Most people aren’t looking for salvation. At least, most people aren’t looking for the salvation Christians can point them to.
At one level, people are looking for salvation from all sorts of things: bad marriages, bad relationships, bad families. Isn’t that what Judge Judy and Dr Phil are about? It’s all about relationship breakdowns. And after the breakdown, they're looking for the person who will save them from loneliness.
Or we are looking for salvation from our imperfect body: overweight, unattractiveness, a nip here, a tuck there, a diet here, a workout there. Every night on today tonight or a current affair they have a story on fat, or fitness, or the obesity crisis, or skinny fashion models, or the latest pill that takes away the need for exercise. The commercial networks seem to be funded by advertising with American actresses and their testimonies: 'this helped me with my ‘breakouts’, or ‘greys’ or ‘friz’ or 'zits' or 'wrinkles' or 'crows feet' or ‘rebellious hair’.
Or we are looking for salvation from continuing health problems or addictions or boredom. Of course, most people wouldn’t use the word ‘salvation’ about them. They want a bit of a leg up, looking for ‘a fair go’, or being ‘cut a bit of slack’, or even ‘a magic bullet’.
Christians have important things to say about these problems. But according to the bible they are not our big problem.
And the solution to our big problem is not, ‘Get up, try harder’. According to the bible, the big problem each of us has is this. We’ve stuffed up our relationship with God. And we are helpless to fix it. When it comes to getting right with God we have all the upward mobility of a beached whale. We have all the torque and traction of Garfield after he’s eaten a tray full of lasagne and his legs can no longer reach the ground.
This doesn’t really foster a ‘can do’ attitude. It doesn’t suit our ‘seven-steps-to success-and-self-esteem’ society. And if you are a self-made person, confident, competent and successful, it will be very hard for you to hear.
On a local talkback radio station a while ago, callers were invited to ring in quoting songs that expressed their feelings. One caller quoted ‘Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound that Saved a Wretch Like Me’.The radio announcer said, ‘Hmmm, saved a wretch like me, it doesn’t express my feelings, I’m not a wretch!’ He was only expressing what most people think. I might not be Mother Theresa, but I’m not Osama Bin Laden either. I’m not perfect, but I’m not a bad bloke. I’m not bad, I would say I’m good.
Our New Testament reading from Luke 18 first introduces us to Jesus being approached by parents. Like us, these parents want to give good things to their children. Though we are evil, we want the best for them. And these parents are no different. They see Jesus and realise, 'Hey, Jesus is good for my kids'. And indeed, every Christian parent knows this.
It is not very long before our children fly the coop and our beyond our protection and control. And then as now, there are many dangerous pitfalls into which our children might fall. So it is not surprising that the parents bring their toddlers and their babe's in arms, their suckling children, to Jesus Christ.
The disciples, however, mistake the cues. They wrongly think that they need to protect Jesus from this. 'Hey, this teacher is the Christ. He isn't running a kindergarten or a long day care centre. He has more important things to do.
But Jesus rebukes the disciples. He says stop, let the children come to me. Because I want you to learn from them. You will learn from them how to be eternally saved. If you want to get to heaven, you need to become like them.
Now, the question is, what is it about the children that we need to copy?
Is it their innocence? I don't think so. I have children. They are my children. They are not innocent because they are my children. I never needed to teach one of my children how to lie, or be selfish. Yet, I have my children telling lies, or being selfish. Why? Because they are just like me. They are sinners. It is not that they are innocent. As David says in Psalm 51, surely I was sinful from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
It is not their innocence. It is their helplessness. That is, these little children, these babes in arms and toddlers, need everything done for them, and receive everything they need as a gift. They cannot feed themselves, clothe themselves, house themselves. They need everything done for them from first to last. That is what it is to be a little child.
And so it is with us entering the Kingdom of God. It is all gift. We cannot earn it or deserve it. We must receive it as helpless recipients of an undeserved gift. Salvation is impossible for us to earn. We must receive it freely as a gift of love.
In contrast to the little children, is the competent young ruler. He was a self made man, if anyone was. We might call him ‘good’. He is confident, earnest, and sincere. This is a can-do man with a can-do plan. But he too has to face some impossibilities.
This man is described as a 'ruler' of the synagogue, the Jewish church. Matthew indicates that he is a young man. Like a young minister out of Moore College, he is young, earnest, sure of himself. And we also learn during the story that he is rich. That’s why he has become known to the church as ‘The Rich Young Ruler’.
This young synagogue ruler starts off well. Verse 18:
A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
He has come to Jesus. That’s good. He calls him ‘Good teacher’. He is concerned about eternal life. Mark even adds that he comes to Jesus on his knees. All these things, it seems, are in the ruler’s favour.
So it is surprising that Jesus answers the way he does. Chapter 18 verse 19:
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone."
This is a rebuke. Jesus questions the man’s use of the title ‘good teacher’. Jesus is picking up the young man’s first word to him, ‘good.’ This respectful title belied the Young Man’s wrong understanding of goodness.
Now, Jesus doesn’t refuse the title ‘good teacher’. He doesn’t say ‘Hey, I’m not good’. What he does say is this. It is as if he says, ‘The only one who you should be calling good is God himself, God alone. Only God is good. No one else is good.'
In fact, we know from the rest of the bible that Jesus is good. Because Jesus is in fact God, so Jesus is also good. But we shouldn’t expect the young man to know that.
Jesus is teaching the Rich Young Ruler about ‘universal human non goodness’. There is no one good except God. That means that all of us are bad, sinful, not good. As Paul says,
There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, they have all turned away. There is no one who does good, not even one. … All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10-12, 23)
By nature we are objects of wrath. (Ephesians 2:3)
Only God is good. Jesus is correcting the young man. I think Jesus does this because the young man thought that he was pretty good.
Jesus says to him, since we are talking about goodness, let’s look at the law. These commandments are 'holy, righteous, and good' (Romans 7:12). Getting to heaven through goodness requires obeying the law, and not stumbling at any point. Verse 20:
You know the commandments [And then Jesus quotes 5 of the 10 commandments, first number 7,] Do not commit adultery, [then number 6], do not murder, [number 8,] do not steal, [number 9,] do not give false testimony, [number 5,] honor your father and mother.
Most of the second table of the law about loving neighbour,
It’s interesting that Jesus doesn’t quote the 10th commandment, 'do not covet'. Coveting is the internal command. I could be standing here breaking the 10th commandment, and you probably wouldn’t even know. It’s hard for others to see it, though God does and I would.
It was ‘do not covet’ that showed Paul he was a sinner (Romans 7:7-10). Paul heard ‘do not covet’ and suddenly saw all the things that he wanted and desired. He heard the command, his coveting was aroused, and the law killed him.
For the way of the law is ‘do this and you shall live’ ‘the man who obeys them will live by them’ (Leviticus 18:5, Romans 10:5). If you want eternal life through the law, you must do it. Hearing or having the law is not enough. You must obey the law to be declared righteous by it (Romans 2:13).
And the flip side is, if you don’t do the law, you will die. Paul puts it this way in Galatians 3:10:
Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. (Galatians 3:10b)
Righteousness by the law tolerates no omissions, no slips, no sins.
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10)
We know these things from the rest of the New Testament. Paul says, ‘the law brings wrath’ (Romans 4:15). Peter calls it ‘a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear’ (Acts 15:10).
But this young man has not yet learned this. So with loveable but niave sincerity, he blurts out, verse 21: "All these I have kept since I was a boy".
If this is all that’s required, I’m in pretty good shape, the young man thinks. We need not doubt his sincerity. I’m sure he hasn’t murdered, stolen, slandered, or slept with anyone. I’m sure mum and dad are very proud of him. We might call him a ‘good boy’… Except that Jesus said we can’t, because only God is good[1]. So if we think him a 'good boy', there is something we don't understand about him. For the Rich Young Ruler too is a sinner and a lawbreaker.
But there’s more to the law than keeping half the 10 commandments. Among other things, the law said:
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me [Moses] from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. … If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. (Deuteronomy 18:15, 19 NIV).
And here is Jesus, the prophet like Moses, the promised one. And Jesus, an expert diagnostician, has prepared something just for him. Jesus loves him, and so speaks to his particular need. The Rich Young Ruler is the Rich Young Ruler. He has money. And he now has the Messiah, standing in front of him. There’s only one thing for it. Verse 22:
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."
Jesus is simply taking the Rich Young Man at his word. The man said that he believed in eternal life. He believed there was a heaven and wanted to go there. So Jesus told him to transfer his assets there.[2] The young man would not lose anything. In fact, it would be a better investment. His money would go ahead of him to heaven.
But of course the man couldn’t do it. He heard Jesus’ words, he understood, but he went away sad. And he could not follow Jesus. What the little children did, in coming to Christ and following him, he couldn’t do.
Here is the tragedy of the Rich Young Ruler. He has all the wisdom and benefit of the law. Yet he doesn’t come to the one the law points to. He trusts in himself and his partial obedience to the law, his status, and property, and prestige. So he can’t leave it to follow the Messiah whom God has sent. He trusts riches rather than Christ. It’s because he was rich.
We are in danger, aren’t we? For we are rich, relatively speaking. Sure, we may well be heading for a recession. Yes, petrol prices and grocery prices are very high. But we are rich, compared to 90% of the world’s population. God doesn’t tell us to sell everything we have. But he does say to us:
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17-20 NIV)
In the end, the rich young ruler man chose poorly. Unless of course he changed his mind afterwards. Because the rich young ruler has long since died. Unless he transferred his assets to heaven, he lost them all. You can’t take it with you!
Well, actually, we can! By being generous and willing to share we lay up treasure for ourselves. That’s how we rollover our treasure to heaven, safe from market downturn and sub prime crisis. And if we transfer them now, it will save us from carrying them here.
The Rich Young Man could not follow Jesus the Messiah, the one the law pointed to. His stuff was holding him back. So Jesus drew a general principle: Verses 24-27:
Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." (NIV)
The rich man looked like God had blessed him. Respectability and wealth were his. But it was impossible for him to save himself. And if it’s impossible for the best, it’s impossible for the rest. Because no one is good, no-one, rich or poor, can save themselves.
But everything is possible with God. We need to be saved by God. Even our salvation is possible, despite us not being good. In verses 31 to 33, Jesus tell us how God has made the impossible salvation possible.
Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again." (NIV)
By sending Jesus to die on the cross and rise again, God was making the impossible possible. That which man could not do, because he is not good, God did, because he is always and only good. God sent Jesus Christ his Son in our likeness as a sin offering. By Jesus sacrifice he condemned our sin and won us pardon and peace.
But the disciples don’t yet understand about Jesus death and resurrection. And all this talk about difficult, impossible salvation, makes Peter think, ‘Hang on, if it’s so hard to be saved, why are we wasting our time? Why have we left everything and followed Jesus? Panic rises up in Peter’s heart! What is there for us? Verse 28:
Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
Here we see the kindness of Jesus. Jesus gives the broadest promise to his fearful followers. I will look after you. Do not worry. You won’t miss out. Verses 29-30:
"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."
Everything you leave for my sake will be restored many times over. All Jesus’ followers will have enough in this life. If you leave parents or wife or siblings for the gospel, that is sad. But you will have your compensations in this age. You will have your Christian family. They will supply what you have lost.
The church is the main way God fulfils this promise in this age. Our generosity to other Christian is the way God provides for his people Yet another reason to be generous. And this will last into eternity.
Get the rich man back here! Perhaps he’ll then have the big garage sale and backpack it with Jesus. None of Jesus’ children will miss out. We will have everything we left, plus much more. Jesus is a King worth following. He knows what we need and is generous in providing it.
Friends, can I invite you to do the sums and make your decision. You can keep the crumbs and trinkets and not follow Jesus. Or you can let go of your many things to follow Jesus, and God will take care of your needs abundantly. You will find a warm welcome in more homes than you can ever imagine. You will be part of Christ’s large extended family, which will last into eternity. Don’t worry, you will have more than enough for your needs. So put your trust wholly in Christ and follow him.
Let’s pray.
[1] After all, Paul could says of himself before he was a Christian that he was blameless as to his righteousness from the law (Philippians 3:6).That is, from the point of view of the community, he had kept these standards.
[2] D B Knox, Not by Bread Alone, 130.
[3] Matthew says ‘one’. Mark adds that he came kneeling.
[4] Mk has the murder command first.
[5] Mk adds ‘do not defraud’.
[6] Mk adds Jesus looked at him and loved him.
[7] Mt calls him 'young'.
[8] Mt says the young man went away sad and Jesus spoke to the disciples. Mk that Jesus looked around and said to his disciples….
[9] Mark adds in verse 24 that the 'disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is {24 Some manuscripts is for those who trust in riches} to enter the kingdom of God!'
[10] In Matthew 19:28, 'Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'"
[11] Mark 10:29 says ‘for my sake and the sake of the gospel’.