I can t do that. And he went away shocked , says the Greek text, and grieving. This passage is one of the great guilt passages of the American church, because we are by all accounts the wealthy who are unwilling to let go of our possessions. Any who have traveled the world understand how we, as Americans, are possessed by our possessions, by our myth of being the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth. We are defined by our economic system that says we are what we produce.
Eternal life has to do with a quality of being.
It is not a place, or position achieved. It is the assumption of qualities of timeless value. The Mission , a soldier is invited to come and be part of a religious mission to the Indians deep in the rain forest. The soldier is running from prosecution stemming from a duel in which he has killed a man. He makes his trek to the Amazon interior, but he brings with him all his armor and weapons.