10.10.21 Mark 10:17–27
17 As Jesus was setting out on a journey, one man ran up to him and knelt in front of him. He asked, “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 except one—God. 19 You know the commandments. ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 The man replied, “Teacher, I have kept all these since I was a child.” 21 Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he looked sad and went away grieving, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus told them again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in their riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For people, it is impossible, but not for God, because all things are possible for God.”
You are Possible for God
It’s a beautiful thing that this young, rich man was thinking about eternity and even worried about it. How often do you hear that from someone? We are so misdirected in this life. I saw a young man riding his bike with both hands off of the handlebars and texting the other day. He was headed towards the bridge. I was waiting to see if he’d biff it or not. Thankfully he didn’t. But he is an illustration of the way people are in this world. God is trying to have a conversation with us in His Word, and even whisper to us in nature, to give us direction in life. But so many people are too buried with their noses in the here and the now that they aren’t even looking where they are going. Well here we have a rich, young, and successful man who was genuinely concerned about eternal things! What a wonderful thing! What’s even better? He went to Jesus for the answer, kneeling before Him!
He asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” The first thing He addressed was how the young man threw the word “good” around. You hear this done yet today. You can have a child that is lazy and doesn’t do his homework. He mouths off to his teachers. He’s too lazy to get a job. He ends up in prison later on in life for dealing drugs. Yet the parent will still say, “He’s a good kid.” Well, what do you mean by that? It depends on what your definition of “good” is. Our version of “good” and God’s version are two different things. The first lesson for the rich young man is a reset on what goodness really is in the sight of God. It revolves around the First Commandment, to understand and fear how holy our God really is.
It’s hard for us to grasp our sinfulness just by the nature of being born in sin. It didn’t really sink in to the rich young man that he really wasn’t good. So Jesus had to show him by walking him through the commandments. You know the commandments. ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’ ” These aren’t suggestions. Jesus doesn’t ask Him, “Well, what do you think you should do? What is your truth? How do you feel about it?” These are the commandments that GOD commands you to live by. It doesn’t matter what YOU want or how YOU feel about it. This is what God says. These aren’t optional. God doesn’t just say, “You be you. Whatever makes you happy.”
Another interesting thing, I didn’t catch it at first, is how Jesus adds something in there to an extent when He says, “You shall not defraud.” It’s not an exact quote of one the Ten Commandments. To defraud means to deprive someone of something, cause someone not to possess something. So it makes you wonder if this rich young man had received some of his riches from defrauding others of what they needed or could have received. Did he already receive an inheritance that he refused to give to his brothers? Was he being especially selfish with his riches? I don’t know, but Jesus must have added this for a reason.
That’s one reason why we too use other portions of God’s Word to describe what it actually means to murder or commit adultery or steal. Adultery isn’t just committed with married people having an affair. They occur on computer screens with pornographic images. Honoring a parent isn’t just doing what your parents say. It’s also speaking respectfully to them and trying to take care of them in their old age. There’s a lot more to keeping a commandment than just not murdering someone or having an affair.
But the rich young man breezed right by the defraud thing as well as the other commandments. The man replied, “Teacher, I have kept all these since I was a child.” He honestly thought he was doing a perfect job at these commandments. And he probably really tried too. But he was totally blind to who he actually was.
Even as Christians who have a sharpened sense of the law as we study God’s Word, sometimes we are most blind to ourselves, or we just refuse to listen to what people are telling us. They call you lazy or rude or impatient, and yet you say to yourself, “I’m not rude. I’m just telling you the way it is.” Or we find what we think are completely reasonable reasons for why we act the way we do. “I would do my homework better if you taught it more clearly.” “I wouldn’t nag if you did your job right.” Luther once said,
Everyone is pleasing to himself. In order to maintain our exclusive claim to beauty, we ignore and leave out of sight the good there is in our neighbor. If we notice the least little pimple on him, we fill our eyes with it and so magnify it that on its account we see nothing good, though the man may have eyes like a hawk and a face like an angel. We overlook our own vices, which are all over us, while we fail to see anything good about other people.
Sometimes we need a fresh dose of loving reality. That’s what Jesus did. Jesus looked at him, loved him. He loved him enough to give the rich young man a harsh reality of HIMSELF. “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” I’m sure the young man was lacking plenty more than ONE thing, but Jesus wanted to hit him in the one place He knew would hurt the young man and cut him to the heart, and that was his pocketbook. He didn’t tell the rich young man to give 10%, which was what God demanded of the Old Testament believers. He didn’t even demand 50%, which maybe would have been doable. He demanded WHATEVER the rich young man had to be sold and given to the poor. 100%.
If you think of the ONE thing concept, there’s always something we treasure more than we should. We might say we’d give it up, but would we? Maybe it’s your children or your parent or your spouse. Maybe it’s your job or your reputation. Maybe it’s your ability to walk. What if God demanded you let go of it? What if you could never have it in life?
There was a Christian young man who was making six figures in a job that he had always wanted. He was able to afford a nice house and car. He was coming to church regularly. He was so thankful for life. God had been good to him. But then his company went bankrupt. He couldn’t find another job in the field that he loved. He had to work more hours at a job he hated for less than half the wages. He tried to suck it up, but it didn’t take long for his whole demeanor to change. He was depressed. He felt God had sucker punched him and left him out to dry.
Another Christian young man worked hard to train for track that year. He pushed his body and trained it so that he could win state. He was finishing first in most of his meets. But then when it came time for the finals, he started off the blocks great but then he pulled a hamstring not long thereafter. Everything he trained and worked for was gone in a moment. Even though he knew it was a seemingly random thing, he was still angry at God for taking this one thing from him. Can we blame him?
When he heard this, he looked sad and went away grieving, because he had great wealth. What did Jesus expect?!? Jesus didn’t demand this of the thief on the cross. Nor did Paul make any demands of the jailer who had kept him in bonds all night. But here Jesus demands EVERYTHING from the rich young man. It’s as if He WANTED him to go away despondent. And Jesus does NOTHING to reach out after him as He’s walking down the road, doesn’t beg him to come back. Maybe the man should have lashed out. Maybe he should have gotten angry with Jesus and said, “WHAT?” But the man did nothing but walk away. He wasn’t willing to let everything go.
He had to clearly see that this relationship with God isn’t a matter of, “I’ll give me this if you give me that.” What can I DO to inherit eternal life? “I have a lot to offer you God! Jesus told him to give his money to the poor, not to Himself. A few years ago I was working with a caregiver who was angry at Trinity, I assume for being disciplined long before my time. I have no idea what exactly happened. But when she found out where I was from she said, “Now I own this business! I make lots of money. I bet you’re sorry now!” She felt that she was now a hot item that we would be thrilled to have because of her money. But Jesus isn’t impressed with how much money you have or how much influence you have. “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in their riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Why is that? Is it that Jesus hates rich people? Compared to the rest of the people in the world and throughout the ages, we are rich too. So does Jesus hate us for being rich? No. It’s what riches can do to people. They become protective of their riches and revolve their lives around how much money they have. They can make you proud and feel you are self-sufficient. They can make you forget what a sinful world you live in when you live in luxury without pain and struggle. Look at what prosperity has done to America’s soul! It is because of the nature of sin within us that riches can be made an idol and the enemy of faith. For people who are used to buying whatever they want and using their gifts to impress the world, here is one Person, Jesus Christ who is NOT impressed. He doesn’t want anything to do with it. It is impossible for us to save ourselves with any amount of offerings and sacrifices, because they are ALL tainted with sin. (Isaiah 64:6)
26 They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For people, it is impossible, but not for God, because all things are possible for God.”
Here’s where we get to the heart and soul of everything that Jesus did and said. The rich young man and all of the disciples needed to hear just how impossible it is for ANYONE to get to heaven. Why? So that we would realize that we need Jesus to be so much more than a good teacher. We need Him to be our Savior and our God. We need Him to save us by a plain old miracle. Nothing else will do.
And that’s what Jesus is and does. What a miracle! God takes on flesh and becomes one of us! Talk about giving everything up, Jesus gave up His very life! He had no home. He had no family. He had no riches. He died with nothing, naked from the cross, stripped of dignity, and stripped of life. Even His own Father abandoned Him, leaving Him without a Father and God! Miracle of miracles, God died! Miracle of miracles! He rose! He gave 100%, all so that He could give us 100% of His righteousness, 100% of His holiness, 100% of His grace, through faith in Him. Unless you realize that you CAN’T do anything to get to heaven, you won’t see Jesus for who He came to be, your Savior! Your salvation is going to have to be a pure unadulterated miracle of God from beginning to end! It can’t have anything to do with how you perform or how much or little you give. Thank God for that! It puts salvation in Jesus’ hands instead of yours.
Did the rich young man ever come back? Ever lose his riches anyway? We don’t know. Maybe he just needed time to let it all sink in. He wasn’t good enough to get into the kingdom. It was impossible for him to enter by anything he did, no matter how small or great. Until he saw how sinful he truly was, he never would come to Jesus for what he really needed, which was plain and pure salvation.
That’s what we have, right here, right now, with Jesus. Whether you’re rich or poor, divorced, single, or married, if you’re famous or infamous, popular or pariah, when you have Jesus, you have a miracle. He makes the impossible possible. Yes, Jesus makes it EASY for you to be saved. He is able to do more than take you through the eye of a needle; He is able to take you to heaven, all by His grace alone, by faith in Him alone, without works. By the life and death of Jesus, you are possible for God. In Him, you have everything you need, righteousness, holiness, and forgiveness. That’s more than possible, that’s 100% reliable.
Take the world, but give me Jesus
In his cross my trust shall be
Till with clearer, brighter vision
Face to face my Lord I see.
Oh, the height and depth of mercy;
Oh, the length and breadth of love!
Oh, the fullness of redemption,
Pledge of endless life above! Amen.
