When being rich makes you poor
What would success look like for you in the future for which you’re studying so hard now? Would you be a CEO of some big company or principal of a top private school? Chancellor of the Uni? But maybe you think I’m not interested in climbing the corporate ladder and all that. I just want to be faithful to God. Success for me is to live a good life.
Now what would you do if at the end you find out that it’s all for naught? All your effort all those years, you get to the gates of heaven and realise the Muslims had it right all along. Or worse, that there’s nothing at all. God doesn’t exist. Can you imagine what that’s like?
Our passage does that for us with the rich young ruler. Here’s someone who did everything right and had everything turn out wrong. There’s one big idea in this passage – God does the impossible to make our salvation possible.
God does the impossible to make our salvation possible
Mark 10:17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”
Notice how this man isn’t just good. What is striking is how he’s sincere and humble in heart. As Jesus was setting out, this man ran up and knelt before him. It’s quite a humbling sight. And he asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” As religious and as devout as he is, he doesn’t claim to have achieved success. He admits he’s not there yet.
21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Jesus looked at him and saw what was going on in his heart of hearts. When it really mattered, this man loved his money more than God. What is so scary to me is I don’t think he had any idea how lost he was. I think he genuinely wanted to do the right thing and he thought he had been doing all the right things up to this point. He’s not so proud to think he’s perfect, but at least compared to Hitler, he’s almost there. Studying the commandments, keeping the law, reading his Bible, going to church, praying every night.
We worship what we love
By any measurable human standard, he would right up there at the top. But Jesus could see straight down to the bottom of his heart and shows him what he truly loves - money. It goes to show that the thing you can’t live without is the god you truly worship. For the rich young ruler, it was his money. When asked to give it away, he couldn’t. Because in his heart of hearts, money had become his god.
What will Jesus see when he looks at us? It might be money, it might be relationships, or your hopes and dreams for the future. Everything and anything that can possibly compete with God in our heart, if we aren’t willing or able to give it all up, we will never inherit eternal life. Does that scare you? Because it honestly terrifies me. God demands total surrender, and I don’t know if I have or even can.
Why do you think the disciples were so astonished at what Jesus says next?
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”
One of the key things to remember is people back then didn’t have the same prejudice against rich people as we do today. They were far more able to distinguish between someone who is undeservingly rich and someone who is rich because they’ve been blessed by God. And everyone would have assumed this man was rich because he’s been blessed by God. So for this rich young ruler to be turned away goes against everything they have been taught to believe. If someone like the rich young ruler couldn’t make the cut, who else could? And what’s the point of even trying? Can you imagine the crisis of faith for Peter?
When being rich makes you poor
28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
On one hand, it sounds like Peter is saying look at us, we’re doing what he couldn’t. We have left everything and have followed you. Surely we’re in now right? After all, it looks like a spot just opened up in heaven. But what does Jesus say? He doesn’t say great, come on in. He goes on a long explanation.
29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Why does Jesus have to spell out everything twice? Why not just say everything? And why the double negative? Did you notice that? There is no one who has left something, who will not receive back something. Why not just say those who have left something will receive? You know what I think is going on? I wonder if Jesus isn’t picking on Peter and saying even you are not good enough. If you look closely at verse 28 it says Peter began to say to him. He’s only just begun to say look at us. But Jesus doesn’t let him finish. Why? Because Jesus could see inside Peter just as he could look into the rich young ruler’s heart. Peter actually hasn’t left everything, not yet at least. Where he is now, Peter is still not good enough. We know for a fact because when the soldiers came and people accused Peter of being a disciple of Jesus, he denied it. Not once, but three times. When it truly mattered, Peter loved his own life more than Jesus. Just as this rich young ruler loved his money more than Jesus. And so, who then can be saved? Answer, no one.
The rich young ruler
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
What does Jesus mean by all things are possible with God? Does it mean that with God’s help, we can do even the impossible? That’s definitely how some Christians understand it. So take your wildest dreams, whatever you want to be in the future, imagine that and ask God to help you make it a reality. Is that it? Or does it mean that God can do what is impossible for you and I. That God Himself does what we can’t.
Look at the rich young ruler. Like really look at him. I don’t think people realise just how rich he was. It isn’t just that he has a lot of money. Like someone who just won the lotto and now has all this cash. He had old money. It’s the kind where like you just own things. He’s young as well, so say about 33? Luke’s gospel calls him a ruler. His words have weight. When he speaks, things happen. Do you really think someone like that will sacrifice everything he has in total surrender to God? It’s impossible. You have a better chance of convincing Elon Musk to trade lives with you.
If there is to be any possibility of eternal life for us, God himself has to do it. God has to do the impossible to make our salvation possible. God has to do what the rich young ruler couldn’t. Give up everything he had had, abandon the perfect life he enjoyed, come down from heaven, and walk on this earth in our place. The one who is truly rich and rules absolutely everything.
Philippians 2:6[Jesus] though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Now do you see the rich young ruler?