Is spiritual yardstick absolute or relative?
Scripture reading: Mark 10:17-22. Text: “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling His disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the other. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.'” Mark 12:41-44.
The previous message dealt with the direct – indirect phenomenon in our spiritual life. Now, using two stories from the Bible, the scripture reading and the text, we wish to explore another aspect of our inner perception based on faith, hope and love.
“Good Teacher,’ he (the rich young man) asked, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good – except God alone.'” Mark 10:17-18.
A rich man approached Christ with this question: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” A dialogue followed this question. Christ: observe the commandments. The rich man: I have done it from my youth. Christ: One thing you lack; go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. At this point there was no reply from the rich man, he simply left disappointed. For the details, please see the Scripture reading.
There are so many deep and interesting thoughts in this episode, however, this time let us unfold only one – the concept of the absolute! This rich man came to Christ with this compliment: “Good Teacher”! The emphasis is on the adjective, good. Christ is not willing to accept this compliment and much less to return it with similar praise, namely: you are great too, rich man! Rather he makes a clarifying statement: “No one is good – except God alone.”
What could have been in the mind of the rich man? We are better than others; Christ can heal, teach, help, perform miracles; I am also educated, understand the teaching of our religion, observe the law; so we are high above the crowd, therefore we must be good. The Lord made it clear: “No one is good – except God alone.” He is the perfect and the absolute. As far as we are concerned, we – who walk on Earth – are only relatively good, kind, generous, great.
“Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, . . . This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.” See our text.
Both stories have similar elements: rich and poor people, sacrifice, and Jesus’ comments; however, the rich ruler could not give away even a part of his possession but the poor widow offered her whole living. ” . . . she . . . put in everything – all she had to live on.”
Let again a suitable example make it easy to understand the difference between the absolute and relative. One of the strongest animals is the elephant, which can pull out small trees with his trunk. However, the flea, which is tiny, is able to jump as high as fifty times of its height, what an elephant would never be able to accomplish.
This poor widow had contributed relatively more than the rich people did because she gave everything she possessed; however, the rich donors gave numerically more but it was only their surplus. The rich man, in the first story, wanted to achieve perfectness but it did not work; however, this poor widow with two copper coins had outperformed this ambitious young, wealthy man.
The contrast between the absolute and relative is important in Gos’s eyes.
We prefer to look at the total sum, the final figure, the whole amount, but God sees it differently, who offered percentagewise more was relatively more generous. Therefore, not the exact amount counts in the spiritual life but the good intention, the noble heart, the faith-inspired action even be it so small, the willingness to follow Christ. Just one talent beneficially used is more precious than many talents hidden for safekeeping.
Now we can quote with better understanding the words of our Lord: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.” Matthew 25:21.
The Rev. Alexander Jalso is a retired United