“Jesus – The Answer to Our Soul’s Discontentment”
Mark 10:17-31
Steve Hanchett, pastor
Berry Road Baptist Church
May 6, 2001
Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.”
And he answered Him and said, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”
Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: go your way, sell whatever you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross and follow Me.”
But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, wrote his spiritual autobiography in Grace Abounding. For a long time Bunyan had a deep sense of his own sinfulness and guilt before God, but he just couldn’t seem to turn loose of some of the sins that ruled in his heart. He had tried to reform and become more religious and had succeeded in some ways. But one of the things he was most convicted about was the way he would spend the Lord’s day playing games.
He said that one particular day he was playing a game called “cat,” which involved hitting a ball into a hole. He said he had struck the ball once and was close to the hole and was about to drive it in to the hole when he heard a voice from heaven saying, “Will you leave your sin and gain heaven, or keep your sin and go to hell?”
Bunyan said he stood there contemplating the words that he had heard and the choice that lay before him. None of his companions knew what he was doing, and why he didn’t continue playing. But he saw before himself that a choice was to be made.
A battle rages for the heart of every person. Deep within the human soul there is a chamber, a throne room, designed by God for His occupancy. There is within each of us a place where only God should dwell. There are rivals to the throne that belongs to Christ. They fight for our allegiance. But Jesus Christ calls us to surrender our all to Him. This struggle of the heart is the story of the “rich young ruler.”
If it could ever be said of someone that they “had it all,” it could be said of this young man. Everything people strive for in our day this young man had. We know quite a bit about him since his story is told in each of the Synoptic Gospels, and each writer adds a few details to the account. We know that he was young. What many people wouldn’t do (and what a lot of people are trying to do) to be young again. He had his whole life in front of him. For him, the days ahead offered nothing but possibilities of prosperity and success.
But I want you to notice that in spite of the youthful vigor of his life there was still a deep discontentment and dissatisfaction in his heart. He had a deep sense in his spirit that all was not well between him and God.
But this fellow had more going for him than just his age. He was also a very influential young man. He is described as a ruler in Luke’s gospel. In all probability this meant that he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court. In this position he was a young man with considerable influence and power among the Jewish people.
But still, in spite of his influential position he lacked inner peace with God.
This fellow was not only young and influential; he also was a very moral young man. When Jesus recites the commandments to him he is able to say (and I think he did so as honestly as he knew how) that he had been faithful to keep the commandments from the time of his childhood. I believe he was perfectly truthful in suggesting that he hadn’t ever killed anyone, committed adultery, stolen anything, and he had never been one to harm others with false statements. He probably had a great relationship with his parents and treated them with respect and love.
But we should also note that he had not considered very deeply the full spirit of the law. Jesus is about to confront him with that. No doubt he had broken the law in his heart, thought and attitudes. These commandments that Jesus gives him all deal with the part of the law that is formed on the principle that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. The young man sincerely believes he has kept this part of the law.
No doubt this young man was a very moral and religious person. Still, in spite of his morality he had a deep emptiness of heart and soul.
The final thing we can say about him is he was very wealthy. We don’t know much about how he became wealthy. Did he inherit it or did he earn it on his own. The Bible doesn’t tell us and it doesn’t really matter much. The degree of his wealth is not told to us either. Clearly, though, his wealth was vast for his day. In verse 22 we are told that he had “great possessions.”
What I hope you will see is that none of the things that we usually think will bring satisfaction ever does. The pursuit of wealth, influence, and even youthfulness will never bring the inner peace and satisfaction that the human soul desires. The devil will prescribe money, power, and youthfulness as the cure for what ails your soul. Now, you can take these drugs for the spirit and they might manage to mask the pain for a while, but the disease is still eating away at you and it will until you come to the Great Physician and receive Him as the cure.
It is strange that we should even have to say this today. We only have to turn on the evening news and it becomes evident that power, wealth, success and health have nothing to do with finding peace with God and a purpose for life. The discontentment of the soul is evident in the lives of the most wealthy and most influential people in our society. Do you think that Robert Downey Jr. Or Daryl Strawberry has found peace and contentment and spiritual life in the money and fame they have? Clearly they have not. These things will never satisfy the soul and spirit of man. Can a heart that was meant for God ever find happiness in the things of this world?
The dissatisfaction and spiritual insecurity this young man felt is evident. It is evident in the way he approaches Jesus. This is not casual encounter. He runs up to Jesus. It is a picture of desperation. After Jesus gives him the commandments and he says he has kept them, his discontent and insecurity is clear in that he asks, “What yet do I lack?” (Matthew 19:20).
It is at this point that Jesus drops the bombshell on the young man. His statement is summed up this way; “Go, sell, give away, come, die and follow.” What Jesus could see is that the root of this man’s spiritual insecurity and discontentment was the tyranny of things in his heart. Jesus knew he would never be free to be at peace with God until this strong man was bound and cast out of his heart.
There are several important truths that confront us in this story of this young man. This first truth we learn is that there is no peace with God apart from Jesus Christ being the Lord of our life. I believe this is where Jesus was attempting to lead the young man when he asked him, “why do you call me good? No one is good but God.” Some liberal writers have claimed that this statement proves that Jesus did not believe that He was divine. It really does quite the opposite. Jesus is saying, “Are you acknowledging Me as God, as the Messiah? Have you seen Me clearly enough to realize who I am?”
But if that is not clear enough for you, notice the claim that Jesus makes on this young man. Frankly, the nature of Jesus’ claim is so astounding that if anyone else made it, it would be the height of arrogance. He calls upon the young man to sell all his possessions and give all the money away to the poor and then spend the rest of his days following Jesus around. No one could make that kind of claim on another person’s life unless the person making the claim is God.
This was not just a job offer or a potential career change for the young man. This was a demand placed upon his life. A mere human might ask someone else to take a risk and join them in a venture, but they certainly couldn’t claim that the person’s eternity was at stake in the decision. So make no mistake about it, the claim that Jesus makes on this young man’s life is astounding. The only way He could make such a claim is if He is Lord.
He is! This is exactly the point the young man needed to grasp. This is exactly the point you and I must come to grips with as well. Jesus Christ is Lord and there is no peace with God a part from the surrender of our lives completely to Him.
When Henry VIII determined to make himself head of the English Church, he insisted that the convocation should accept his headship without limiting and modifying clauses. He refused to entertain any compromises, and vowed that "he would have no rivals," as he called them.
Charles Gilbert wrote a modern gospel story in which he reconstructed the account of the Cross of Calvary in current vocabulary. In the climax of the story, the two other victims of the crosses, one on either side of Jesus, speak to Him. But there is a great difference between them! One of the calls Jesus “Mister” and one of them call Him “Master.” There it is. If Jesus is only a “mister” to you, your life will extend your Christlessness throughout eternity in hell. But if, by a miracle of conviction and new birth, Jesus has truly become “Master” to you, you have already received Heaven in a Person and are thus guaranteed Heaven in a place forever.
Many of us think of surrender to Christ to be like taking a sheet of paper and starting at the top making a list of all the things we are resolved to do. We are resolved to read the Bible, pray, go to church and witness. Certainly, those are important. But Christ wants to take that sheet of paper out of your hands, shred it and toss it aside. He looks us in the eye and says, “that’s not what I want.” Jesus hands us a blank sheet of paper and says, “just sign your name at the bottom and I will fill in the rest.”
This is the Lordship that Christ calls us to. This is the beginning of real inner happiness and peace with God.
The second truth we see reflected back to us in this encounter is none of us is quite as good as we think we are. Until we come face to face with our own spiritual poverty and moral bankruptcy we will never be at peace with God. Christianity is the only faith whereby one gains entrance into it based upon how bad they are. This young man was quite moral and virtuous as far as appearances went. But he had serious moral flaws that he didn’t see until he met Jesus.
You will notice that when the young man asks about which commandments to keep, he is at first somewhat relieved to hear Jesus quote the second half of the Great Ten. Why did Jesus give him these? I think He did so first of all because Jesus knew that the young man considered himself to have a pretty good record there. Of course, we know that these commandments are built on the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.” So when Jesus told him to give away his possessions to the poor, his whole house of cards came crashing down. His unwillingness to sacrifice his goods for the sake of others only proved that his heart was not right in this regard.
It is pretty easy for any of us to sit around and think about the positive virtues of our life. But we need to be confronted with the reality of our spiritual poverty and moral bankruptcy before the law of God. It is time to get over our smug assumptions about we hold about our own virtues and realize that what God says about us is true. We will never find the peace with God until we do.
A wealthy duke was out hunting in the forest one day with his men-at-arms and servants when he came across a tree. Archery targets were painted on the tree and smack in the middle of each target was an arrow.
“Who is this fine archer?” cried the duke. “I must find him.”
“After some time of riding through the forest they came across a small boy carrying a bow and arrow. The boy admitted that he was the one who had shot all the arrows that they had seen in the center of the targets.
The duke asked, “you didn’t just walk up and hammer the arrows into the middle of the targets die you?”
“No my lord. I shot them from a hundred paces. I swear by all that is holy.”
“That is truly astonishing,” said the duke. “I hereby admit you to my service. But I must ask one favor in return. You must tell me how you came to be such an outstanding shot.”
“Well,” said the boy, “first I fire the arrow at the tree, and then I paint the target around it.”
That is how a lot of us become so moral in our own eyes. We shot our moral arrows and wherever they hit is where we draw the target. So instead of falling short, we come up just right every time. None of us are as good as we think we are. No matter how hard we might try to convince ourselves otherwise.
There were two brothers who had been the terror of a small town for years. They were unfaithful to their wives, abusive toward their children, and dishonest in their business dealings. The younger of the two died unexpectedly.
The surviving brother went to a local pastor. “I’d like you to conduct my brother’s service. But it is important to me that during the service you tell everyone that my brother was a saint.”
“But he was far from that,” the preacher protested.
The wealthy brother pulled out his checkbook. “Reverend, I’m prepared to give $100,000 dollars to your church and all I’m asking is that you publicly state that my brother was a saint.”
On the day of the funeral the pastor began his eulogy. “Everyone know that the deceased was a wicked man, a womanizer, and a drunk. He terrorized his employees and cheated on his taxes.” Then he paused. “But as evil and sinful as this man was, compared to his older brother, he was a saint.”
Compared to some other folks you might look like a saint, but the truth is in the eyes of God you are a sinful person who deserves judgment.
The third truth we can learn from this young man is that Jesus will not change the way of salvation for us even though He loves us. Some people have this idea about salvation that God will not let anyone go to hell if he really loves them. That is a pretty shallow view of love and certainly a potentially damnable error about salvation and eternal life.
The text clearly tells us that when Jesus confronted the young man with the truth about his own heart he did so out of a deep love for him. Jesus loved him while he was yet in his sin. He loved him on that day of this encounter. When the young man turned and walked away, Jesus still loved Him.
Some think that God should have the same kind of love demonstrated by silly parents who give in to their child’s every whim out of fear that the child may think they don’t love them. Any parent with two bits of sense will realize that true love means that you lay out the parameters of life for your child and you expect them to live within those parameters. You don’t move the boundary at the child’s every complaint. Nor will God change the way to heaven. Jesus Christ is still the only way.
“There is a way that seems right unto man, but it is the way that ends in death.”
The fourth truth we find in this encounter is that true faith involves turning loose of everything else to gain Christ. I do not believe that Jesus asks every person to sell all his or her possessions and give everything away. But I do believe that it might very well be necessary for some people to do so. It is not a question of poverty being morally superior to wealth. It is not even a question about how much is too much. The whole issue here is about what or Who is going to rule in the heart.
You see, the problem this young man had was he was never going to allow Jesus to be Lord as long has he was holding on to his possessions. Those possessions ruled his heart. Jesus was not going to play second fiddle to those things. He had to make a choice as to who was going to rule in his life.
The situation of the young rich ruler is akin to the story of the monkey with his hand in the jar. The monkey reaches into the jar to retrieve a nut, but it is unable to pull its hand out of the jar because the opening is too small. As long as he holds on to the nut in his clinched fist, his hand will always be trapped in the jar. But if he will turn loose of the nut he can be free from the jar. This is a picture of the condition we find ourselves in. We must turn loose of that which stands between us and Christ. Until we do, we will continue to live in bondage.
For some people materialism is the problem. They are like the young rich ruler. Things rule in their hearts. For others, they love their family more than they do Christ. They can’t give their lives fully to Christ because they have other Lord’s in their heart. Jesus said to follow Him we must put Him above all human relations. He did not mean that we ignore our family responsibilities. Nor did he suggest that we don’t love our family. But what He clearly did teach is that our love for Him is to be so deep and vast that our love for others pales in comparison. He taught that there would be times where obedience may be interpreted by our families as a hatred for them. How many sons and daughters have broken their mother’s hearts in responding to God’s call to missions? I can tell you that in my own life, it would not have been the choice of my parents for me to be doing what I am doing today. For some it is a sin that they hold on to that keeps them from Christ. But for all, until we turn loose of the nut we will never be free from the jar.
A fifth truth we can learn here is that what we find impossible to do, God makes possible. The disciples are shocked by how radical Christ’s demands were. They find themselves wondering if it is possible for any of them to be saved. Jesus makes a statement here that we would be wise to pay attention to. He does not say it is hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom in the sense of only difficult but possible with effort. What he says is, it is impossible. That is clear if you read the whole text. The eye of a needle was not a gate in Jerusalem as some have proposed. It is just what it says it is. His point is that there is no way a camel can fit through the eye of a needle. It is impossible. He says as much in verse 27.
His point is that none of us could be saved apart from the gracious workings of God. None of us can conquer these idols of our heart apart from His grace. None of us could believe apart from the workings of the Spirit of God in our life. It is impossible with us, but all things are possible with God.
I wish we had time today for each of us to tell the story of our conversion. Our testimonies are the fulfillment of this text. How did people like us ever get to the point that we have given our lives to Jesus Christ? How did we ever come to put Him first? It was not possible apart from Him.
The sixth point I want to make is that we see that the young man went away without the joy that he desired. There is a paradox here. He got to keep what he wanted, but he forfeited what he really needed. While there was a desire to gain eternal life, there was an even greater desire to hold on to material wealth. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul,” could be written as a statement against this young man’s choice.
The interesting thing about it is that the advantages of his life could never buy him the joy that is the fruit of knowing Christ. A man who chooses things over Christ will always be an unhappy man. Oh, no doubt there may be some frivolity and laughter, but in the deep recesses of the heart there will always be a spiritual restlessness and emptiness. We were created by God and for God and we will never be at peace until we are at peace with God.
Chesterton said that meaninglessness ultimately comes not from being weary of pain, but from being weary of pleasure. Walker Percy explained that despair arises out of circumstances of plenty rather than deprivation. Novelist Philip Roth observed, “In the West everything goes and nothing matters. While in the East, nothing goes and everything matters.”
The words, “he went away sad, because he had great possessions,” are quite revealing. The very things he had hoped would give joy to his soul ended up being the source of his misery.
Finally, we see the truth that holding on to his wealth the young man forfeited the wealth of God. The disciples ask what they are going to get since they have given up everything to follow Christ. It is interesting that the Lord doesn’t rebuke them for this question. He doesn’t say they shouldn’t think like that. He answers them very directly that they would be rewarded abundantly for any sacrifice following Christ meant to them.
I think the heart of what Jesus is teaching us here is that we can seek our joy in Him and be satisfied, or we can seek it in the things of this world and be unhappy people. Jesus was calling on this young man to make a radical commitment of faith. He was calling on him to trade in everything he could see, and touch for that which was yet future and unseen. He was asking him to trust Him to give him that peace with God he longed for. He was asking him to turn loose of everything else and cling only to Christ. It was not an easy thing Jesus asked. But it was the only thing that could meet the deepest need of his life.
Jesus calls upon us in the same way today. He is asking us to seek our joy and life and happiness only in Him. He is calling on us to acknowledge His claim to be Lord. He is calling us to trust Him and Him alone to meet the deepest need of our life.
In a large stone cathedral in Europe there was a large, magnificent pipe organ. It was a Saturday afternoon, and the sexton was making one final check of the choir and organ loft high in the balcony at the back of the church. He was startled to hear footsteps echoing up the stone stairway, as he thought the doors were all locked and no one was around. He turned to see a man in slightly tattered traveling clothes coming toward him. "Excuse me, sir," the stranger said. "I have come from quite a distance to see the great organ in this cathedral. Would you mind opening the console so that I might get a closer look at it?" The custodian at first refused, but the stranger seemed so eager and insistent that he finally gave in. "May I sit on the bench?" That request of the stranger was met with absolute refusal by the cathedral custodian. "What if the organist came in and found you sitting there? I would probably lose my job!" But again the stranger was so persistent that the sexton gave in. "But only for a moment," he added.
The custodian noticed that the stranger seemed to be very much at home on the organ bench, so he was not completely surprised when he was asked by the stranger to be allowed to play the organ. "No! Definitely not!" said the custodian. "No one is allowed to play it except the cathedral organist." The man’s face fell, and his deep disappointment was obvious. He reminded the custodian how far he had come and assured him that no damage would be done. Finally the sexton relented and told the stranger he could play the instrument, but only a few notes and then he would have to leave. Overjoyed, the stranger pulled out some stops and began to play. Suddenly the cathedral was filled with the most beautiful music the custodian had ever heard in all his years in that place. The music seemed to transport him heavenward.
In what seemed all too short a time, the dowdy stranger stopped playing and slid off the organ bench. And started down the stairway. "Wait!" cried the custodian. "That was the most beautiful music I have ever heard in the cathedral. Who are you?" The stranger turned for just a moment as he replied, "Mendelssohn." The man was none other than Felix Mendelssohn, one of the greatest organists and composers of the nineteenth century!
The cathedral sexton was alone now in that great stone edifice, the beautiful organ music still ringing in his ears. "Just think," he said softly, "I almost kept the master from playing his music in my cathedral!"
Each one of us has the opportunity to have a personal relationship with the Master of the universe, Jesus Christ. What a tragic decision we make when we keep Him from "playing His music" and being Master of our lives!
