{"id":49606,"date":"2025-04-15T05:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T11:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=49606"},"modified":"2025-04-14T20:45:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T02:45:34","slug":"christ-and-community-3-sell-whatever-thou-hast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/christ-and-community-3-sell-whatever-thou-hast\/","title":{"rendered":"Christ and Community, 3: “Sell Whatever Thou Hast”"},"content":{"rendered":"

So here I present an idea about Christ\u2019s injunction to the rich young man that I read in a book I really like. We all know the story and know it\u2019s often used to as bludgeon to declare that Christians are coming up short of their charitable obligations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Morton Smith\u2019s Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark<\/em> (1973), Smith does a close examination of Mark 10 because of his claim that \u201csecret Mark,<\/a>\u201d or a longer passage that was sacred because it referred to a secret ritual, fit into Mark 10. Secret Mark has long been debated, and, yes, these claims sound pretty Mormon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smith argues that the requirements that Jesus gives the rich man in verses 17-22 fit the early Christian requirements for baptism, including \u201crenunciation of property\u201d (170). Smith explains, \u201cWhoever joins the group enjoys its common property and is a member of its common family\u2026. So the ancient Church understood the passage (Cramer; Theophylact) and so, generally do modern commentators (cited by Lagrange, ad loc.<\/em>)\u201d (172).<\/p>\n

In other words, Smith argues that the requirement to \u201csell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor,\u201d was a baptismal requirement to give all to Christ and his followers, what Smith calls \u201cprimitive communism\u201d (172). In fact, \u201cthe poor\u201d was a name for early Christians: the Ebionites’<\/a> name derives from the Hebrew Ebyonim<\/em>, \u201cmeaning the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acts 2:44-45 and 4:32-37 is similar in that giving all to the church is a requirement. Ananias and Sapphira \u201ckept back part of the price\u201d and were smitten\u201d (5:1-5).<\/p>\n

To me, requiring the rich man to give all to the community makes more sense than what Smith calls \u201cindiscriminating charity\u201d (173) that is often assumed. First, because it\u2019s really hard to get by on nothing. My understanding is that some eastern monks attempt this but aren’t able to do much. It seems much more functional to \u201cenjoy \u2026 common property\u201d as \u201ca member of [a] common family.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Mark 10:28, Peter states \u201cwe have left all, and have followed thee,\u201d but the apostles seem to either have a boat or frequent fare for a boat: Mark 4:1, 36\u201341, Mark 6:32, 45-54, Matthew 8:23\u201327, Matthew 14:22-33, Luke 8:22\u201325, John 6:16\u201321. This would make sense if the boat or the fare were \u201ccommon property\u201d held by the \u201ccommon family.\u201d<\/p>\n

So for me, I really think that Morton Smith\u2019s claim fits the evidence. The rich young man was asked to fulfill the requirement of giving all to the community, but turned away because he had many possessions. \u201cHow hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!\u201d (24). Smith defines the kingdom of heaven as Christ and his followers, not necessarily the afterlife (Smith, 169). The rich young man refused the requirement to join Christ and his followers.<\/p>\n

Communal living is quite difficult to maintain; I\u2019ve heard that 90 percent of communes don\u2019t make it past 18 months. Our church’s attempt in Missouri fit that category. So early Christians attempts probably didn\u2019t last long but were nonetheless was part of the memory of Jesus\u2019s teachings (Smith, 172).<\/p>\n

Therefore, it appears to me that this \u201cChristian\u201d requirement of the rich young man was also a communal one: a requirement and characteristic of the kingdom of God that\u2019s quite difficult to achieve. \u201cIt is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God\u201d (10:25). Christ’s followers were “the poor” because very few of the rich joined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So here I present an idea about Christ\u2019s injunction to the rich young man that I read in a book I really like. We all know the story and know it\u2019s often used to as bludgeon to declare that Christians are coming up short of their charitable obligations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10406,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49606"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49644,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49606\/revisions\/49644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}