"The Rest of the Story" of the Rich Young Man in Mark 10

My Father taught me this.

Remember the story of the rich young man in Mark 10 who asked Jesus what he must do to have eternal life? Christian ministers everywhere tell this story with such sadness (and I just heard it again in a taped sermon yesterday) as an example of what not to follow. But I think there's a much different story to be told here, one that we perhaps should be following.

Mark 10 - Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to (the) poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

The young man went away sad because he had much….

....but here's what I have come to believe happened next.

He went home and took a good look around his house as he considered what Jesus said. He started to give away everything he had as he was told. Because he had much, he would have had a throng of people around him but would have had a building sense of joy as each possession passed to someone who had more need than himself. And when he gave away his last possession, having nothing but a cloth of linen, went and followed Jesus.

We catch up with this “young man” again in chapter 14 wrapped only in a linen cloth for within 4 chapters of a book, he had even lost his status as the “wealthy young man” to be now described simply as the "young man". When the guards tried to seize him they took his very last possession, his cloth leaving him naked thus completing Jesus ask of him, demonstrating a powerful commitment to faith and thereby securing for himself the treasures in heaven just as Jesus promised. I wonder here, even with the enormity of what was happening at this very moment, if Jesus had a trace of a smile on his lips that only he and his Father in Heaven would understand.

Now there's no proof that the man in chapter 10 and the one in chapter 14 are the same man. But I'll offer this, why even bother mentioning some obscure character in chapter 14? Is it possible that Jesus looking at the rich man knew he would heed him despite his initial sadness and that this is precisely why Jesus loved him? Is it possible that while Jesus knew this, it is one more nuance that the disciples missed as they looked on him with pity? Did the Holy Spirit cause Mark to include this seemingly insignificant observation that the Holy Spirit might try us to connect the dots? And is the fact that the knowledge of the identity of the young man kept hidden purposely in accordance with the teaching of Matthew 6 to ensure that the rich young man does not get paid for his faith with the currency of the praise of men and thereby have no reward held for him by our Father in heaven?