NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Mark 12:28-34
You've heard phrases like, "close but no cigar" or “almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”. These communicate that getting almost there is not good enough. Jesus had an encounter with a teacher of the law in Mark 12 where at the end of the exchange, Jesus tells him he was not far from the kingdom of God. Although it was a positive statement, it was also a challenge. It's as if Jesus was saying, "you're close, but not yet there. What are you going to do now?" Let's take a look at this and see what we can take away from it.
1) Not far from the kingdom.
Mark 12:28-34, "One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions."
This passage opens with the teacher of the law coming upon a debate taking place between the chief priests, elders and teachers of the law. In chap. 11, they questioned Jesus' authority to do what he had been doing. After Jesus put them in their place, some Pharisees tried to trap him with whether it was right to pay taxes to Caesar. That didn't work. Then the Sadducees tried to trip him up regarding marriage in heaven. But no matter what they said, Jesus always had a response that shut them down.
The teacher of the law saw Jesus' wisdom and he asks him a question. Unlike those before him, he wasn't trying to test him or trip him up, he genuinely wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. Not being far from the kingdom of God starts with an acknowledgement that Jesus has something to teach me. Pride will keep us far away from the kingdom.
Nowadays, people try to "trip Jesus up" by looking for apparent contradictions in the bible. It's all for the purpose of being able to find fault with Jesus so they don't have to listen to him or be subject to him. Twisting the word of God or finding fault with the truth will keep us far away from the kingdom of God.
This teacher of the law asks Jesus what the most important commandment is. Earlier, when the religious leaders asked him to explain how he had the authority to do the things he did, Jesus didn't answer them directly, he posed a question back to them. But here, Jesus answered this teacher because he knew this man was genuine.
After hearing Jesus' answer, the teacher of the law commended him and gave a follow up statement. He recognized that loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself was more important that all burnt offerings and sacrifices. That was a wise response and Jesus told him he wasn't far from the kingdom. But why did Jesus tell him this? Let's look at a similar passage but with a few differences.
Luke 10:25-29, "On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Here we see some differences between this person's approach and the man in Mark 12. This expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. He wasn't really looking for the truth, he was looking to trip Jesus up. Sometimes when people ask questions they're not really searching for the truth, they just want to debate.
Jesus puts it back on the expert and asks him to give an answer in accordance with the law. He answers correctly by stating the two greatest commandments. But then we see that the expert wanted to justify himself and so he asked Jesus to define neighbor.
For the expert, his interpretation of neighbor meant fellow Jews, and perhaps more narrowly defined to mean family and colleagues, not the poor or sick. Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan, which focused on the fact that all people are classified as neighbor; something the expert was not looking to be told.
The teacher in Mark 12 wasn't looking to justify himself. Sometimes when people ask questions they're not looking for the truth, they're looking for you to verify the answer they're looking for.
In Jesus' parable, it wasn't the priest or the Levite that was a neighbor to the wounded traveler, it was the Samaritan. Even though the expert got Jesus' point and answered correctly when asked which one was his neighbor, Jesus didn't tell him that he was not far from the kingdom of God. Although the expert got the answer right, that didn't mean he accepted the truth of it. Jesus told him to 'go and do likewise' but that doesn't mean the man intended to honor that.
Both of them knew the two greatest commandments, but the one in Mark 12 not only knew them, he understood the depth of meaning and implication of them. He wasn't out to test Jesus, he wasn't out to justify himself, he was there to hear the truth and he knew Jesus could give it to him. And when Jesus heard the wisdom in his response, he knew he wasn't far from the kingdom.
2) Into the kingdom.
Ok, so what would it take to bring this man into the kingdom? Acting on the wisdom he just spoke. It's not enough to know and understand, I need to do. If this teacher allowed himself to put what he knew and understood about the two greatest commandments into action he could be brought into the kingdom and not just close to it.
Knowing what to do and doing it are two different things. To love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind means he is the most important one; it means that his will supersedes mine. This teacher of the law needed to come to the conclusion that Paul came to.
Phil. 3:4b-9, "If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."
Paul was a religious official who no doubt knew the law forward and backward. But he came to realize that all his knowledge, all his religious observances were of no value because it didn't bring him salvation-he didn't know Jesus. He didn't have a righteousness that came by faith, he had legalistic righteousness-which is no righteousness at all. He had a religious resume of the highest order but it was a filthy rag in God's eyes because he hadn't humbled himself to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus.
The teacher of the law in Mark knew and understood the truth but he hadn't surrendered to the truth. He said to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself was more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices but he wasn't yet at the place to consider it of no importance if it kept him from truly knowing and following Jesus.
After Jesus told him he wasn't far from the kingdom we don't see him responding with, "ok, how do I get the rest of the way?" We don't see him joining up with the disciples and following Jesus. I hope he got there. I hope he came to the same conclusion Paul did and considered it all loss for the sake of knowing Jesus. I hope he didn't just get close to the kingdom.
We can be close to the kingdom; we can even have our noses pressed up against the window but still not get to the other side of the glass. What stands in the way? A reluctance to surrender all. Maybe there's a sin you want to hold onto; something that you know is not of God but you don't want to let go. You want to get baptized into Christ; you want to be saved but you don't want to fully surrender.
"Jesus, you can have most of me but not all of me. You can run most of my life, but there's this one area I just won't give over to your control. You can have everything else but I'm holding onto this." We want to justify that approach and say, 'that should be good enough for God'. But that's coming to Christ on my terms, not his.
I'm not saying you need to be perfect, I'm saying if you're not willing for Jesus to have all of you then you're not ready. I know it's not easy to surrender; I'm not saying you won't still struggle with sin, I'm just saying committing your life to Jesus calls for a total commitment.
Look at it this way-the church is the bride of Christ. Our baptism is like the wedding ceremony; the place where we make it official. What if you told your spouse before the ceremony, "I love you and I want to marry you. But there's one other woman that I can't give up. I'll be with you most of the time but every once in a while I'm going to go be with her." How do you think that would go over?
If your spouse deserves 100% devotion, how could we think God deserves anything less? We need to be all in. We can't have one foot in the world and one in the kingdom; it won't work that way.
In The Chosen, when Jesus has the meeting with Nicodemus, did you get the feeling that Nicodemus was almost there; not far from the kingdom of God? When the disciples were meeting up to start traveling and Nicodemus was just out of sight, was he almost going to join them? What was in his way? Was it the fear of losing his prestigious status or the respect of his family and colleagues?
The bible doesn't tell us what ended up happening to Nicodemus. Regardless of his meeting with Jesus, if he ended up being almost a part of the kingdom of God then he was no better off than if he was far away from it. Learning about Jesus won't get you there. Your good deeds won't do it for you. Coming to the threshold of saving faith is not far enough.
William Hyatt was driving his car through the Mojave Desert when he ran out of gas. The Mojave Desert is one of the hottest places in the world. William got out of his car and started walking through the blistering sand, trying to find a place where he could get help. But, after a while the heat got the better of him. As he made his way up a small hill he collapsed face down in the sand and died.
What William didn't know, was just on the other side of that little hill was an oasis of water and fruit trees that would've sustained him until help came. William Hyatt almost made it but almost isn't good enough. Don't be almost in the kingdom of God.
