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The Zacchaeus Option (for Christians Who Don’t Want to be Perfect)
The Middle Way for Good Christians Looks like Socialism
It’s hard for Christians to meet Jesus’s definition of perfection:
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” — Matthew 19:21–26
Whether the wealthy young man prayed for God’s help and managed to give his wealth to the poor, the Bible does not say. It only tells us that Jesus’s disciples lived according to his teaching:
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven…
