“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure that a man would risk his life on it.”— Martin Luther (1484-1546)

When I was teaching at different schools across the island, students often came to me asking: “Teacher, what can I do to get a better grade?”

I usually answered along the lines of: “Just pay attention in class, participate, complete your assignments and give your best in tests.” Which, of course, most of those students did anyway, because it was the students who wanted to get better grades.

Usually they wanted better grades because they were told that they needed them for the perfect career, the one that will make lots of money, and that there would be tough competition for those jobs.

One student told me after a test in which she achieved an A-, her parents only wanted to know what she had wrong and why. She had 90 per cent correct and was among the best in class. I felt sorry for her.

Where was the fun of learning and fun of life? Why so much pressure so early? What happened to: do what you enjoy for a living, with unique creativity or special skills?

When we are never good enough

Lots of people are made to believe they are not good enough. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was confronted with a similar situation.

In Mt 19:16-21(NRSV), we read:  “Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honour your father and mother. Also, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these; what do I still lack?’”

This young man just wanted to be perfect, like some of my students. Maybe you feel like that at times, whether in school, at your job, in your marriage or family, or with regard to God. There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve, to become a better version of oneself.

What motivates us?

However, the motivation is important as well. Why did the young, rich man keep all those commandments?

Let’s look at another example in our times. Our schools expect their students to put in community service hours. You see young people helping the Pink Ladies, or cleaning beaches with Keep Bermuda Beautiful, or helping with Sunday School at their church.

It is a great idea and the help is appreciated. But what happens when the required hours are completed? Will those students continue with volunteering? I have also observed some who spend more time on their phones while volunteering than actually serving.

While some young people really find a passion, enjoy the new experience and come even long after the hours are served, others it appears just do it out of self-service motivation. They need the hours, that is important to them.

Religion often is similar. One may do charity, offer services or follow commandments to achieve God’s favour and get blessings in return and ultimately achieve eternal life.

Religious people can get all absorbed in this behaviour, to the point where it can even be diagnosed as religious neurosis by psychologists, or it becomes fanaticism that might even lead to terror or crime. The motivation is not really to fulfil God’s purpose or help people, but to gain something for themselves under the excuse to do God’s work.

Is it about being perfect?

So what does the rich young man need to do? The story continues in Verses 21-22: “Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect [thus, if it is still about your own benefit], go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”

What happened to self-improvement? Was the answer not what the young man wanted to hear? Maybe he would have preferred a different answer, like additional commandments, and exercises to perform, like, say your prayers five times a day, go on a pilgrimage, wear modest clothing, spend some time in a cloister, adopt a stray dog, reduce, reuse, recycle… Anything to make yourself feel better.

Receive it as a gift

I love the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew has a very special understanding of what Christ tried to teach. The writer of the Gospel identified with the tax collector Matthew, who had been changed by Christ’s calling.

As a collaborator with Herod Antipas and the Romans and a self-made millionaire of his days, he was despised by the religious people. Then Christ called him and his life changed.

He actually left everything behind and followed Jesus and became one of the 12 disciples even though he was not religious. He had nothing to show to God. He had lived as a sinner.

However, the call changed everything for him, even his name. According to the Gospel of Mark, Matthew’s original name was Levi, son of Alphaeus. His new name is his programme: Matthew (in Greek, Mattheos) means “gift from God”. When Christ called him, he received a new life, it was a gift from God.

Perfection is the enemy of good enough

Let’s get back to the story from chapter 19. After the rich young man left, Jesus discussed the situation with his disciples: first Christ said, how hard it is for a rich person to enter Heaven, indeed, he said, it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into Heaven.

It sometimes is pointed out that the Eye of the Needle might refer to a special night-time gate in Jerusalem, that was very small and narrow, just a small hole in the wall, so that it could be defended easily even by the night watch. But even if Christ referred to that narrow gate, a camel would not have been able to get through it. Jesus just underlines the impossibility.

Then in 25, “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’” Followed by 26: “But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’”

This is the pivotal point of the whole Gospel of Matthew. Matthew was in particular written for Christians who had been Jews before. Thus, Matthew was written for religious people who had learnt from early on that you had to follow precise rules, keep the commandments, and fulfil the purity laws in order to be righteous before God.

For that reason they avoided contact with any sinful or impure people, including tax collectors, and despised them and felt superior to them (compare Luke 18:9-14).

Matthew wanted them to understand without doubt that they would not gain eternal life by anything they could do. For mortals it is impossible, but only as a gift from God, by grace alone that one can gain eternal life. Righteousness and salvation is a gift that we can receive just by faith alone in Christ.

• Karsten Decker is a German theologian with a double degree equivalent to an MTheol and MDiv. He studied in Marburg (Germany), Knoxville (USA), and Toronto (Canada) and comes from a united church of Lutheran and Reformed Churches. He was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Bermuda from 2010 to 2017, and after returning from Germany is now the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary United Methodist Church in Smith’s