Haven’t
you heard people say it? I have. It is one of the main ways preachers,
evangelists, and just ordinary people deal with this uncomfortable
passage in the New Testament:
One thing you lack: Go your way,
sell whatever you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; and come,
take up the cross, and follow Me.
(Mark 10:21)
Didn’t He mean that for the rich young
ruler alone? Wasn’t it only for
him and not for the rest of us? You know, only
for those people who have a “problem” with
their riches. Isn’t that what the context
of Yahshua’s words tells us? You can
tell that the rich young ruler had a “problem” with
riches because he went away sad.
But who has riches and doesn’t trust
in them? When the Great Depression began and
the stock market crashed, people jumped out
of windows and killed themselves. When their
wealth was gone, they had nothing to fall back
upon. They certainly trusted in riches, and
when their riches were gone, they had nothing
left to trust.
If you read the story carefully you can see
that the rich young ruler did trust Yahshua to a remarkable extent. He might have
known Him and His message better than we think.
After all, he came to Him because he knew that
He had the ability to grant him the one thing
he lacked — eternal life. He even knew
there was something that he must do to
gain eternal life. But the answer to his question, “Good
teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal
life?” was not at all what he thought
it would be.
It was a very hard thing to do — if
you love your own life in this world — but
not if you hate your life in this world.
Give Him a million shekels… climb
up the Temple steps a thousand times on his
knees… build an orphanage… go
to Mount Sinai in the desert and listen to
the voice of God? So many things he would have
done for eternal life, even “Only believe!” But
to give up all he had and come, follow
Him? that was too much. The Good Teacher and
he had different ideas about “the one
thing he lacked.”
The rich young ruler faced the cost of removing
the guilt from his conscience, and shuddered,
forfeiting eternal life instead of his possessions.
Making right the damage his wealth and careless
ease had done to others, to the name of God,
and to his own soul, involved losing what he
would not let go of. He found his security
in it.
So, the cost of this “treasure in heaven” was
too high — honoring God by obeying His
words. This meant humbly admitting that the
Good Teacher knew the way out of the
predicament of his guilt. It also meant doing
all he could to satisfy His Father’s
heart that “there would be no poor in
the land.” And
it meant making right any wrongs he had committed
as a rich man.
There was another wealthy man, a tax collector,
who understood this, too. It was the first
thing on his conscience when confronted with
the mercy of God in the person of Yahshua.
Zaccheus gave half his wealth to charity and
paid back what he had defrauded from others
four times over. Like
the rich young ruler, he understood he had
to do something to be worthy of receiving
the Son of God. Sounds
heretical, I know, but it all depends on where
your heart is: “Where your treasure is
there will your heart be also.”
It seems like the rich young ruler wished
that could be the other way around: “Where
your heart is, there will your treasure be
also,” but the Savior didn’t say
that. So the man turned away in grief and sorrow,
understanding the choice before him. Since
then most people have not had his sensitivity
of conscience, for they only turn away with
a shrug. “Hard sayings,” they say,
and turn away.
Yahshua knew how easy it would be to focus
on the particular circumstances of this “rich
man” and not see that it applied to all who
would believe in Him. The “great astonishment” of
His disciples showed that even they did not
really understand. But they had been willing
to do what the rich young ruler wasn’t: “See,
we have left all and followed you.”
They wanted to know, “What about us? Is
there eternal life for us?”
Remember, His disciples were “the poor” and
not the rich. What about them? By saying, “There
is no one...” Yahshua generalized His words
to this particular rich young ruler to include all, both
rich and poor:
Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who
has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother
or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s,
who shall 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. (Mark 10:29-30)
The underlying issue of possessions is deeper than security.
It is authority. Yahshua was not teaching His disciples
to preach a gospel of salvation by philanthropy — the
good works of the wealthy. He was not training them that
eternal life was for sale with charity or alms. But He
was saying something very definitive about salvation: “Are
you going to do what I want you to do?”
Knowing what was in the heart of man, the Master thus
put His finger on the very nerve of human existence. He
was saying to this man what He says to every man and woman: Unless
I can be the highest Authority in your life there is no
salvation for you. This is why He said to the multitudes
in Luke 14:33, “So then, none of you can be My
disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”
When the disciples asked in their astonishment, “Who
then can be saved?” His answer comforted them, “All
things are possible with God.” What
almost everyone misses is that He goes on to explain how it
is “possible with God” in verses 29-30 — by
forsaking all for His sake and the gospel’s sake,
resulting in a hundredfold return in the life shared with
all who believe, along with persecutions, and in the age
to come, eternal life.
Those who fail to see this must embrace the contradiction
that God would deny His very own word by granting eternal
life to someone who would not obey His word. Isn’t
that a lot to “hope” for with eternity at stake?
For
more on the name Yahshua, see What's
in a Name.
John
12:25-26
Deuteronomy
15:4
Luke
19:1-10
Matthew
10:37-38
Matthew
6:21
Mark
10:28
Mark
10:26-27
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