“I will place my
heart law within them
And write it upon
their hearts…” –Jeremiah 31:33
“Unless a grain of
wheat fall to the earth
And die, it remains
but a grain of wheat…” --John 12:20-33
I’ve been thinking for some time
about that grain of wheat. It is an
image that speaks to my soul. It feels
like something inexhaustibly true; as if that is exactly how God will write His
law upon my heart –upon our hearts. He
will give us opportunities to die, to die to something, to our ego, to our security,
to our dreams, to our appetites, to our self, and each time we die to something
–no matter how small—God will write another piece of His law upon our hearts.
This
morning I read the passage in Mark about the rich young man (10:17-22).
The young man comes to Jesus asking Him what he must do to “inherit eternal
life,” and Jesus reminds him of the commandments. The young man affirms that he has followed
all these, and Jesus tells him this:
“One
thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give
it
to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven;
then
come, follow me.” (10:21)
And it is then, scripture tells us, that the young man went
away sad. Because Jesus was asking him
to die to his wealth, his power, his place at the table. Apparently, the young man had received God’s
law, thus far. He had lived a life honoring that law –thus far. But now Jesus is asking him to take the next
step; to die to himself, to let go of everything that protects him and keeps
him safe from the hardships of life and the insecurities of the world, and “come and follow me.” And he went away
sad. Dying is hard. Letting go of control
and security and comfort (and potato chips –for me!) is very hard. I imagine the young man was looking for some
kind of affirmation from Christ, and maybe an easier kind of dying. But the easy that Jesus offers us, looks too
much like the cross. We tend to not want
that. We tend to turn away from it, trying to rationalize our decision to hold
onto things like wealth and treasures and comforts, not because we are bad
people, but because we need them, or we plan to use them for some future good
or just in case!
It is hard
to die to our wealth, yes; but even harder to die to our identity. This is the “rich” young man, and Jesus is asking
him to go and sell everything he owns and give it to the poor. He will no longer be the “rich” young man in
the eyes of the world. He will no longer be a man of importance and
distinction. He will no longer be the
self he has become. His charity, his
righteousness, his success –they are his; they are who he is. But Jesus is asking him to die to himself; to
let go of that identity and come and follow Him. And the promise is this: if we die to
ourselves, if we fall to earth –like that grain of wheat—then, we will bear much
fruit. We will become a fruitful vine. And I’m wondering if it isn’t through that
fruitful vine that God reaches out to the world; and through that vine taking
root inside us that God writes His law upon our hearts. But for that vine to take root, there must be
a death. And dying can be hard gift to receive –as we see in the rich young man’s
reaction.
But there
is no sign that Jesus has given up on this rich young man. What we see is that Jesus
looked at the rich young man with much love (cf. 10:21). And
that Jesus understands how hard it is for the rich to let go of their wealth
and enter empty handed into the Kingdom of God: harder than a camel passing
through the eye of a needle.
So we must put our trust in God’s
love, and in God’s patience. And we must day by day learn little by little to
let go. Most of us are not going to be
Dorothy Day or Francis of Assisi. We are not going to simply let go of
everything in one glorious gesture of dying to our old lives. For most of us,
we must trust in God’s patience as He waits for us, like the soil waiting for
the seed. Trust that God waits for us to
let go that we might receive the gift He has instore for us; in fact, that He
might write it on our hearts.
Lent is a time to practice
dying. And I was told by a priest last
week (during confession) that it is never too late to begin a good Lent. This was a difficult Lent for me, but I
finally started mine. And I have already
failed --twice-- and started again. And like that other wonderful example from
Mark’s gospel, I continue to pray: Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. (9:24)