SOMETHING YOU ALREADY HAVE

Monday: August 17, 2020

Matthew 19:20 The young man told him, “I have kept all of these. What do I still lack?”

The question this young man asked Jesus in the Gospel was a tough one because depending on disposition, it could have arisen from a number of different places. Whether from a crossroad where it felt there was something else needed or perhaps from a place of feeling inferior, believing that he was still inadequate and lacking. Thus, with the question on board being ‘what else do I need to do’, Jesus proceeds to offer a suggestion on what the man could work on.

He was required to sell what he had and to give the money to the poor. This sounded quite extreme but that was the answer to his “what else”. However, what catches my attention is the approach Jesus takes to address the ‘matter of lack’ hinted at in the question. In answering him, we realise Jesus assigns a task which was within his means to undertake: He asks the man to go and sell what ‘he already possessed’.

It seemed as though Jesus’ wanted to present a specific mindset to let him know: ‘you don’t lack anything – you only have to engage what you have’. Beloved, this encounter was not just about ‘what else’, it was a reorientation. The young man, like many of us, had to realise that ‘he already had the means to attain eternal life’ because it had already been given to him’. It was only a matter of pointing him in the right direction to see if he would engage with what he already had to achieve what he desired.

All of us, therefore, ought to also remember that ” “This is the testimony: ‘God HAS GIVEN us eternal life, and this life is found in his Son( 1 John 5:11). It has already been given, ours is to engage this provision.

#sly