Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
A Matter of the Heart
Matthew 19:16-30
He had success written all over him. Maybe it was the cut of his clothes. Perhaps he carried himself with that certain air of importance. Whatever it was, he had it all. He probably was voted the most likely to succeed in his class. He would have been on everybody’s Who’s Who List. He had everything anybody could desire. But not everything he wanted. There lies the story.
Those working through the New Testament on the One Year Bible schedule read his story on Monday. Mark and Luke also record his meeting with Jesus. Each adds another layer of detail. All three tell us that he was rich. Matthew and Mark say he was young. Luke notes that he also held a prominent position in the community. He’s not given a name. We commonly refer to him as the Rich Young Ruler.
He had money. We don’t know he got it. He could have been the ancient version of one of those young high tech entrepreneurs who comes up with something that makes him a fortune before he’s hardly old enough to shave. Maybe he invented a high-speed laptop sundial or new fuel-efficient chariot that got fifty miles to a bucket of oats.
More than likely, the Rich Young Ruler got his wealth the old fashion way. He inherited it. He might have been like the wealthy tycoon who was lecturing one of his young nephews about the benefits of hard work. “When I started this company, I didn’t have two cents to rub together. I lived on beans and rice. I worked night and day for ten years trying to make a profit.” He paused. “Then finally all your hard work paid off,” the younger man interjected.” “No. Then my father-in-law died and left me ten million dollars.”
However, he acquired it he had it. He was wealthy. He was also young! He had his life ahead of him. We are not told how old he was. Given the standards of the day, most Bible scholars surmise that he was in his twenties or thirties. Eventually, the years would take their toll on him. Now he was still young.
Some of us have difficulty remembering those younger days. Some of you could write the book on that. You try to straighten out the wrinkles in your socks and discover you aren’t wearing any. You wake up looking like your driver’s license picture. Your idea of weight lifting is standing up. The twinkle in your eye is only a reflection from the sun on your bifocals. Everything hurts and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work.
I think the best “getting older joke” is the one about the fellow who announced, “This morning, after I had let the dog out and before I had my first cup of coffee, I had a bit of a mix-up with the pills on the kitchen counter. . . . I can now officially announce to the world that I should be heartworm and tick free for the next 30 days.”
The Rich Young Ruler was wealthy. He was young. He was influential. Most people thought he had the world by the tail. But something was missing. Oscar Wilde, once wrote, “There are two tragedies in this life. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
He may have had success written all over him. But he didn’t have everything he wanted. Something was missing. There lies the story.
This rich young ruler came to Jesus. That’s always a good thing to do. Maybe he had heard Jesus say, “I am the bread of life …. I am the living water.” He may have thought to himself, “I need some of that.” He didn’t just come. He came with urgency. Mark tells us he came running to Jesus. Mark says he knelt before him—a sign of respect and perhaps an admission of the deep personal need he felt.
“Teacher, what good things must I do to have eternal life?” he asks. This was not an academic question. This was personal.
Two things are noteworthy in his query. He sought “eternal” life. The ancients had two words for life. One meant physical life or existence. If your heart was pumping and you were breathing, you were alive. The other word described a quality of life. We understand the difference. In our language, we might use the same word for both but with different inflexions. A doctor might say of a critical patient, “He’s still alive.” On the other hand, when someone tells you, “You need to get a life” we know what it means. This silly little rhyme catches the difference:
There was a very cautious man
Who never laughed or played.
He never risked, he never tried
He never sang or prayed.
And when one day, he passed away
His insurance was denied
For since he never really lived
They claimed he never died.
The bible always uses this second word when speaking of eternal life. Eternal life is more than existing forever. This quality of life comes from being connected with the source of life, the Living God. Wise men have explained it this way, “our hearts were made for God and are forever restless until they find their rest him” (Augustine). Or “We have a God-shaped vacuum in our souls that only he can fill” (Pascal). Something was missing.
His question reveals something else. The Rich Young Ruler thought eternal life was all about doing. “What good thing can I do?” That’s a common mistake. All religions is based on the premise that if we could do the right things in the right way we could find the secret of life. Different religions have different rituals and different rules, but they are all built on this same mistaken notion. The Good News of Jesus is not about what we do, but what God did for us!
Jesus knew the heart of this young man just like he knows your heart and mine. The Lord responds with a question. “Why do you ask about what is good? God alone is good.” Do you see what Jesus was doing? He was recasting the question. It’s not about you. It’s not about what good you can do. It’s about God. The Rich Young Ruler asked a “godless” question. Jesus puts God back in the discussion.
The ultimate measure of good is God. We easily forget that. We tend to make others the standard, especially those we consider worse than we are. When we say, “I live a pretty good life,” we mean “compared to most people, I think I am ok.” I am sure you have heard folk explain their lack of religious interest with “I think I am just as good most of those hypocrites at church.” That’s altogether possible, but the hypocrites at church or the neighbor down the street are not the standard. God is!
Jesus points the Rich Young Ruler to God’s standards. “Keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he quickly asks. “Now we are getting some where,” he probably thought to himself. This Rich Young Ruler is not easily diverted from his me-centered thinking. Jesus offers him a list. Did you catch what Jesus did? I think he is setting him up for what comes next. Jesus lists part of the Ten Commandments. He cites commandments six, seven, eight, nine, and five—in that order. He concludes with the second of the two great commandments—love your neighbor. Jesus leaves out (I think intentionally) the first four and tenth commandments and the first of the great commandments.
At first, the young man’s response sounds arrogant and self-righteous. “I have always kept those commandments,” he insists. Perhaps he had—at least superficially. Jesus doesn’t argue with the Rich Young Ruler. Jesus didn’t have to. The claim of perfection is more desperate than arrogant. The young man immediately continues, “What else must I do?” Or as other translations put, “What am I still lacking?” He knew that once God became a part of the discussion—all of his riches and all of his religious accomplishments weren’t enough. Others may have thought he had it all. “What am I still lacking?” There is a poignant sadness about that question.
Here comes the hard part. Jesus didn’t beat around the bush. He cut to the chase. “Do you want to be perfect?” “Perfect” suggests the idea of moral spotlessness in our language. In the Bible, it carries more the idea of completeness. It is exactly the right response to “what am I still lacking?”
“Sell your possessions. Give your riches to the poor.” At first blush, this may sound like it comes out of left field. Nowhere does the Bible tell anyone to take a vow of poverty. Jesus never told anyone else to do this. Clearly, Jesus’ followers included people of means. But here, Jesus zeroes in on the missing ingredient in the man’s life—God and contentment with his provision. That’s what the other the Ten Commandment talk about.
Jesus knew what was missing in the young man’s life—a living relationship with God. He also knew that as long as a person stuffs his or her life with everything else there will never be room for God. If my hands are already full, I can’t take hold of God’s. If my heart is full of junk, I will never fit in eternal treasure. A crowded life must do some emptying before God can come in. Jesus knew that. “It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” he said.
A needed reminder, the real issue is not just about the size of your bank account. It’s a matter of the heart. A man can be poor and jealous and be just as enslaved to money as the man who is rich and proud. Material possessions aren’t the only things that people use to try to fill the God-spot in their lives.
If we only focus on the first part of Jesus’ demand, we miss the main part. Jesus didn’t just say, “Sell your possessions.” He also said, “Come, follow me.” That’s the ultimate issue. Getting rid of the junk is only half the equation. Filling our lives with heaven’s treasure provides the real deal. With Jesus, everything falls into place. Without him, little else matters.
The Rich Younger Ruler had it all. So everyone who knew him probably thought. He had everything anyone could desire. But not everything he wanted. There lies the story.
This is not an “everyone lived happily ever after” story. The Rich Young Ruler turned and walked away. He was sad. Other translations catch the depth of the emotion. “He went away grieving.” He was that close, that far away from life . . . from freedom. But he couldn’t pull the trigger. Others have said it well, “Money is a great servant, but a terrible master.”
All of this should remind us of what Jesus said in other places, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” “No man can serve two masters … You cannot serve God and money.” “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?”
The entire interchange with the Rich Young Rulers leaves many unanswered questions. What did Jesus know that we don’t? What was going through the young man’s mind? What ever happened to him? There are other more personal questions. The disciples raised them. “Who then can be saved?” they asked. Like most people they thought that the wealthy have an in with God. After all, he has blessed them so much! “Without God, nobody can!” Jesus tells them.
The story illustrates what Jesus had been telling his disciples for the last two chapters of Matthew. There is an upside down quality to the Kingdom of Heaven. The first shall be last and the last will be first. Children make the best citizens. Many think the movers and shakers have reserve seats. That may be true at the Super Bowl but not in heaven. No, says Jesus, those spots are for the poor, the weak, and the lowly. That’s good news. If you have ever been left out or looked down on, if you are broke or broken, mixed up or messed up—you are just what Jesus is looking for!
Peter asks one last question. Is it really worth it? We’ve left everything. What will we get out of it? I have suspect Jesus sighs and shakes his head when he hears that question. He could have said, “Pete, aren’t you ever going to get it?” He doesn’t. Jesus just says, “Don’t worry, it will be worth it. Stick with me and you will have no regrets. You will get back a hundred times what you gave up. You really will! Plus eternal life!”
It is an old statement, but oh so true. “Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting more than you deserve.” Jesus’ kingdom is the land of grace!
I love the Indian Jones movies starring Harrison Ford. The Last Crusade is probably my favorite. It is the one where Indiana and his dad (Sean Connery) crisscross the world in search of the Holy Grail. Near the end, the two are separated. Indiana’s Dad discovers the Grail only to end up in the clutches of the ruthless villain. Indiana rescues his father. Just as the two are about to escape with the Grail, an earthquake opens a giant crevasse in the earth leaving them safe from the villains. But Indian tumbles over the edge. The Grail falls from his grasp.
His dad rushes back to save his son. The elder Jones grabs Indiana’s hand. He tries to pull his son to safety. But Indiana doesn’t pull back. He spots the Grail on a ledge, just beyond his grasp. As his dad pulls on one arm, Indiana tries to reach for the Grail with the other. It is not going to work! Indiana is risking his own life to reach the Holy Grail. Finally, his father implores him, “Indiana, let it go. Let it go.” For what seems like an eternity, Indiana looks down at the Grail and then up at his father. “Let it go! Let it go!” Finally, he grabs his father’s arm with both hands. His dad pulls him up and the two escape just as the cavern collapses behind them.
Do you see that scene in our story? Jesus offers a hand and says, “Let it go. Let it go.” Do you hear that same voice today? He’s calling your name, “Let it go. Let it go.”
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
