Appears on: Mockingbird
Lyrics:
Poverty
Is so hard to see
When it’s only on your TV
Or 20 miles across town
Where we’re all living so good
We moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
Where He’s hungry and not feeling so good
From going through our trash
He says “More than just your cash and coin
I want your time, I want your voice
I want the things you just can’t give me”
So what must we do
Here in the West we want to follow you
We speak the language and keep all the rules
Even a few that we made up
So come on and follow me
Sell your house, sell your SUV
Sell your stocks, sell your security
Give it to the poor
What is this, hey what’s the deal
I don’t sleep around and I don’t steal
I want the things you just can’t give me
I want the things you just can’t give me
‘Cause what you do to the least of these
My brothers you have done it to me
‘Cause I want the things you just can’t give me
I want the things you just can’t give me
In a comment on The Rabbit Room on 17 Jun 2008, Derek wrote the following regarding “Rich Young Ruler”:
so andrew tells me that it’s appropriate for the writer to comment on their song when it’s featured here in the rabbit room, so i’m glad to do so. and i’ll try to keep this brief. let me start by saying that it’s an honor to be mentioned amongst such great singers and songwriters.
next, let me say that this is not a song about wealth. nor is it a song about the poor. it is no more so than the story from which it gets it name. ‘rich young ruler’ is a song about idolatry. it’s about the things that we’re not willing to give up in order to follow Jesus.
in the instance of this story, it was in fact great wealth that the young man was asked to leave behind. but in our cases, i could just as well be the self-righteousness that we derive from the poverty (or felt poverty) that we live in. we could feel spiritually arrogant about the fact that we have chosen to live on the poor side of town (which is not really ‘identifying with the poor’, since one of the primary characteristics of being truly poor is having your choices taken away…).
it could be our great sense of moral superiority that we may be asked to leave behind in order to follow Jesus. it could be our religiosity. it could be the way we identify ourselves as people who have achieved such spiritual maturity that we are somehow at liberty to live recklessly and questionably, from a moral standpoint.
basically, it’s anything we add to this equation:
God’s favor = Jesus + nothing
anything we exchange out for ‘nothing’ is our idol. because in the economy of salvation, it doesn’t add up any other way.
Thank you for including the interpretation by Derek at the Rabbit Room. I’m playing the song tonight for my small group; we’re discussing the parable of the Good Samaritan. Thanks again!