Read Mark
10:17-31
At last, we get to a person of status
in the world coming to Jesus and falling down before him. How do we know the
man had status.? If you read the full pericope, we find that the man had great
wealth.
And here he was before Jesus, giving
proper reverence. Finally!
The man begins the conversation with
the words good teacher. It sounds like an appropriate greeting. It least
acknowledges that Jesus was a teacher—a rabbi.
But Jesus focused on the word good.
Why do you call me good? Only God is good.
Now Jesus had told many that he and
his Father were one. Did this man know that talking with Jesus was the same as
talking with God?
Jesus did not send the man packing
because he called him good. In fact, he heard the man’s question and answered
it. What was the question?
It was “What must I do to inherit
eternal life?”
That question bears some exploration.
Let’s consider the infinitive in the sentence: to inherit. He didn’t say
earn. It didn’t say win. He didn’t say achieve. He didn’t say
to discover.
He said, “What must I do to inherit
eternal life?”
What must I do to inherit eternal
life? Inherit is different from earning or winning or achieving. Typically, the
inheritance goes to an heir.
Was this man asking to be an heir in
God’s kingdom? It is an interesting question, which Jesus goes on to answer.
Don’t murder. No side chicks If it’s
not yours, don’t take it. Don’t lie or defraud. Treat your parents right. The list
sounded very familiar to this young man.
He said, probably with a mix of relief
and excitement, “I’ve done all of those!”
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I’m in for sure!
Yes!
Compliance is good. Obedience is good.
Following directions is good and they all put you on a good path to having a
relationship with God, but they are not everything.
Jesus said to go sell everything you
have and give the proceeds to the poor.
Jesus said that following the rules is good. It is important, but it is
not everything.
In Mark’s gospel, we find these
words before Jesus told this rich young
man—some say ruler—to go sell all that he had, we are told that Jesus looked at
the man and loved him.
Ouch! What kind of love is that?
It’s the kind that says you are
playing by the rules but missing the relationship.
It’s the kind of love that says God is
a jealous God and you can’t have another god on the side. Your wealth is your god. My Father in Heaven is coming in second place
or lower in your life and that dog don’t hunt.
You need to value your relationship
with my Father in heaven over the rules for good living. They are not in
conflict with each other. In fact, you can’t really understand most of what
they are all about if you are not in good relationship with the one true God.
If you want to understand what God is
telling you in his word, you need the Sprit of God to guide you.
The rich young man verified the assessment
of the Lord. The young man went away sad because he had a big stake in this
world. He had much wealth. He had a lot of stuff.
The young man went away sad. We don’t know if he did what he was told or
not. Put that on the list of things to find out in the age to come.
I’ve been working on a proposal for an
orientation package in heaven. It would include excursions. One to them would
be to talk with this young man to see if he did what he was told.
Did he put the words of his Master
into practice? It sounds like he knew that Jesus was from God. He may not have known
he was the Messiah, maybe he did, but he knew this man was from God.
And Jesus had told him to do something
that he really didn’t want to do. God told him to do something that he really
didn’t want to do.
We don’t all need to sell everything
we have. This is not a universal call to poverty. We are not taking a vow of
poverty in lieu of the hymn of invitation this morning.
We don’t all need to sell everything,
but you can bet we all need to do some things that Jesus told us to do that we don’t
really want to do.
Such as?
Forgive. How many of us have a person
or people that we have not forgiven. Why? Because we don’t want to! Forgive.
Don’t let your left hand know what
your right hand is doing when we give.
Sometimes, we want a little acknowledgment when we give or give
something extra. God says, that’s something personal between us.
God tells us to keep this between us. You want a personal relationship, this is personal.
How about love your enemy? That one is
always going to be tough. It’s easier if you pray for your enemies while you
are at it.
I don’t know what it is for you, but
God is likely calling you to do something outside of your comfort zone. He is calling
you to do something that you don’t want to do.
Do you know what it’s called when you
do something outside of your comfort zone? It’s called growth, at least 95% of
the time.
What about the other 5%? Those are hold-my-beer moments that usually
come with their own lessons learned.
If we are to truly grow, we need to
put the words of our Master into practice, and that includes the things that we
really don’t want to do.
Let me put it this way. Are you a
Christian or a Christian Tourist?
What?
Do you live the words of Jesus or do
you just know what he said and like to observe what people do without being on
the playing field? The tourist is free to comment and advise but never gets any
dirt under his fingernails from being a Christian.
Let me try it this way. If you were accused of being a Christian
would there be enough evidence to convict you?
What sort of evidence? The kind that affirms you have put the words
of your Master into practice—that evidence.
It’s hard evidence if it includes you doing what Jesus told you to do even
if you don’t like it.
The disciples focused on the money and
wealth part of this story which we discussed in the first service. Today, I ask you to focus on doing those
things that God told us to do with a special emphasis on those that we don’t
like or don’t want to do or just those things we have been able to ignore
before.
Maybe a false god is taking a
prominent place in our lives and we need to kick him to the curb in favor of
the one true God.
Your charge is to do the things that
Jesus told you to do and don’t skip the hard ones. Don’t ignore his commands
because you just don’t want to do that.
Your challenge is to put the words of
our Master into practice, even those that we have been fighting hard for some
time. We must even do those things where
our own understanding says, you get an exemption on that one.
No, we don’t!
The man went away sad because he had
great wealth and it had taken the place of the one true God. The man still followed
the rules but he was short on relationship with his Creator. He went through his
Live the Good Life Checklist but missed the get to know the One who
spoke it all into existence experience.
The man was only cheating himself out
of abundant life. You have heard the quotes that the good keeps us from our
best. There's a variation on this that works both ways, but for now, consider this.
This young man had it good—very good but he was missing out on abundant
life in Christ—life in good relationship with God.
The question today is not so much what this rich young man did when he left, maybe he did what Jesus told him, and
maybe not. The question is will we walk away sad when God calls us to do
something that we don’t want to do?
The question is what will we do when
Jesus calls us to do something that we just don’t want to do. Will we too be sad?
I have hated that
person for a year now or is it two or ten. I can’t forgive them now.
I give what I
give. Don’t be asking me for more, Jesus.
And this whole
love your enemy business, that’s just too out there for me.
Let’s go back to the young man just
for a moment. Before Jesus commanded him to sell everything, we read: Jesus
looked at him and loved him.
Jesus told him to sell everything not
as a test or evaluation but out of love.
The man wanted eternal life when he died.
Jesus offered eternal life now. Trade in
your god of this world for the real God and follow me. You have to kick the false god to the curb
first—in your case that is your wealth—but then come follow me.
Do
we not understand that God has good
plans for us? God has the very best in mind for us and in
store for us. When will we let go of our own understanding and take on the
yoke of our Master?
God
has good plans for you.
God loves you.
If God tells you to do it and you don’t
want to, you are fighting against your own best outcomes. Father really does know best.
And when God calls us to something that
we don’t like, we don’t go away sad. We do it with a smile on our faces knowing
that God loves us and God has good plans for us.
We don’t go away sad. We step into
whatever God has called us to do and we do it knowing it is for our own good
and that the God who told us to do this thing also loves us very much.
Jesus looked at him and loved him, and
then told him the thing he needed to hear and do the most—get rid of your false
god and get to know the real God.
We will all have those moments when
Jesus looks at us and loves us and tells us exactly what we need to hear and
what we need to do.
Can we say these words with joy
in our hearts and a smile on our faces?
Thy will be done!
God desires a wholesale exchange of
everything that we seek before him for seeking him first. We can have no
other gods that approach the one true God.
Do we not understand that God has good
plans for us? God has the very best in
mind for us and in store for us. When will we let go of our own
understanding and take on the yoke of our Master?
God has good plans for you.
God loves you.
Let us put his words into practice even
when we don’t want to, with joy in our hearts and smiles on our faces for God
loves us and has good plans for us.
Amen.
