Sell, Give, Follow

Matthew 19:21 - Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come, follow me."

So much has been written about this verse and those that follow. Is he serious? exaggerating? being hyperbolic? joking? just trying to prove a point? if so, what point? Maybe a combination of all? I don't think Jesus is joking or being hyperbolic or exaggerating. I think he is serious and he is trying to prove a point.
I admit, I did not always feel this way and I am beginning to change my mind for some unexpected reasons.

As a white, straight, Christian woman who lives in 21st century America, much of what I have is due to white privilege. This privilege is itself due to slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, redlining, inferior education of black people. In other words, I have what I have because someone - a lot of someone elses suffered. I may not be the richest white person out there, but my skin color (and my white sounding name) automatically confers on me certain privileges that African-Americans do not.

For example, I can walk around in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago at daybreak wearing a hoodie. I know because one morning, I was doing exactly that when a police cruiser began following me. Slowly. As I passed under the Metra station viaduct, it did to. They then turned into what I knew was a parking lot, turned around and cut their lights. I saw them as I walked by. Now, I am being creeped out by this. Here I am carrying a coffee cup - just as harmless as skittles! - and I can tell they're singling me out. I didn't realize at first that it was the hoodie. As I kept walking, they pulled out of the parking lot, turned on their lights and continued following me. By now i realized what was going on, but had not yet taken the hoodie off. I crossed the street, they did, too. I began to think about how black people live this way every day of their lives. Of course, when I took the hoodie off, they took off. I can do things without consequences that many black people cannot do.

This would have turned out much differently if I were black. That is just one piece. The prison system punishes black "offenders" more harshly than white ones. Educational opportunities were more numerous for me. Sure, I was kept out of internships due to financial constraints, yet overall, my opportunities were better - especially better than those of young Clevelanders.

I married a man who had a privileged childhood and money stashed away. His dad had a union shop and employed all kinds of people, yet the money was a privilege of being white. It all goes back to the systemic racism of chattel slavery on which our country was founded. The three-fifths comprise guaranteed a divided nation. It's systemic racism that until recently, was much more prevalent than out and out personal racism.

So how does that situation compare with the situation in Roman-occupied Israel? As I currently understand it, those Jewish people who were rich were collaborators with the Roman authorities. Therefore, they were keeping the poor people poor in order to stay rich and powerful. Tax collectors, temple authorities, money changers - these all had their hands in the pockets of the Jewish farmers and laborers.

The salient similarity is that those who were rich made sure that there could be no competition from those who were poor. The game was rigged. Here in the US, Republicans fan the flames of racism, anti-immigrationism and "law-and-order" in order to keep poor white people and black people from coming together. As such, the riches the wealthy have are stolen from the poor. They are ill-gotten gains and are therefore immoral and go against the commandment to not steal. Rather than pointing this out, Jesus prescribes the cure: go, sell all you have, give to the poor and come follow me. This the prescription is not just for this young man but for all of us as well.
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