The Rich Young Ruler, Part III: Who is guarding (phylássō) whom? Or, do the things we own end up owning us?

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Review: The primordial desire

In our last writing, we looked at Jesus’ extraordinary response to the Rich Young Ruler’s question:

“What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

And though this at first appeared as a “profound” religious question offered by a humble suppliant, it was found to be a complete contradiction in terms (for how can one work to receive an inheritance…which is given, not to an employee, but to a first born son?). From his spiritual-sounding words uttered in a show of outward humility, Christ then immediately directs him, not to a religious system of work, but to the Person of God. And in this way, He seeks to draw him out of his self-deceived, works-based life of projected religiosity, with all of its vainglorious delusions, onto God Whose Truth breaks the power or all spiritual delusions.

Perceiving, though, that the sight of this poor rich man was limited only to the human realm of external action, Jesus then takes him from the first into the second tables of the Law. And by the way Christ orders the commands (#6-7-8-9->5), by what he adds to them (“Defraud not” [aposteréō]), and by what he subtracts from them (i.e. #10: “Do not covet” [khamad in Hebrew; epithyméō in the Greek LXX]), He brings him to a progressive (…and painful..) understanding that ultimately none of the commandments can be kept at all unless they flow out of a heart of vital love. That is to say, he who

“does not not love his brother whom he has seen (the second table of the Law), how can he love God whom he has not seen” (the first table, I Jn 4:20)?

The Rich Young Ruler, in short, desired not the love of God nor his brother, but rather the temporal “riches” (ktēma & chrēma) of this world. And his impressive show of outward religiosity had only obscured this truth, not only from others, but even from his own self.

Beneath it, however, we discovered that there was operating something much darker—something primordial.

For the same covetous desire, which had first infected the heart and mind of our first parents in the Garden (khamad, Gen 2:9-> 3:6, NET note 17), driving them to willingly choose death over the good (ṭôwv) of life in God’s presence (“In the day that you eat thereof, you shall you shall die, die” [mûwth mûwth, מ֥וֹת תָּמֽוּת])—this same primordial desire—now rises up in the Ruler’s soul with all its dark and destructive potential. And its effect (to link this back to our study on désmios and the Pýthōn spirit) will be to use religion to cut this wealthy Ruler off from the “exceeding riches” that flow down to us from “God’s grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7).

As such, we concluded the last writing with the question:

What is it that we desire, seek…lust after…which will cause us to reject God and the eternal riches (thēsaurós) of His coming Kingdom?

For, it was not simply his riches that cut this man off from the Kingdom; it was much deeper. The darkness of this deception lay at the level of primordial, fallen desire (khamad)…which was, nevertheless, clothed in outward, moralistic, religious garments so as to keep from being seen…and confronted.

The Rich Young Ruler wasn’t the only one with this spiritual infection.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but deep within they are full of extortion (harpagḗ) and self-indulgence…

For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Mt 23:25,27-28).

And with this rather long review…we again delve back into our study of the Rich Young Ruler, here focusing on the term he uses, phylássō.

The desire battling within though veiled under a confident, religious exterior

We remember that the Rich Young Ruler had just confidently claimed regarding each of the Commandments listed by Jesus:

“Teacher, all these things I have kept (phylássō) from my youth” (Mark 10:20).

“All” of these commandments—not some—he had vigilantly guarded from his earliest days…apparently...

And if so, absolutely extraordinary!

Especially as “blameless and upright” Job himself still remembered the iniquities of his youth (Job 13:26) and King David his iniquity, transgressions and sin (Ps 25:7, Ps 51:1-5)…lest we move on to mention the prayer of confession by Daniel or Nehemiah or Ezra…

But not this man.

Not a single moment of breaking any of the commandments.

The “sacrifices of God” are for him, it seems, not a “broken and contrite heart,” that has been “crushed” [dâkâh] in its own self-sufficiency; but rather a sacrifice that…actually requires no death to self at all, but arises, instead, out of an abundant personal righteousness.

Again, “all of these have I kept (phylássō) from my youth.” None of them have been broken. Not one.

Phylássō: From the care of a shepherd to the oppression of Beelzebub

Given his remarkable claim, we pause in the narrative to focus our attention on the particular verb he employs. Appearing one time in each of the first two Gospels (with both instances coming in this encounter with the Rich Young Ruler, Mt 19:20 & Mk 10:20), phylássō is used six times in Luke’s Gospel, where it expresses a great range of spiritual meaning.

First appearing in the the birth narrative of Jesus, where it speaks of the shepherds “keeping watch over (phylássō) their flock by night” (Lk 2:8), its next usage takes us into a wholly different sort of guarding. Moving from the tender care of a shepherd, we are drawn “into the wilderness”…into the “tombs” themselves…where we meet a man who had been possessed by “many demons” “for a long time” (8:27, 30). “Cut off” by them “from the society of men,” he “already dwelt among the dead” (Calvin comm, 26). And under the harsh and savage control of these deadly forces, he becomes an “evil slave” (Chrysostom).

Under their control and doing their bidding, we find its next occurrence. So savage had he become, the text says, that he had to be “kept under guard (phylássō) being bound with chains and shackles” (Lk 8:29a). Yet man’s attempt to control the inner working of this spiritual evil was utterly futile as he “broke the bonds” and was “driven” deeper into darkness (8:29b) where it is only Christ that could set him free (8:30-33).

Continuing the undertones of spiritual binding, the next instance of this verb takes us to another demon possession. And just as with His exorcism of “Legion”, Christ’s casting out of a “mute” spirit caused a great response of fear by those whose spiritual categories were being shaken (11:14).

“He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons,” they said (11:15).

“If” this is so, Jesus replies, and

“Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?” (11:18)

He continues to explain further the dynamics of the coming of His Kingdom (11:19-20):

“When a strong man, fully armed, guards (phylássō) his own palace, his goods are in peace.

But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils (11:21-22)

With the Rich Young Ruler in mind, we then ask who is in control?

Who was the “stronger man”?

Was it he who “guarded” all the commandments from his youth?

Or was it Christ before Whom he knelt?

Or was it “Beelzebub”?

The Parable of the Unclean Spirit and more spiritual redirection

Immediately after these words, Jesus further explains through a short Parable.

An “unclean spirit,” has “gone out of a man,” wandering “through dry places, seeking rest.” Desiring again a home, he seeks to “return to [his] house.” Yet upon his arrival, he finds it “swept and put in order”…just like, no doubt, this Rich young Ruler…who had ordered his house by his own strength and direction.

How, then, does the demon respond?

Does he marvel at the man’s strength of will to bring about such inner transformation?

No.

He goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” (Lk 11:24-26).

The first warning.

The next comes immediately after this Parable, when the text shifts our focus to “a certain woman from the crowd.”

She raises her voice and cries out to Jesus,

“Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”

And just as with the praise from the Rich Young Ruler, Jesus does not respond back with commendation for their spiritual awareness, but replies in a way that directs the focus back onto God and His Word…and our response to it:

“Nay rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it (phylássō)!” (11:27-28).

This is the pathway out of spiritual delusions (prelest).

The center of delusion for the Rich Man—pleonexía

The penultimate occurrence just before Christ’s encounter with the Rich Young Ruler, then draws us closer to the core of his delusion. There Jesus specifically warns a man who is asking his brother to “divide the inheritance” with him:

Take heed and guard against (phylássō) covetousness (pleonexía—that is, the ever present desire “to have” [échō] “more” [pleíōn]).

He then explains,

For a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses (Lk 12:15).

Again, relating this back to the poor rich man, we found in the second writing on this encounter, that he had accumulated great riches (ktēma and chrēma) in his own strength; yet, in doing so, we saw that he had lost the ultimate “treasure” (thésauros).

And tying all of these uses together, we ask,

What or Who is keeping the Rich Young Ruler “under guard”?

Has his own keeping (phylássō) of “all” the commandments safe guarded him from spiritual delusion?

Or

Is it his “abundance” of possessions that are holding him captive?

And even to put a Hollywood spin on it,

Do the things he owns end up owning him?

With these questions, we will draw this study to a close with our next honing in on Jesus’ final words to the Ruler:

“One thing you lack:

Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”