Jesus vs. Stuff

STORY 

As he traveled, Jesus taught the crowds that gathered around him.

When the story of the Rich Young Ruler is told in Matthew the young man runs up to Jesus just as he is setting out on his journey.  He’s waited until the last minute, possibly hoping the crowd has pretty much gone on their way and nobody will see him talking to Jesus. This is his moment; he’s been walking around the edges of the crowd while Jesus spoke.  He hears something in Jesus message and feels that he’s missing something. 

The scripture says that he was not just rich, but extremely rich. The Jews equated riches with divine favor.   So unlike the story of Zacchaeus the people probably would have thought it proper for Jesus to consort with this type of man.  Here was someone whom everyone respected, who Jesus could probably gain some advantage from.

Alfred Plummer guesses that, “This rich man had no doubt previously consulted the official teachers on the question he put to Jesus, and had evidently not been satisfied with their answers.” 

As he kneels before Jesus he asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Now commentators are split on whether or not this young man was sincerely seeking an answer or only hoping to get a cheap spiritual product from Jesus. 

Gundry says, “He seemed to think he could gain eternal life by a single heroic act.”  In other words he was hoping for a quick-fix answer, something that could be accomplished in a moment, or at most a 30-day period of intense effort, like one of those “30 lbs in 30 days” programs you see advertised on telephone poles in high traffic areas.

Perhaps he expected, or even hoped that Jesus would give him a difficult task that his great wealth would enable him to accomplish.  This would have been the “win-win” scenario that he was looking for.  Finally, he thought, an opportunity to use my wealth for “good”! 

JESUS LOVED HIM

One detail that is mentioned in the story in the book of Mark is that before Jesus answered him he felt love for him. So another commentator believed the seeker was sincere, otherwise his false pretence would have aroused disgust in Jesus rather than sympathetic love (for his sincerity).

This implies a searching love… like a pause you leave between when someone asks you a tough question and when you answer with something you’re quite sure they won’t want to hear

Jesus might have thought as he looked at him “I love you, but I know you’re not going to like this answer.”

“ONE THING”

Jesus answers, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’”  And then the young man replies that he has kept all of these commandments all his life.

No one is good except God alone – why does Jesus say that? Is the young man hiding the fact that he already believes that Jesus is God and hoping that Jesus won’t ask of him exactly what he’s about to ask?

Luke 18:22a “When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack…”

“You only lack one thing…”  The young man’s eyes open wide with anticipation, “Wow – I thought it would be a bunch of stuff… but only ONE thing?!  I’m sure I can do that  Woo, I heard that you could read minds and stuff and I thought you were going to give me this list of stuff that I had to make right.  Whew, only one thing eh?  So, what is it?”

Luke 18:22b Jesus says “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

What is Jesus telling him to do? This challenge is meant to reveal the thing that the young man’s heart is attached to. “You have everything,” Jesus tells him, “Except one thing… Unfortunately, getting the one thing you lack will cost you everything else you have.”

JD Hastings: “Human nature is like a boat upon the seas, it will stay only where it is fastened.” Where you drop your anchor, that’s where you’ll stay. The young man needed to detach himself from the anchor of excessive wealth. I like the way another author puts it: “When he opens his hand to grab hold of Jesus, his earthly riches will fall out of his clutches and land on the poor.” (Abraham Piper)

Sadly, we read in Luke 18:23 that, “when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.” 

 WHO IS RICH?

The World Bank estimates in their most recent study that “1.4 billion people, or one quarter of the population of the developing world, lived below our international line of $1.25 a day in 2005.”  This is the total financial resource for an entire day to buy food, pay for shelter, and live off of.

Still looking at other people as rich?  I calculated how much I live on per day, it was more than $1.25.  It was closer to 100 times that much.

CAMEL – NEEDLE

Next  Jesus turns to those left after the young man went away and says, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Is he exaggerating a bit or is there a point to this?  He does say that with God such things are possible, but I think his point is well made that being rich will hinder your chances of being his disciple.

Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”  Remember, the Jews at that time thought that if you were rich it meant that you were already favored by God… so if this guy couldn’t be saved, who could?

REWARDS

At this point Peter (always one to step forward and open his mouth) says, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers  or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

In Matthew and Mark Jesus actually says that the rewards for the sacrifices in this life will be a hundredfold.

The rich young man was not willing to invest in the idea that Jesus was proposing like he was in all those other proposals that we presume had made him so rich.  Investment thinking: “I have to get more out than I put in.” In this case, he chose the riches he could touch and see in this life over the riches Jesus promised him in the next life.  The difference was faith.

Jesus says if you make money and stuff your goal in life there is almost no chance that you’ll end up a disciple of his. Nowhere does Jesus say it is a sin to be wealthy, but he does say that if you do become wealthy it becomes very difficult to be one of his followers. 

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