this: If you choose/are willing/are inclined to be fully developed as a human being/to be fully enlightened, then go and sell your possessions/property/goods and give to those who have been reduced to begging/the indigent, and you will have a precious deposit/a treasury in heaven; now come hither and follow me/be my disciple/imitate me.

The man goes away sad because he had great wealth. We don’t know the ending to this story—whether or not the man sold some of his property and gave aid to the poor and then set out to follow Jesus, or whether he lived the rest of his days feeling guilty and bitter about what he knew he should do but felt unable to carry out on his own. Jesus turned to his friends and told them that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. His words set such a high bar that the disciples—who had already left everything (their fishing nets, their livelihoods) to follow him—were dismayed. If it’s that difficult, then what’s the point, they asked him? Who can be saved?

Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Elsewhere in Scripture, we learn that God—the fullest expression of God—is love, so an offshoot saying has arisen: “With love all things are possible.” It was the struggle between love and duty, love and adherence to the law that Jesus identified in the wealthy young man. Duty and compliance alone are not enough to gain enlightenment. They are helpful but incomplete. Without our love for God and God’s love for us, achieving entry into eternal life is impossible and even—given the example of the camel—absurd.

Albert Einstein once said, “Love is a better master than duty,” [1] and I think that echoes something of what Jesus was trying to teach his friends. Einstein was born into a non-observant Jewish family in Germany and attended a Catholic elementary school, so he knew something about law and duty from an early age. [2] Duty without love engenders bitterness, and it is interesting to note that in Matthew 19 where the wealthy young man leaves his encounter with Jesus “sad”, that word can also be translated “distressed, cross, or vexed”. From there to “bitter” is not a big leap.

Harry Emerson Fosdick, a contemporary of Einstein and pastor at Riverside Church in Manhattan, was so taken with Einstein that his church created a life-size statue of the man. He showed it to Einstein when they met in 1930. [3] Fosdick once wrote: “Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.” [4]

In Jesus, God releases us from whatever imprisons us. God empowers us and adds a sweet current to life. God heals what is sick in us, and anoints us where we are blind. Love releases, empowers, sweetens, heals, and anoints. This is a good season to let yourself fall deeper in love with Jesus.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2143-love-is-a-better-master-than-duty

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Emerson_Fosdick

[4] https://www.quotes.net/quote/83