Last week we began looking at what it means to follow Christ and be a disciple.
This morning we are going to continue upon that same theme.
Just in case you don’t remember last week,
or you weren’t here, I’ll just recap.
I said there are two roads we can take in our journey with Christ.
the road of the spiritual tourist and the road of the spiritual immigrant.
the immigrants you may remember take the road that lead to life and the kingdom of God,
because the immigrants to God’s Kingdom are disciples.
Well today we are going to walk the immigrant road someways with Jesus
And while we are walking, we are going to learn some more of what it means to be a disciple by looking at two incidents.
The first incident we are going to look at involves the disciples, Jesus and some small children.
In your Bibles the incident is called Jesus blesses the little children.
What happens is quite straight forward.
Some parents are seeking to bring there children to Jesus for a blessing,
this was the normal custom in Judaism when a teacher of great stature was in town.
However the disciples object to this and do all they can to prevent these children coming to Jesus.
Part of the problem that the disciples had with the Children coming to Jesus was to do with how they saw this new Kingdom.
You see the disciples were a bit confused as to what this new Kingdom would be like,
for about the past two years Jesus had tried to give them insights into the kingdom
but they always failed to see what Jesus meant.
They had heard Jesus speak,
seen him perform miracles,
and even recognized him as the messiah,
but one thing they lacked
and that was they had failed to capture the spirit of Jesus work,
they failed to realize the true nature of what God’s kingdom was to be like.
To the disciples Jesus was a busy man who was going around trying to establish a new kingdom,
this was true but they failed to understand that the foundation of this new Kingdom was not power like they secretly sought but Humility,
humility that can be seen in the child like innocence of the Children who came to Jesus to be blessed.
The first disciples had absolutely no idea of what lay ahead for them and so they plodded on living under Murphies law.
Murphy law says that any thing that can go wrong will go wrong
For the disciples it meant that anything they can get wrong they will get wrong,
you could guarantee it,
every time a coconut,
if there was a chance that the disciples could get it wrong they would.
So when they see little children coming to Jesus they see time wasting
time that could be put to use in the building of God’s kingdom.
Here’s the first lesson for us to learn today God’s kingdom is not built on power,
but rather on the lack of it.
Jesus even spelt it out to the disciples when he said whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.
And so Jesus blesses the little children,
another lesson has been taught to us and the disciples, and so we move on and carry on our Journey this morning with Jesus.
A little while later Jesus and his friends are on the road to Jerusalem again,
the children have been blessed and the disciples have been taught another lesson on the road of life.
Of course It doesn’t take long though before someone else approaches Jesus,
this time it is not a distraught parent seeking a blessing for their child,
but a full grown man.
That was not an unusual occurrence,
as people used to approach Jesus all the time,
he couldn’t walk the street without somebody or other approaching him seeking a blessing
or asking for a disease or ailment to be cured.
But this man was different,
firstly he was a very rich man,
a self made man who answered to no one
and who every one looked up to.
The sort of man who would click his fingers and see people jump.
The kind of man who spent his days wheeling and dealing,
all above board of course because he was also honest in his business,
but if their was a profit to be made
you could guarantee that this man approaching Jesus was involved.
And yet despite all his wealth this man was not fulfilled, he had a gaping great hole in his life,
a hole like so many people have,
Like the disciples this man new that there was more to life than meets the eye,
Like the disciples this man got frustrated with the ho hum 9 to 5 of life.
Like the disciples this man had a hunger and a thirst for something that all his power and his wealth and his riches had failed to provide.
This man had something missing,
and so he looked towards Jesus in hope,
in the hope that Jesus would be able to tell him where he might find that missing something.
The other thing that was different about this rich man was how he approached Jesus,
because he didn’t just casually stroll up to Jesus and ask him his question,
nor did he slide up to next to him like you would if you didn’t want to be seen talking to Jesus,
after all a man like Jesus could ruin the reputation of a hard nosed business man.
But he didn’t approach Jesus in either of these ways, you see he ran to Jesus,
flat tack,
the rich man saw Jesus coming
and he new Jesus had the answers,
no one could have stopped him coming to Jesus.
And then when he got close enough to speak,
he threw himself at Jesus’ feet,
you can almost imagine the feeling of joy that came over the rich man as he knelt at Jesus’ feet
because here was a man with all the answers.
The rich man knew that Jesus could answer his question,
he knew that Jesus held the answer to this ache that was in his sole,
The rich man knew that Jesus and only Jesus could tell him where to find that part that was missing from his life, The part that all his wealth, and power, and authority could not fill.
And so he asked Jesus his question,
the question that he hoped would set him on the right path.
what must I do to receive eternal life.
The problem was that the rich man approached the issue of eternal life like he did every other issue in his life,
he wanted to know what he could do,
he wanted to know what he could do to improve his chances of making the grade,
and receiving eternal life.
It almost seems that he looked upon eternal life as just another commodity on the stock market,
for him to buy at a low price
and sell for a good honest profit.
The reply that Jesus gave him though was simple,
so simple
Obey the commandments,
and especially the ones that refer to how you deal with others,
friends, relatives, and of course employes.
The rich man must have been puffed up with pride as he replied to Jesus.
He probably thought that the gateway to eternal life was opening up before him
because he had done all these things since he was a youth.
The rich man thought he had made it,
now all he needed was recognition of this amazing feat.
All he needed was for Jesus to pin a medal of honor on his chest.
A medal that would show the world that he was heaven bound.
The funny thing is Jesus didn’t pin a medal on his chest, or give him a pat on the back,
infact he didn’t even say some any encouraging words like
you have done well my good and faithful servant.
No Jesus being Jesus did something quite different,
he looked into his eyes.
And as the man was puffing up with pride Jesus saw him as he really was.
It’s almost like Jesus looked deep into his soul,
and what Jesus saw there made Jesus love him.
We don’t know exactly what it was it was that made Jesus love him,
but maybe it was something like the potential to do something great for the Kingdom of God,
After all this man had done so well for himself that maybe Jesus saw the potential for this man to do a great work for God’s kingdom too.
What ever it was Jesus saw there was not alone though, In the darkness of his soul there was something else also,
something far less desirable than potential.
Because blocking the way to this Kingdom potential was this mans great wealth.
Jesus knew that the blockage this man had was deadly to a Kingdom citizen,
to a disciple a blockage like this is more deadly than a contagious disease.
Jesus saw that there was only one possible cure for the blockage and that was surgery,
drastic surgery,
The whole of the blockage had to be removed.
Every last trace of his wealth.
And so Jesus asked him if he was willing to undertake the surgery,
Jesus asked him to go and sell all he had and give it to the poor,
and then the Kingdom potential could be released when he followed Jesus.
Unfortunately the rich man would not consent to this surgery,
he wouldn’t sacrifice his wealth to become a disciple
and so he left Jesus,
his pride deflated,
but his riches still intact.
After this we don’t hear anymore about the rich man.
Jesus instead turns his attention back to his friends, the disciples.
His friends who were still living by Murphies law,
and getting everything they could get wrong, wrong.
Once again they failed to understand Jesus’ reasoning. Because the disciples were dumb struck by what they had seen.
You see in their thinking,
Jewish thinking,
wealth was a sign of God’s blessing.
To be truly spiritual you had to be wealthy,
because to be truly spiritual you had to follow three acts of piety
prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Now anyone could pray
even a poor person.
But realistically
only the rich could choose to go with out food and fast,
and how could the poor who barely have enough for themselves afford to Give.
In verse 24 it says that the disciples were shocked,
I am not surprised,
you would be to if you thought wealth was the stuff that spirituality was made of.
And if a rich person who can afford to fast and give cannot make the grade
then what chance do the disciples have,
after all weren’t they a few redundant fishermen
and an ex tax collector,
The disciples didn’t have two pennies to rub together,
so what chance did they have of eternal life.
by themselves no chance.
Come to think of it what chance do we have of eternal life,
well by our selves no chance.
The truth is that we have no chance of cutting it as Kingdom citizens, as disciples
not by our own means anyway.
Rich man, poor man, beggar man thief,
none can enter God’s kingdom by their own merits.
Its impossible for a camel to fit through a needles eye, but its just as impossible for us to fit through it too.
What we need is for someone to remove that needle,
for someone to perform the surgeyr that will remove our blockages,
our stumbling blocks that prevent us making the grade as disciples.
This is only possible with God’s help.
And so we are drawn back to our first road incident,
and the story of Jesus blessing the little children.
You see here lies the answer as to how we can stay Kingdom citizens and disciples,
here is the answer to us not falling victims to the road like the rich man did.
As we saw Jesus sweep up the helpless and powerless children in his arms,
So we see the only way we can continue as kingdom citizens.
We need to surrender ourselves to God and allow God to work his work in us and through us,
in utter trust to God,
because we too need to be helpless and powerless in God’s arms too.
If only the rich man could have learnt the lesson that Jesus taught through the little children,
then he to may have received eternal life.
What the rich man would have then said to Jesus was not what can I do to receive eternal life,
but Jesus I may be rich
but I am also helpless and powerless as a little child,
will you lead me in your ways,
I know your ways lead to eternal life.
because left to my own means I will lose my way.
Will we to learn the lesson from the little children,
and walk the road with Jesus relying upon him for every thing.
Or will we walk the same way as the rich man,
rely on our selves for everything
and eventually lose our way also .
