One of my favorite stories in scripture is the interaction of Jesus with the “Rich Young Ruler”, as so poignantly displayed in many LDS chapels in Heinrich Hoffman’s 1888 painting.
I think it’s really ironic to feature this painting, for the moral of the story is that the Rich Young Ruler is told to go and sell all that he has and give to the poor. While LDS are called upon to give their money, the primary commandment is to pay tithing to the church for the building up of the Kingdom of God. The percentage of tithing that goes toward the poor is less than 1%.
As well, we LDS embrace a prosperity gospel. The Book of Mormon repeats, many times, “If ye keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land.” An implicit sign of god’s favor among Mormons is prosperity, we favor it, we seek it, and we reward prosperous men with high positions in the Church.
And in this story, the Rich Young Ruler asked Jesus, “Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
Jesus gave the young man the standard LDS answer: “Thou knowest the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother.”
But the story pivots at this point. The young man answered, “Master, all these have I observed from my youth.”
Ain’t that the truth.
I venture to say that LDS are truly brought up to keep the commandments — it’s all we do, and in creating a “purity culture”, we don’t commit adultery, we don’t kill, we don’t steal, we don’t lie, we don’t defraud, and we honor parents. Sure, we make mistakes, but LDS are by and large good people following these commandments to a tee.
But with all that obedience, the young man felt that something was lacking. All of his obedience wasn’t bringing joy to him, or the sense of belonging into eternal life.
So the pivot. Perhaps the most important pivot in scripture.
“Then Jesus beholding him loved him.”
After this pivot, Jesus then told the young man, “One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thous hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.” Hearing this, the young man was sad, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.
I think for many of us, we see this statement as yet another commandment we don’t live: giving all we have to the poor.
But I don’t believe that is the point of the story. The pivot matters.
I have often heard it said, “Obedience is the first law of heaven”, but in searching the new testament scriptures, this is stated nowhere. In fact, obey and obedience seem to be focused on how many observed that the natural elements “obeyed” Christ.
Then we hear, even in this story, “keep the commandments”, and again, as LDS, we obey our leaders and keep the commandments as they enumerate them in General Conference. We have a veritable list of Commandments that rivals the 613 mitzvah in the Jewish law. We are a covenant and commandment keeping people.
But then again, a search of the scripture for a single phrase yields something so pivotal, that it changes everything for me. Search on the phrase “This is my commandment”, and a single verse appears:
“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
(John 15:12)
I speak a lot about this great, first, second, last, and new commandment, to love. But there is something pivotal that I have missed here. In John 15:12, there is a pivot statement. Yes we love one another…but HOW? And the pivot is “As I have loved you.”
If our view of Christ is that he judges; if our view of God is that he is about justice and punishments, even justifying genocide and slavery as the bible so often does, then loving one another as God loves us can result in judgmental, punishing, and even very hateful behavior. I think I see too much of this kind of “love’ in the world.
But how DOES Jesus love us? It’s all here in the pivot.
When Jesus engaged with the Rich Young Ruler, the pivot was when Jesus *beheld* the young man, and in beholding him, loved him.
What does that mean?
Empathy.
In the moment that Jesus beheld the young man, he peered into his soul, lived inside of his experience, was able to understand what motivated the rich young man. This kind of empathy gets lost when we LDS focus on the wrong things: on keeping a set of rules without regard to a personal situation.
All the standard commandments matter nothing. The rich young man loved his riches more than the poor, as is so subtly portrayed by Hoffman’s use of gaze. Jesus’ gaze is a loving look into the young man’s soul, and the young man’s gaze is dismissive of the poor.
Jesus could only understand this by “beholding” the young man — by truly placing him into the young man’s life, feeling what he felt, thinking what he thought, and realizing what he realized.
When we embrace love as the first, second, greatest, new, and last commandment; when we love one another as Jesus has loved us, I think we often struggle to understand what this means.
Yet in this pivotal moment, the moment when Jesus beheld the young man, we see the single most pivotal aspect of God’s love: “God became man so that we might become god”. By incarnation, Jesus was fully man and fully god, and as man, was equal to all other men.
The Book of Mormon speaks of this as the “Condescension of God”, but it’s not “condescending” in the negative sense. Rather, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” And “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” and “Ye are my friends”.
When Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, he was showing that the highest lord is the lowest of servants. He said, the “Servant is not greater than the Lord”.
In god becoming mankind, God makes him/herself equal to humanity, servant of humanity, One with humanity.
If we take seriously the one and only place where Jesus said, “This is my commandment”, and we “love one another AS (in the same way) that Jesus loves us”, then something fundamental has to change in our interpersonal relations.
Empathy.
“And Jesus beholding him, loved him.”
Do I take the time to peer into the soul of another, to understand why they are saying what they are saying? Or am I so hellbent on obeying the rules that I can only recite the rote checklist?
I do not. I recently offended someone, because I didn’t take the time to understand what they were saying, why they were saying it, what was behind what they were saying. And making assumptions, reciting the standard rules, I lost an opportunity to love.
Yeah. We sin. But the important sins aren’t the violations of a bunch of standard “commandments” listed in “For the strength of youth” or in the Articles of Faith. None of our standard rules call us to love one another as Jesus has loved us. None. It doesn’t appear anywhere in the temple, the articles of faith, FTSOY, the temple recommend interview.
Yet the greatest sin is to violate what Jesus said was HIS commandment — his only commandment. I failed to love, and the consequence was a failed relationship. a failed opportunity to touch souls and come to Christ.
I can do better.
To me, it’s not enough to just talk about love, which I do a lot. The reality is that I need to practice it. It needs to inform how I take time to behold another, and place myself into their life, to understand, to empathize, and to love.
I see myself as the “rich young man” in Hoffman’s painting. I always have. Not because of riches, but because I so often don’t get it.
But in a moment many years ago, I felt that gaze of Christ beholding me, loving me, for exactly who I was and am. And this I know: I have a choice to either walk away, or to love in return.
And how I love matters.