Matthew 19:16-30
Preposterous Teaching

Then someone came to him and said, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?"

And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."

He said to him, "Which ones?"

And Jesus said, "You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

The young man said to him, "I have kept all these; what do I still lack?"

Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, 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."

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, "Then who can be saved?" But Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible."

Then Peter said in reply, "Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?"

Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.

But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

New Revised Standard Version

I was fascinated this week to read about the origins of the English word "preposterous". The word comes almost directly from the Latin word "praeposterus", which was a conjunction of "prae", meaning "before", and "posterus", meaning "coming after". Literally the Latin word means that things are backwards, or upside down. How absurd to "get the cart before the horse", we would say.

Let's replay a bit of this scripture story and watch how this fits:


Watching the man walk away, Jesus sighed, "It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven."

Peter interrupted, "But that's preposterous!"

"Exactly," answered Jesus, "for many who are first will be last, and last, first."


In the same way, we can hear Peter sputtering in the upper room at the last supper when Jesus knelt to wash his feet: "That's preposterous!" And Jesus patiently agreed, and reminded all his disciples that to be great in the eyes of God required being a servant to others, not a lord over others.

Jesus had a difficult time convincing the disciples of how radical His thinking was. One of the reasons dealt with how thoughts were expressed by story-tellers of the age, since they regularly used hyperbole to make a point. Jesus probably used an idiom of the day in just this fashion when he said it would as hard as for "a camel to go through the eye of a needle." We can see this readiness to accept exaggeration in stride as we see the crowds gathered around John the Baptist, for many were fascinated by his "fire and brimstone" preaching, but didn't feel the need to take it seriously. We can see the same dynamics in great crowds hailing Jesus on Palm Sunday, but who were stunned into silence on Good Friday, when the Jesus who had often said that He would lay down his life, actually did it.

One of our challenges is familiarity with the scriptures, which can allow us to do the same. We have heard the story of the rich young man so often, and we know how the people of the time mistakenly saw riches as a sign of God's favor, and the story misses us. We look at ourselves in comparison to people we know, and conclude we aren't rich, and the story misses us. We think of Jesus washing feet, and have no easy equivalent in our culture, and the story misses us. We have read Jesus' teachings of contradictions so often that it sounds comforting and familiar to us, no longer preposterous, and the story misses us.

That's why prae + posterus was a gift from God this week, because it gave me a slightly different angle from which to view Jesus' teachings. I cannot allow these stories to become tired to me, so familiar that I fail to recognize the Life that God breathes into them. I need the Word challenging my routines and habits daily, so others will see that Life in me.

It's odd to think about studying the Bible, when we think that we study biology for a year in high school, get a degree in business in four years in college, but we will never finish studying the Bible. I treasure the way Katherine Hankey expressed this in a hymn text:

And when, in scenes of glory,
I sing the new, new song,
'Twill be the old, old story
That I have loved so long.