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How often have you heard someone declare, "I have
my faults but I'm not a bad person, I've lived a good life." I was
speaking to someone recently who put it in these words, "We love
nature and take our responsibilities seriously. We care about things
and look after what we've got. What more can we do?"
Like the young man in the story this week, they were full of self-congratulation
but allowed that there might be one more thing they might do if only
they knew what. The young man might have phrased his question as, "What
more must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Was his question genuine? Sometimes I think not, that he is simply setting Jesus up in order to deliver the punch line in verse 20:
"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept
since I was a boy."
If this is the case then this is a piety typical of the young zealot who, with the world at his feet (Luke calls him "a certain ruler" 18:18), feels nothing is beyond him.
But then I note that, Jesus looked at him and
loved him, as though he read his heart and saw no guile there,
just naivety. Pious or naïve he was lacking in one thing - one thing
that was everything.
One thing you lack
Have you ever been involved in a conversation in which two people are simply talking past each other? This seems to be happening here. The young man is thinking in terms of being religiously orthodox and exemplary but Jesus is talking in terms of sacrifice. The young man is talking about how much he has done while Jesus is pointing out how much he has held on to:
"One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything
you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me."
Now we probably all understand that this passage is teaching us that
wonderful and challenging truth that, "Where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21). What intrigues me is the way
the disciples join in the conversation- on the wrong side. After Jesus
has spoken to the heart of the matter and challenged this rich young
man to lay treasure in heaven and not in the bank of Jerusalem the young
man, we are told, "went away sad, because he
had great wealth."
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the
rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words…and said to each other, "Who
then can be saved?"
I have a picture in my mind of Topol from Fiddler on the Roof
dreaming of being rich. He reasons with God that if he were rich he
could spend his time in the synagogue with the scholars discussing the
finer points of the law and honing his life for godly service. I imagine
the disciples thinking the same way and thinking how great it would
be to be so wealthy that your devotions to God are not distracted by
daily cares. "Would it spoil some vast eternal plan if I were a wealthy
man?" Asks Topol. The answer is probably yes but the disciples
didn't get it. They too are talking passed Jesus. If a wealthy man,
with nothing to distract him from his heartfelt devotions and religious
duties, cannot enter who can? Jesus' answer is amazing:
"With man this is impossible, but not with God;
all things are possible with God."
Here is the lesson. Nothing we can do will earn us entry into heaven
because there is always something we lack. Our motives are mixed, our
devotion irregular, our selves too prone to overrule and our hearts
too polluted to follow God. Yet here comes Peter, talking passed the
issue, declaring, "We have left everything to
follow you!"
Just as Jesus appreciated the naïve devotions of the young ruler and loved him, so he understood that these had, indeed, left so much to follow. Yes, there would be rewards, a hundred-fold, both here and in eternity but they still didn't get it. Jesus once said to his disciples:
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits
his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew
16:24-26)
This wasn't simply about being rich (rich people can be good Christians and praise God for them). This was about thinking that anything in this world, or in our own lives, could possibly win us eternal life. What can a man give in exchange for his soul? How loose is your hold on the things of this world? How strong is your hold on the things of eternity? Where is your treasure?
I pray we don't talk passed Jesus this week but listen intently and trust completely in his finished work.
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