I've been reading Matthew lately. For a while, actually (there's a lot in there). Today, I read the story of the rich, young ruler. Remember that one? The guy that asks Jesus how to get to heaven and then is disappointed when the Lord tells him to sell everything he owns... It's Matthew 19:16-26.
Today, this passage brought to mind a lot of questions, like:
* When the man asked how to have eternal life, why did Jesus respond with "keep the commandments"? Why not "believe in Me and the One who sent Me", or something really faith-based like that?
* When the man asked which commandments to keep, why did Jesus respond by listing SIX of the 10? What about the other four?
* After this exchange, how did the man know that he was still missing something? He claimed to have done all that Jesus required, so why didn't he think he was "in"? How did he know he was still lacking?
I think that maybe the answer to these questions could lie in the original question from the young man: "What do I need to do to obtain eternal life?"
I think he was asking the wrong question. Could it be, that to Jesus, this question is equivalent to "Is this going to be on the test?" The young ruler's motivation wasn't glorifying God, proclaiming His Name, or helping his fellow man; it was simply his own destiny.
Maybe, it could be that when my desire is to please God, to follow God, to glorify Christ, then I see my eternal salvation as simply a by-product... not the main course.
Not rocket-science theology, I admit. But even if you agree with this statement, you have to admit that as Christians, we do an awful lot of stressing eternal life as the "end-all" goal of evangelism. Which raises the question of how does that attitude affect our daily life and our theology of interacting with a lost world?
The more I think about it, the more I'm forced to admit that I've been doing it wrong for a long time...
4 comments:
You're a great writer and I'm encouraged every time I read your blog!
Exactly what I needed to hear today. Thank you for being faithful to share what God is teaching you.
Hey, its kinda crazy i ran across this on the whole internet, i had just been studying this about a week ago after hearing a message on it. I believe that my Savior is all knowing, therefore He knows our heart, mind, and thoughts. I believe Christ asked him certain questions to provoke thoughts and cause him to examine his own life. From what i recall, the commandments Jesus didn't ask him about had to do with a relationship with God (from what i remember). BUT, why does the rich young ruler have to sell all he has and give to the poor, when in the next chapter (Mark or Luke is where i was) Zacceous says has Jesus over and stands and says, ill sell half of my possessions and give to the poor and whatever i have wronged anyone ill pay back four times as much. And Jesus says something along the lines of, surely salvation has been received here today. Jesus knows our hearts, and apparently what laid between the rich young ruler, and salvation, was his possesions. With Zacceous, whatever it was, it must've been deeper than ONLY his possessions. I hope all that made sense haha.
This is an add-on to your conclusion, not really a different conclusion... But it might involve a misunderstanding of the value of eternal life... I think eternal life with Jesus is a legitimate Biblical motivation, but the young ruler probably imagined eternal life as merely an extension of the "good life" he had obtained on earth, and wanted to obtain it the same way.
The main problem I see is the young ruler looking for something he could DO to inherit eternal life (the Matthew version actually reads "what good deed must I do"). So my take is that Jesus was using this as an example to demonstrate how hopeless it is for us to actually do what we would need to do to merit eternal life ("be perfect"). Our pastor actually touched on this passage at church yesterday: Be Perfect.
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