Sermon Tone Analysis

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 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:

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?