January is traditionally the time of sales, when shoppers go hunting for bargains. Items that once cost a certain amount are slashed in price, and people feel accomplished at the savings they make. God offers us a bargain which no shop can match, however: Isaiah 55:1-2 urges us to come and buy and be satisfied without any need for money exchanging at all!
Oscar Wilde once said, ‘A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing’, and it is certainly true that we do not always recognise the value or worth of certain things (think of all thevaluable antiques dismissed as ‘junk’ or ‘rubbish’ by owners or the sentimental value attached by people to items that are perhaps not of any monetary value.) The price of something is usually determined by market values (refrigerants have greatly increased in price recently, for example), but Jesus’s advice to the rich young man (in Matt 19:21, Mark 10:21 and Luke 18:22) was paradoxical. Clearly, this man was not ‘complete’ or ‘perfect’; he recognised a lack in himself. He knew that his life was not complete, despite his great wealth; he knew that he needed something more. Yet Jesus advised him to let go of his possessions before he could gain the peace for which he longed.
Possessions are not intrinsically evil, but they can easily become obstacles and hindrances to us. Equally, despite our many possessions, we can feel there is a piece missing from our lives (like the jigsaw puzzle which cannot be completed without that missing piece), and the answer is to be found in a looser grip, not a tighter one. Everything in life is a luxury, Cesare Pavese commented, and for us to truly be complete, we have to take a long perspective. Peter, startled by the answer Jesus gave to the rich young man, said, ‘We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?‘ (Matt 19;27) and was assured of an eternal reward. (Matt 19:28-30). Paul urged the Corinthians to view their current sufferings as ‘light and momentary troubles‘, urging them to look beyond the now to the eternal perspective. (1 Cor 4:16-18) Phil 3:7-11 underscores the idea that we have to let go of things in order to gain Christ. As we walk through 2018, the answer to the question, ‘is it worth it?’ is a resounding YES!, but we also need to understand that we have to view life not as a sales’ bargain, but in the light of eternity. We have to count up the cost (‘The Cost,’ Rend Collective) and re-evaluate our priorities if we are to know the completeness which the rich young man ultimately eschewed.