Mark 10:17-31
17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
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When I was in San Francisco, I lived in the Richmond District for some years. There were many yuppies living around that that area and I have heard quite a few yuppies stories, and this is one of them.
A yuppie opened the door of his BMW, when suddenly a car came along and hit the door, ripping it off completely. When the police arrived at the scene, the yuppie was complaining bitterly about the damage to his precious BMW.
"Officer, look what they’ve done to my Beeeemer!!!" he whined.
"You yuppies are so materialistic, you make me sick!!!" retorted the officer, "You’re so worried about your stupid BMW, that you didn’t even notice that your left arm was ripped off!!!"
Oh my gaaad...", replied the yuppie, finally noticing the bloody left shoulder where his arm once was,
"Oh, where is my ... where is my Rolex!!!!!"
In today’s scripture lesson, it talks about a yuppie that approaches Jesus. This yuppie doesn’t look materialistic at all. In fact, he sounds very spiritual. The scripture says that he "ran up and knelt before" Jesus. The fact that he ran to Jesus shows his enthusiasm, and that he knelt down in front of Jesus shows his humility. At least outwardly he appears to be a passionate person. And he asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." It seems that this young man is centered around himself. His interest is all about himself and about what he wants—eternal life. In seems to have it all, except eternal life. He is full of self-confidence that he believes he can do anything and achieve anything. He is a yuppie. According to Matthew and Luke’s version of the story, he is young, he is rich, he seems to be single, and he is of the ruling class. His attitude is, "Good Teacher, just tell me what to do and I can accomplish it."
But, Jesus tries to turn this self-focused young man around. He said, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." According to Judaism, the religion of those days, everyone is a sinner, and only God is good. Jesus doesn’t think this young man is calling Jesus good because he recognized him as God. But, this young man is calling Jesus good because he was a kind of humanist that believes human beings can be good. He definitely believed himself to be good.
So Jesus tries to turn is misconception of humanity by telling him that no one is good. And he reminds him, "You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’ ” Jesus mentioned the Ten Commandments, or the Law, because the Law serves as a mirror for us to recognize our sins. In other words Jesus picks up the traditional mirror and tells him to look at himself.
But, this young man still doesn’t get it; he says, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” I am not only young, rich, and powerful, but I am also religious since I was young. I have kept all these commandments. I’ve looked at the mirror since I was young and I am all clean.
The Bible says, "Jesus, looking at him, loved him." I like this phrase. Jesus loves those who seek the answer. Jesus loves people like Nicodemus, who, like this young man, seek the kingdom of God. One of Jesus most famous command is, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness."
Even though Nicodemus didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about, that he needs to be born again, and even though this young man didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about, that human beings can never be good enough to save himself, or herself, the fact that these people are willing to seek for the answers gives them a great deal of hope. Because Jesus said, " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Mathew 7:7) One day they will get it, even if they don’t get it now.
Jesus tried to wake this rich young ruler up from his self-denial and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions." This young man doesn’t realize that he has not kept all the commandments. He fails on "Thou shell not covet," which is the last commandment. Having money isn’t a problem, but the love of money is the problem.
Tim. 6:10 says, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains." That’s what this young man is about. Even though he wants the kingdom of God, his love of money, keep him wandered away from the faith. v.22 "When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions." He went away grieving. I believe you and I would share the feeling of this young man too. I’ll tell you why:
A few years back Donella Meadows published the "State of the Village Report," which says:
In the world today, more than 6 billion people live.
If this world were shrunk to the size of a village of 100 people, what would it look like?
59 would be Asian
14 would be American (North, Central and South)
14 would be African
12 would be European
1 would be from the South Pacific
50 would be women, 50 would be men
30 would be children, 70 would be adults.
70 would be nonwhite, 30 would be white
90 would be heterosexual, 10 would be homosexual
33 would be Christians
21 would be Moslems
15 would be Hindus
6 would be Buddhists
5 would be Animists
6 would believe in other religions
14 would be without any religion or atheist.
15 would speak Chinese, Mandarin
7 English
6 Hindi
6 Spanish
5 Russian
4 Arabic
3 Bengali
3 Portuguese
The other would speak Indonesian, Japanese,
German, French, or some other language.
In such a village with so many sorts of folks, it would be very important to learn to understand people different from yourself and to accept others as they are.
***Note, this part is what I want you to be aware of:
Of the 100 people in this village:
20 are underonurished
1 is dying of starvation, while 15 are overweight.
Of the wealth in this village, 6 people own 59% (all of them from the United States), 74 people own 39%, and 20 people share the remaining 2%.
Of the energy of this village, 20 people consume 80%, and 80 people share the remaining 20%.
20 have no clean, safe water to drink.
56 have access to sanitation
15 adults are illiterate.
1 has an university degree.
7 have computers. (This was published in 1990, so I would triple it to 21 people.)
In one year, 1 person in the village will die, but in the same year, 2 babies will be born, so that at the year’s end the number of villagers will be 101.
If you do not live in fear of death by bombardment, armed attack, landmines, or of rape or kidnapping by armed groups, then you are more fortunate than 20, who do.
If you can speak and act according to your faith and your conscience without harassment, imprisonment, torture or death, then you are more fortunate than 48, who can not.
Notice this:
If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet and spare change somewhere around the house, then you are among the richest 8.
Do you have money in the bank? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t! But I believe all of us have some money in the bank. I also believe all of us have money in our wallets, and spare change somewhere around the house. This morning Cassy, my 8-year-old, was soliciting support from her 5-year-old sister for the Crop Walk. She asked Christy to contribute only a quarter—25cents. Christy said, "OK. But first I have to find the quarter somewhere on the floor." That tells that we live in an environment that lose changes can be found on the floor.
Just by the fact that you live in America, and that you live in Bergen County, you and I are probably in the same class as this rich young ruler.
But, let us learn some practical lessons from this passage. I just want to remind you that every week, you have this little insert in your bulletin. If you are very smart, you would have notice that most of these outlines are action steps. You would notice that most of items in the outline have a verb in it, so that you can act on it. God’s Word, is not for us to study. No, you didn’t hear me wrong. God’s word is not for us to study. Because there are many people, even many scholars, who study God’s word and never make a difference in their life or in the world. God’s words are for us to live. That means to take action on it. That’s why I don’t just give you an outline, but I give you something to do about what you hear from the Word. We want to be doers of the word, not just listeners of the word. So these are the action steps from today’s scripture lesson:
1. Give when you are able
V.21 “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor,
Jesus ask the rich young ruler to sell is possessions and give the money to the poor. You know why? Life is unpredictable, after awhile tribulations and persecution came to this region. The first Jewish-Roman war broke out not long after Jesus was crucified. The young ruler might be forced to sell his property, or simply abandon his estate and run empty handed.
John Maxwell told me a true story about a man in the early 1920’s who gave $100,000 to build a Christian college in Africa. You all know that $100,000 is a lot of money in those days. Obviously this man was extremely rich. But, he lost all of his money in the 1929 stock market crash, lost it all. In the 60s they wanted to find the man who literally had given them money to begin this college and so they did a search for him. They found him totally broke, living in the south side of Chicago and they asked him that they wanted to take him to see the school. Twice he said no and finally on the third time he said okay. So they flew him to Africa to see this school that he had given $100,000 in the early 1920’s to build. And he stood in front of these hundreds of students at this Christian college, weeping, he turned to the president and said, “The only thing I have left is what I gave.”
How true it is. Every one of us will soon understand that everything we keep for ourselves, we are gong to eventually lose. But everything that we give now for the kingdom, we will always keep. So give when you are able.
2. Invest in Heaven because you will be there forever.
v. 21 "...and you will have treasure in heaven..."
William James said, "The great use of a life is to spend it for something that outlasts it." Can you think of something that can outlast your life?
Henry Ford said, “You can’t take your money with you—but you can send it on ahead.”
The money that you give on earth will win you a lot of friends in heaven. One day when you are in heaven, people will come to you and greet you says, "John, because of your generosity, I have the opportunity to know Christ. Tom, because of your offering, I have the opportunity to get out of poverty. Joan, your charity has made a great difference in my life." That’ what it means to have treasure in heaven because you are going to spend much longer time with them. In fact it was for eternity. How long eternity last? It lasts forever!
3. Follow and Trust Christ.
v. 21 "then come, follow me"
To be a Christian is to follow Christ. Most of the times we tend to use the word believer to describe Christians. In fact, Jesus doesn’t just want us to believe him. He wants us to follow him and entrust our future in him. Notice in verse 24, he called the disciples, "Children." Just as children trust their parents, Jesus wants you to follow him and trust him with your life.
Your trust produces miracles. Remember the fish and loaves story? If the boy in the story kept his dinner for himself, he would have fed him only. But, he trusted Jesus and gave his food to him, and Jesus multiplied it to feed three thousand people. That’s the nature of your offering. You give a hundred dollar and God multiply it into a hundred folds or a thousand folds in results.
This young rich ruler trusts his money more than he trusts Jesus, that’s why he went away grieving. Trusting Jesus Christ with everything we have is not an easy thing to do, but it is very rewarding to because in verse 30, Jesus said that you will receive a hundredfold now in this age and in the age to come eternal life.
October is stewardship month and may God bless you with many folds of what you pledge to give for the next year. Amen!
