Materialism & Jesus

Intro

The Rich Young Ruler

This story is found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark & Luke

We learn different things about this man in each of the parallel account

In Matthew he is noted as a young ruler

In Mark he is noted for his many possessions

In Luke he is noted as rich and a ruler

Therefore this story is known as the Rich Young Ruler

So what does this ruler come and ask Jesus?

Well throughout this conversation he is completely unaware of the truth of what he is saying

Who Christ Is (v.18-19)

So we see that a seemingly upstanding upcoming ruler, perhaps part of the upcoming Pharisees, comes to Jesus the famed Rabbi to ask him an important question

“What must I do to inherit eternal life”

Now there is some issue with this statement, but let us not skip over how he engages Jesus first

This young man says, “Good Teacher”, as apparently some flattery to give to Jesus

Now, how does Jesus respond to this statement?

“Why do you call me good?” “No one is good except God alone”

Now how are we to take this?

In fact many people point to this quote by Jesus to show that he is not claiming to be God

Yet, this is where our understanding comes into play

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 18:18–20

The man had called Jesus Good Teacher. Jesus responded that God alone is good, that is, only God is truly righteous. Apparently the man thought Jesus had gained a measure of status with God by His good works. Jesus was implying that if He were truly good, then it would be because He is God. This, then, is another of Jesus’ claims of deity.

You see all rabbinic teaching agreed that only God was good, and so to say someones else was good was to put them morally on the same stage as God

Jesus did not rebuke the question, but it is a rephrasing to see if the young man is truly grasping the implications of his question

If Jesus is really a good teacher, then he is not merely a good teacher according to Rabbinic tradition, he is the divine second person of the Trinity

Yet this points to his ignorance at best, or dishonesty at worse

If he believed that Christ was the Messiah, and God, then why did he argue about the Law, brag about his character, then walk away from the very one who offered him eternal life?

So, first he misunderstands Jesus, so of course he misunderstands what the implications of his question also bring

He viewed eternal life as something he could earn through merits!

He just wanted to check with the up and coming Rabbi Jesus to see if he was on the right track

I don’t think he actually wanted to change his views, he only wanted to make sure it fit in his view of what needed to be done

So this young rich ruler did not understand what he was attributing to Jesus, nor did he have the same heart as those OT saints that followed God in faith instead of works

What is Sin? (v.20-21)

Jesus continues speaking to this man even with his misguided and unaware statements

The next thing we see Jesus do is reply to him with what a good start to following God is

The 10 Commandments

What is interesting is that Jesus uses the second set of commands, or table, in relation to the man

The 10 Commandments were broken up into two general sections, one in regard to God and another in regard to our relationship to man

What are the 10 commandments?

No Other Gods before me

No Idols

Do not take the Lord’s name in Vain

Remember the Sabbath and Keep it Holy

These are the first ‘table’

Honor your Parents

Do not kill

Do not commit Adultery

Do not steal

Do not bear false witness

Do not Covet

These are the ‘second table’

Notice that Jesus quotes all of the second table, except which one?

The final commandment, do not Covet!

This is a bit of foreshadowing

So why does Jesus quote him the law?

There are two main reasons

First, his understanding of God was not fully correct, which we saw in his asking of the question of eternal life to Jesus

But also, the commandments which involve our relationship to God are much more difficult to measure in how well are they kept

The second is that the law acts as a mirror, it does not offer salvation, but helps us realize how short we fall of the covenant standard of holiness God desires for us to be in his presence

Paul reminds us in Romans 7:7 “7 What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law.”

Paul is saying that the law causes us to wrestle with our own lawbreaking, and if we’ve broken one, they might as all been broken because we are not longer perfect as God is

So how does this well to do ruler respond to Jesus quoting the 10 commandments at him?

“I have kept all these from my youth!”

You might scoff and say, “What Arrogance!”

Yet, it was common place in that day to say you had kept these parts of the 10 Commandments

In fact, Paul says from this perspective he is on great grounds in Phil. 3:4-6

Philippians 3:4–6 (CSB)

4 If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; 6 regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

You see at the end, “Righteousness that is in the law: blameless”

Yet, I think the young man knows deep in his being that he is still short somewhere, because if he had done all these things, what else could he do?!?

So he had come to Jesus to help clarify the final part of this puzzle for him, what else must he do!

How to Attain Salvation (v.22-23)

So Jesus tells him, then the thing you lack is to sell all you have

Give it to the poor, and you will build up treasure in heaven (Lk 12)

Then come and follow me!

Jesus is offering him the same question he asked of the disciples, come and follow him!

Yet, he does not do what Jesus says, he choses to walk away!

This is why it says he became extremely sad

He had the keys to eternal life, but threw them away, he could not bear the cost to follow Jesus

The emphasis is on the following, not so much the selling, but it is a test of his faith

This is where the 10th commandment comes into play, Jesus hits on it by saying give away what you own, coveting is about greed, not willing to let go of your wealth or desiring the wealth and things of others

What it shows about this ruler is that he is a person that is actually an idolater, his things are his god, Jesus is asking him to something a covetous person would not do

For Jews, they took a literal reading of carved images for the 2 commandment, but in reality, all sin can be traced back to idolatry, we put something besides God on the alter of worship

This puts the ball squarely in our court, what are the markers of materialism in our own lives?

Perhaps you have plenty of things, they don’t satisfy you, but you can’t let them go

You are sad with them, but must have them, much like Gollum in the LOTR, they are you ‘precious’ as much as you might hate them at the same time

We make excuses why we shouldn’t use our resources on other people, or why we need to horde our resources

But if we swerve into that type of attitude, it means that our wealth has control of us, and not us controlling the wealth!

If wealth controls us, it leads us to an impoverished spiritual state, because we are worshiping an idol rather than God

There was a quote from the Exalting Jesus in Luke Commentary that says this:

Exalting Jesus in Luke Jesus’s Call for Clarity (18:19–22)

Christ is too big a God to have him in our hands and hold on to the world as well. Christ displaces all the world’s treasures so that he alone will be adored, trusted, and obeyed.

If we have made money an idol to follow, then we have too small a view of our great God, he is worthy of all of our worship, all our trust, adoration, and life!

Remember what Jesus just said a few verses earlier?

He who wants to keep his life will lose it, but he who loses his life will find it!

John Piper has said this about Jesus and Money

Jesus spoke more about money than he did about sex, heaven, and hell. Money is a big deal to Jesus. There must be something really dangerous about money. He said, “Again I tell you, 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” (Matthew 19:24).

My guess is a lot of rich people object immediately, saying something like: “No, it says the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Money is not bad.” Excuse me? It is harder “for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” period, not a rich man who loves his money. It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Money is dangerous. If you have it and depend on it, it will kill you. If you don’t have it and crave it, it will kill you. Money can kill us, because it reveals our hearts.

When we have more than enough, it’s hard to view God as the ultimate safety net when our retirements are flourishing, our jobs paying very well, and our monthly expenditure are never in the red

It always comes back to a heart issue

Money represents stability, power, and success

Yet these things mean nothing at death, when we enter eternity

Even when we use money for good causes, we can still miss out on God’s kingdom!

Jesus Responds (v.24-30)

Jesus sees this man’s sadness, and simply says, “How hard is it for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!”

“It is easier for the camel to go through an eye of a needle than for the rich person to enter the kingdom of God”

So with these two statements Jesus takes what everyone thought and turns it up on their head

First, I want to say, if you’ve heard this camel statement connected to a small gate that the camel had to unpack everything from, that is completely false

There is no evidence of that until the middle ages!

Jesus here is stating a very hard and difficult truth, those of us that are rich, it is hard for us to get into heaven because our riches make it difficult

Luke (The Lukan Message)

Riches are a real liability with respect to salvation. The narcotic effect of the ruler’s riches [and ours] dulls [our] resolution, and instead of receiving the blessing of the poor (cf. 6:20 and 18:28) [we] receives the woe of the rich

When we never have to wonder how our budget will stretch to fit our bills, it’s easy to not rely on God

Tabitha and I have had a myriad of things happen in our marriage where it was God’s gracious provision to us to help us pay bills we were not expecting

Recently Tabitha had to get a Root Canal done, and our church gifted Tabitha and I a check for thanksgiving, and that check was almost the exact amount for the root canal

When were first married, Tabitha’s car died, so we needed to get a new one, and our tax return was much higher than we thought it would be which allowed us to get the silver car we have now (not to mention God’s hand on the reliability and very little money we need to spend on that car!)

My roommate in College, David, got a check for almost the exact amount of money he needed for his Moody bill for that semester from his church back home

Trusting God with real life deadlines, it forces you to grow your faith, and be thankful for God’s provision!

The Disciples’ Reaction

Now you might be compuzzled by the Disciple’s reaction to Jesus’ statement that we just looked at

Why do they ask “Who then can be saved!?!”

You see they were thinking like the rest of the Jews in that day, worldly well to do is a reflection of the spiritual truth of their lives!

The Bible Knowledge Commentary says this:

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 18:26–27

The disciples were dumbfounded. They had the mistaken impression, like the Pharisees, that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing. If a person such as the ruler could not be saved, Who then can be saved? Jesus, by His reply, did not rule out all wealthy people from salvation. He noted that God can do the impossible.

So how does Jesus respond?

“What is impossible with man”

Read- what is impossible with human riches and effort

“Is Possible with God”

Exalting Jesus in Luke Jesus’s Perspective on Wealth and Salvation (18:24–27)

But nothing is too hard for God—even putting a camel through the eye of a needle! God can save a rich man, but it will be an act of God, not a result of wealth. No one is beyond the reach of God’s salvation.

Luke: An Introduction and Commentary U. The Rich Young Ruler (18:18–30)

Salvation, for rich or for poor, is always a miracle of divine grace, always God’s gift. God is ‘not only more demanding than people cared to think, but also more generous than they dared to hope

These quotes remind us that our God is the God of the Impossible, and that our salvation is able to overcome even the most difficult of handicaps, like excessive wealth!

And we will see what the transformative power of Jesus looks like in the wealthy next week in the story of Zacheus!

Yet, Peter reminds us, it is costly to follow Jesus!

Lord we have left what we had to follow you!

Jesus responds with encouragement

No one who has left a house, wife, brothers, sister, parents, children for the kingdom of God will not receive many times more at this time and the age to come!

Do you see the contrast to Peter and the Rich Young Ruler

Both had a call to come and follow Jesus!

Both had to give up wordly things (Peter, James, John had a successful fishing business!)

Peter more than likely left a wife at home as he traveled around with Jesus

Peter came when Jesus called him, the rich young ruler went away sad

The same term is used, “Follow Me!”

Let me put it this way

The rich ruler might be the only person in the Gospels that comes to Jesus, on the cusp of something great, and went away in worse condition than when he came

Yet he refused to follow Jesus, and it cost him everything!

It is costly to follow Jesus, there is no denying that!

Yet, he rewards us with eternal life, treasures in heaven, and repayment with interest that makes this world look like nothing

Paul says this idea in a different way, 2 Cor 4:16-18

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 CSB

16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Simply do any ready on the martyrs of the faith, and you will see people that embodied this attitude, our home is not here, but with Christ!

Don’t focus on here and now, build for your eternal future!

What is that cost?

Families- You may lose your spouses, children, extended family for holding fast to Christ

Friends- You may lose friends for following Christ

Society- You may be ridiculed by society for these things as well

What we have to ask ourselves, is the person of Jesus worth it?

Yes he is

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 CSB

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

Now if you remember Jesus is on his way to his death in Jerusalem, and so he gives his disciples a very clear statement of his death, but they did not fully grasp it until after his death

The Death Prediction (v.31-34)

Jesus says we are headed to Jerusalem where he will be handed to the Gentiles, mocked, flogged, spit on and killed

Then he will rise on the third day

Yet, the disciples understood none of these things, for it was hidden from them by God

So why did they not fully grasp it?

They needed the Spirit to understand these things

Just as they misunderstood the riches being good, they also misunderstood the Messiah’s kingdom, it would not be immediate!

A dying Messiah is so counter cultural, of course they wouldn’t grasp it!

What are the passages that are accomplished by Jesus’ death?

Ps. 41:9 speaks to the betrayal of Jesus

Ps 22 and Is 53 speak to the crucifixion

Ps. 16:10 to the resurrection

Not to mention many others!

It would take the resurrected Jesus, and empowerment by the Holy Spirit for them to fully grasp what Jesus is saying here!

Application

What do you love in your life more than God?

Jesus will make demands on our entire life

He will remove us from relationships, and circumstances that we might love, but are not pleasing to him

He calls us to costly things

Does your life change with your faith?

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seventeen: People to Meet, Lessons to Learn (Luke 18)

The rich young ruler is a warning to people who want a Christian faith that does not change their values or upset their lifestyle. Jesus does not command every seeking sinner to sell everything and give to the poor, but He does put His finger of conviction on any area in our lives about which we are dishonest.

Are you self-aware enough to realize any dishonesty in yourself in answering these questions?

Look the Rich Young Ruler was dishonest with himself, which led him to be dishonest with his interaction with Jesus

He came to the right person, with the right questions, got the right answer, and made the wrong decision

He would not do what was commanded of him, because he was dishonest with himself and God

So Christian flee whatever idol you have in your heart, turn to Jesus, the one who is far greater and more wonderful than this world could ever be

In the words of the old hymn, may our words be

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus. You can have all this world

But give me Jesus.