I was at a party this week and an English
friend was telling the story of how he bought his first house here in
The bank said no. It was against their
policy. His response was, “You’ve seen what my salary is. I intend to be here
for a long time. Do you really want to not have my business?” But they
insisted. So he walked out and went to another bank that also wasn’t
able to give a 100% mortgage (it was against the rules) but was more than happy
to give him a personal loan for two weeks until the cheque cleared from
Money talks… It says, “Be nice to me.”…
If you were the leader of a small group of radicals, set on changing the world, who would you rather have join your team? Some kids who have nothing to their name? Or a wealthy young man who is clearly enthusiastic about your agenda?
In Mark 10:14-15 we see Jesus getting angry
with the disciples for turning away children, and he says, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the
kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth,
anyone who will not receive the
Then, in verse 17, Mark immediately tells the story of someone that we have come to know as the “rich young ruler.’ (That’s actually a composite picture. Matthew, Mark and Luke all agree that he was rich, but it’s only Matthew that tells us he is young and only Luke that describes him as a “ruler.”)
Whoever he was; he was enthusiastic.
17
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and
fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to
inherit eternal life?”
What would you do if a guy in a $1000 suit ran up to you and dropped on his knees in front of you; in the street; in the dirt? Would he have your attention?
This is not the kind of thing that happens every day. People of his class would have been much more likely to invite Jesus to their home for dinner (like the Pharisee in Luke 7) than to accost him in public on the street. But there he is, on his knees in the dust, getting his suit all messed up, all to ask one question. “…what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
You know, if you’re going to go to all that trouble to ask a question, that’s a good one to ask.
I went through Mark and looked at the questions that people ask Jesus. They basically fell into two types. There were the questions that the disciples asked; mainly for explanations of the parables (4.10; 7.17) or for instruction, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?” (Mark 9:11) or clarification, like when they failed to cast out the demon in Mark 9.28.
Then there are the questions that
“outsiders” ask him, many of them aimed at either pigeonholing Jesus or
trapping him in some way. “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the
Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” (Mark
2:18) “Why don’t your disciples live
according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with
‘unclean’ hands?” (Mark 7:5) “Is it
lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” (Mark
10:2) “…who gave you authority to do
this?” (Mark 11:28) “Should we
pay taxes or shouldn’t we?” (Mark 12:15) “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” (Mark 12:28)
Then there’s this guy’s question, “…what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
This isn’t a disciple politely seeking more light along the way. Nor is it a Pharisee asking a technical question about the law or religious practice. It’s a man asking an intensely personal question about his future destiny.
He doesn’t ask about entering into the
I don’t know what happened to make him so
desperate that he came running up to Jesus. People don’t run much in the
gospels. Not only is it a hot climate, it’s an honour culture. From our time in
Something must have happened to have this guy abandon all decorum and run up to Jesus like this. Perhaps a friend had just had a terrible accident and died. (There’s nothing like witnessing someone else’s passing to force the big questions of life into your consciousness.) Perhaps he had had some other kind of life crisis. Either way, he feels he needs to know how he can inherit eternal life.
The strange thing is that everything we know about this young man from this story would lead him to believe that he’s already “in.”
When he asks how he can be sure of his future, Jesus’ response is, 19
You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit
adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your
father and mother.’”
He’s quoting what’s called “the second
tablet of the law.” In Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, where the 10 commandments
are given, the first four commandments (to have no other gods, to not make any
idols or images of God, to not take God’s name in vain, and to keep the Sabbath
holy) define
It’s possible that Jesus assumed that this
man kept the first four. After the Jews returned from exile in
So Jesus is focussing on the outworking of
the man’s faith in his relationships with others. He’s saying that one of the
truest marks of being part of the people of God is in how we relate to each
other. He says the same thing explicitly in John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one
another.”
But this young man isn’t buying any of it, because he cries out, 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” He’s clearly an observant Jew. Like Paul before his conversion, he’s living within the covenant. He’s doing everything right, but he’s still not at peace, still not sure that he’s accepted by God.
21
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “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.” 22 At this the
man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Not only did he claim that he was doing
everything right, he had proof of it. He was rich! In the Old Testament, in
Deuteronomy 30, God makes this promise, 8 You will again obey the Lord
and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9 Then the Lord your God will make you most
prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the
young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just
as he delighted in your fathers, 10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and
decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul.
Basically this says that if you obey God, he will bless you and make you prosperous.
The fact that some preachers have distorted this promise into a “prosperity gospel” doesn’t stop it being generally true. So true in fact that scholars have given it a name. They call it “redemption and lift.” People get right with God, they learn to love others and let others love them, they stop flushing their money and lives down the toilet with destructive habits, and their lives change for the better. It may take a few generations, but eventually Christian families tend to move up the social scale and become middle class.
The problem comes when you try and make it work backwards. Yes, there are blessings associated with following God. But that doesn’t mean that being prosperous is necessarily a mark of being godly. But that was exactly the way people thought in Jesus’ day. You can see that from the disciples’ response.
23
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How
hard it is for the rich to enter the
You see? They thought that if someone was rich, it was obviously because God was pleased with them and blessing them. So they respond, “Who then can be saved?” If the “obviously blessed” aren’t going to be saved, what hope is there for a bunch of fishermen and social outcasts?
This young man had the marks of blessing; he was rich, and he was religious, but he still had no assurance that he was acceptable to God. In fact, the very thing that everybody else assumed was a mark of his chosen-ness, was a hindrance to his salvation.
“One thing you lack,” [Jesus] said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
This is Jesus’ answer to the question, “…what must I do to inherit eternal life?” His answer is simple, “Follow me.”
This is what it means to have eternal life.
John 6.40 says, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes
in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 10.10 “I have come that they may have life, and
have it to the full.” John 17.3 “Now
this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent.”
If we follow him we will inherit eternal life, and we will learn to love others (as he changes our hearts from within) and we (or our children) will probably end up better off financially than we started off. But the fact that he is already financially secure is a barrier for this young man, and Jesus puts his finger on it. “In your case, one thing is missing… Go, Sell, Give, Come, Follow.”
Jesus tells him that he can’t come and follow him now. There’s something he has to deal with first. He has to go home and…
…sell all that he has. Not because there’s anything wrong with having stuff (there were wealthy people following Jesus. Luke 8 tells us about a group of wealthy women who supported Jesus’ ministry out of their own funds) but because it was a barrier to him following Jesus.
[When I first joined Youth With A Mission in my 20s there was a deposit that had to be sent in with the application. I had little or no money and I felt the Lord leading me to sell my record collection so I could send in the money. I didn’t get much for it. It was mainly electric folk with some jazz and rock and the place I took it was mainly interested in the mainline stuff, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, etc. But part of my following Jesus was to loosen the hold that music had on my life, so I had to sell my albums to make the down payment on the school.
If you’ve seen The Runaway Bride, you’ll know that at one point in the movie Julia Roberts’ character gives Richard Gere an original copy of Miles Davis’ “Kind Of Blue.” – I had that album!!! So part of my testing was that I had to sell what is now a collector’s item, for next to nothing.]
What he got for all his “stuff” he had to give to the poor. Nothing breaks the power of money in your life like giving it away. That’s why giving is more than a way to support good causes. It’s a spiritual discipline, along with prayer, and bible study, and fasting, because it sets you free from the power of money.
Then, after he had done all that, he could come back and…
…follow Jesus.
Does that mean that we have to get our lives in order before we can follow Jesus? I don’t think so. I think what Jesus was doing for this young man was spelling out what repentance meant for him. Eternal life is found by following Jesus. That means that you have to stop following whatever it is you’re following right now, change direction, and follow Jesus. Jesus was spelling that out for this young man. His wealth had become a hindrance, and in the end it actually stopped him from following Jesus.
Wealth is a particularly difficult problem because it can lead you to believe that you’re insulated from risk – which makes the risk of following Jesus that much more difficult. But it could have been any number of things, anything that you put your trust in or that controls your life.
What’s hindering you from following Jesus
with all your heart? Money? Possessions?
A habit? A relationship? A career? [I remember a guy we worked with in
This young man asked Jesus how he could have eternal life, and Jesus’ response was to ask him “What’s it worth to you?” And despite all his anguish and fervour, the cost turned out to be too great, so he went away sad.
Jesus’ call to us is the same as it was to this man, “come, follow me.” That is the way to eternal life, to follow Jesus. But, like the rich young ruler, we have to ask the question, “What’s it worth to me, to inherit eternal life?” The payback is amazing, Jesus says, “you will have treasure in heaven.” But it doesn’t come without taking a risk, turning away from what you’re trusting in now, and turning and following him.