18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’[a]”
21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
1. What must I do to inherit eternal life is a recurring question. It’s similar to last week’s question about how many will be saved but it’s more personal. It’s not about others but about one individual…and that’s a clue to Jesus’ answer as we’ll see.
2. In Matthew 19 he says “What good thing must I do?”
I know this person. In the law there are 613 mitvoth – laws with laws – that must be obeyed…but there is always one more. Now that I have obeyed them all and still feel unsure there must be something I am missing. “What other good thing must I do?” It’s not unlike Paul’s discovery on Mars Hill that the Greeks had a statue for the unknown god – just to make sure. They knew there were more because there are never enough.
For some it is wanting to reduce all the complexity of life to the simplest form. If you attend leadership seminars you’ll hear “six key traits of a leader”. People want to find the “one thing” that matters more than anything else. I don’t want to waste my life on the non-essentials.
For some it is a genuine desire for goodness but we keep discovering parts of ourselves that are not good. What if this one part of my life disqualifies me? Why do I never feel good enough? I like the way Mark describes the young man in his account. “He came running and fell on his knees at Jesus’ feet.” He was desperate for relief.
There is something in all of us that tells us we are lacking one thing. “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
The search for one thing more leads in many directions:
For some it leads to envy. If I had what they have I would be good enough.
For some it leads to lust.
For some it leads to adventure. What I’m looking for is somewhere else.
For some it leads to giving up things.
None of those work. There is always the sense that one thing more would make me secure or accepted or content or satisfied.
For some wealthy people the constant exposure to people asking them to do more leaves them asking “What more can I do? Why is it never enough? Why am I disappointing people’s expectations?”
How much is enough is not just a question about money. It is a question all of us ask because we don’t want to end up falling short on whatever it is that pleases whoever we are trying to please.
3. What’s the answer Jesus gives him? Sell everything, give the proceeds to the poor and follow me.
“Prosperity knits a man to the world. He thinks he’s finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.”
He does not say that to everyone who is wealthy – only to this young man because it is not only his wealth but his desire to be “good enough” that stands between him and life. In fact, goodness may be a bigger obstacle than wealth.
“Follow me” and not follow more rules is the answer for him and for us as well.
4. There are a number of stories of wealthy men in the gospels and only one of them ends well. That’s the story of Zaccheus. It’s interesting to compare the two.
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Zaccheus is merely curious. He is not driven to find an answer about being good enough. He wants nothing from Jesus.
Zaccheus is probably not an inheritor. He understands what it is to earn your money. He is certainly not a ruler and far from respected.
Zaccheus responds immediately without being asked. The money has less hold on him. He experiences a rare kind of joy in turning loose.
5. I wish the young ruler could have known Zaccheus. They would have made an odd pair but the Zaccheus would have been such a good balance for him. The young man needed someone like that in his life.