Perfection is Following Christ

There was a simple but powerful statement about the Christian life in today's reading (Wed of Lent 3) from Concordia Publishing House's Treasury of Daily Prayer.  The reading is from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXVII.45-50. It concerns the passage in Matthew 19 (v.21) where Jesus says, "If you would be perfect, ell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."

The Apology says:

"This passage has stirred up many who have imagined that casting away possessions and the control of property is perfection...The abandonment of property has no command or advice in the Scriptures. Evangelical poverty does not come from the abandonment of property, but from not being greedy, from not trusting in wealth, just as David was poor in a most wealthy kingdom... Since the abandonment of property is merely a human tradition, it is a useless service...But , Christ speaks about perfection here. Indeed, those who quote the text in a butchered way violate it. Perfection is found in what Christ adds [at the end of Mt 19.21], 'Follow me'."

The rest of the Article is worth reading, for it speaks of vocation--the unique way each of us is called to follow Christ--but the key point is that there is no perfection apart from Christ. The Word of God lays bare the idolatry to which each of us is tempted. (In the case of the the "rich young ruler" to whom Jesus was speaking in Matthew 19 the issue was attachment to wealth.) Perfection--indeed, true life!--is in Him. The "rich young ruler" to whom Christ was speaking seemed to discover that eventually, for he is likely John Mark, who showed a halting Christian faith in the years to follow this encounter with Christ, including quite a split with Paul, but who is known to history as one of the great witnesses of The Lord. He, after all, is the one whose vocational talents came to be used of God in The Gospel According to St. Mark.