The Rich Ruler
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning! Welcome to CHCC. As we are making our way through Luke’s gospel, we find ourselves at a teaching that continues with the theme of God’s Kingdom. So in the previous two messages Jesus gave two teachings on Kingdom entrance. The first was via parable—that of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. And in the parable, Jesus reveals to His hearers that it was the tax collector and not the Pharisee that went home justified before God. How? The Pharisee’s prayer revealed a man who believed he was heaven-bound because of his works. He lists his praying, his fasting, his tithing. He also compares himself to others who are caught up in sin, saying, “I’m not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” While comparing himself to others, he proclaimed himself worthy of God’s Kingdom.
On the other hand, there were no comparisons, no lifting oneself up with the tax collector. He put himself on the outer edges of the temple, kept his head low, beat his chest, and simply cried out to God for mercy. He recognized himself as a sinner in need of God’s grace and mercy. He did not rest on his laurels like the Pharisee. And it was that humility—that recognition of who he was and who God is that brought him to justification. The Pharisee on the other hand, while he looked great on the outside to the community, was a dead man walking.
Last week we looked at a short passage that immediately follows the parable. In this section, infants are being brought to Jesus and he would place his hands on them and bless them. However, the disciples likely saw this as either an inconvenience or simply a waste of time and so they rebuke the parents.
In turn, Jesus in a sense, rebukes the rebuke. He says, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (v. 16).
And in that statement Jesus gives us, once more, some clarity to help identify those who are Kingdom bound. As Jesus’ statement continues he concludes, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (v. 17).
In other words, those who do receive the kingdom like a child shall enter it. What does that mean? And what does that look like? Last week we covered this section—and in short—we discerned that it means learning to be like a child and receive like a child. And there are a few adjectives that associate with a child—specifically an infant. They are entirely dependent upon their caregiver. They are completely helpless. Furthermore, we discussed the natural inclination for children to be loved and to love in return. The tendency of young children to not question the love—is it deserved? Are there strings attached? Am I being used? They simply see they are loved, receive it, and love wholly in return.
So if we are to receive the kingdom of God like a child then we must receive it as helplessly dependent on the person and work of Jesus Christ. We recognize—like the tax collector—that we are sinners in need of a Savior.
Upon hearing this teaching, a rich ruler in the crowd now speaks up and has—what I believe to be—an honest question. I don’t believe he was acting like the Pharisees and hoping to trip Jesus up in His teachings. Rather, I believe this man to be genuinely curious. And that is the focal point of our passage this morning, beginning in verse 18. This man asks the question that’s answer has eternal implications for every single soul: What must I do to inherit eternal life?
If you have your Bibles with you this morning, please turn with me to Luke chapter 18 as we begin in verse 18.
PRAY
The Rich Ruler
The Rich Ruler
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For 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.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Who Is Good?
Who Is Good?
Jesus is approached by a rich ruler who calls him “Good” teacher. Jesus firsts asks him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” We see this teaching throughout Scripture—especially in the Old Testament.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
The Lord is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
In other words, no one can rightfully make the claim of goodness except God alone. Not even rabbis. The cultural understanding of the day was that the proclamation of goodness was reserved for God alone and no one else. R. Kent Hughes explains this, saying,
There is not one example in the Talmud of a rabbi being addressed as “good.” So was the ruler’s use of “good” casual, thoughtless flattery? Or was it simply “the poverty of his moral perception”? Or was the ruler breaking decorum to voice what he sensed in his heart?
It is a very interesting response from Jesus; will the rich ruler double down and reply, “Well, yes, you are God.” Or was he simply using such language to flatter Jesus?
But there is another aspect to this man’s question that we ought to touch on. He asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The way this man words the question puts responsibility solely on his own shoulders. What must I do? Have I jumped through the proper hoops? Done the proper things? Said the proper prayers?
So Jesus’ response is, in essence, to help this man see his insufficiency in his own works. Jesus says, “ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” (v.20)
What is crucial for us to understand here is that Jesus isn’t pushing salvation by works. What he is doing is trying to help this gentleman see that he is incapable of salvation on his own. No one has perfectly lived up to the law throughout the entirety of their life except Jesus alone. While we may see ourselves as “good” in comparison of others or by obedience “most of the time,” it is still not enough.
The hope here is that this rich ruler would do some deep, humble introspection and see he—on his own—is unfit for the kingdom. What else is interesting to me is that Jesus’ focus is on the particular works of the second half of the 10 commandments—those that have to do with how we deal with others.
But this man had missed the point of Jesus’ words. He replies with great confidence! “All these I have kept from my youth!” I’ve done these very things since I was young! This is great! Kingdom entrance here I come! And while sincere, there was also some ignorance at play here.
It has a similar feel in a spiritual sense as that with Paul as he speaks of himself prior to coming to Christ, but then recognizing the sin within his heart even as he sought to obey the law.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
This is what Jesus was trying to get at with this rich ruler. The Law is holy and righteous and good, and you are not. But he didn’t come to that conclusion so Jesus says there is one more thing he must do—clearly recognizing the sin in this man’s heart.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
This simple command revealed to the rich man and to us that his desired his possessions and his wealth more than he desired Jesus. He loved his material wealth more than he loved God. What is more, it revealed that he did not truly love his neighbor as himself. Selling his own goods in order to provide for those who truly were lacking was not something he was readily willing to do. Which, according to Paul, was the way in which the entire law was fulfilled.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
How many come so close to tasting the goodness of God’s kingdom, only to be unwilling to part with the temporal to receive the eternal? This is a passage that I feel should be rather convicting in our society today. Even the poorest people in America tend to be wealthy in terms of worldwide standards. As we will see with the rich ruler in our passage, he had learned dependency but it wasn’t upon God. Rather it was on himself and on his wealth. There was a comfortability there that he was unwilling to part with—even to serve those in need. This is why this ruler was overcome with sorrow and grief.
But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
Please don’t misunderstand this word from Jesus to be preaching a form of asceticism. While Jesus Himself certainly lived a life of great frugality and near poverty, this isn’t the demand he is necessarily making. I say this because we see on occasion in the Old Testament, rich and godly men being honored. The likes of Abraham, Job, and Boaz just to name a few. King David, another. God certainly does bless many of His children with wealth.
What is more, it isn’t just the wealthy that can fall into the lustful desire of money. Poverty doesn’t deliver one from the love of money. George MacDonald said it well:
It is not the rich man only who is under the dominion of things; they too are slaves who, having no money, are unhappy for the lack of it. . . . The money the one has, the money the other would have, is in each the cause of an eternal stupidity.
The reality is that money can be used as in instrument and a tool to advance the kingdom as well as even serve to benefit one’s own spiritual growth. But for the rich ruler in our passage, this lesson took the wind out of his sails and he departed discouraged and missing out on the kingdom. In response, Jesus used this as a teaching moment for His disciples and for us.
Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For 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.”
Jesus’ words are sort of humorous but also make a pretty clear statement. It is easier for something that is quite literally a physical impossibility of a large animal making its way through an impossibly small hole—it is easier for that to happen Jesus says than it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Bluntly, Jesus is saying it is categorically impossible for a person who trusts in their own wealth and possessions to get into heaven.
This is where we have to be on guard in our culture from teachings that fall into the category of prosperity gospel or “health and wealth” teaching. Some may use the saying, “Name it, claim it.” This isn’t anything new to our modern society, either. This was widely accepted in Jesus’ day. That is why Job’s friends would make the argument that his great misfortune fell upon him due to some great and unrepentant sin in his life. The teaching of many rabbi in ancient Israel would equate God’s blessing to material wealth.
This is why in Mark’s gospel it tells us that the disciples were “amazed” at this teaching. They didn’t understand how wealth would form a barrier from one entering the kingdom. As D.A. Carson explains:
Most Jews expected the rich to inherit eternal life, not because their wealth could buy their way in, but because their wealth testified to the blessing of the Lord on their lives.
D. A. Carson
We may have the tendency to look at this teaching from Jesus and conclude the wealthy are just overprivileged. But Jesus really is saying they are underprivileged. Jesus quite often spoke out against the love of wealth and riches and the danger they brought with them. We’ve already touched on them in Luke’s gospel a few times.
No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
There was also the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The rich man it tells us feasted sumptuously every day while Lazarus was left to find the scraps of food that fell of the table. The rich man in the parable found comfort in his wealth rather than in God. And in so doing he missed out on the kingdom.
There was also the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12. In this parable we have two siblings fighting over what should be their proper division of inheritance. Jesus warns them through parable of covetousness, saying “one’s life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions.” In the parable, while the man has laid up much wealth on earth, he has lost focus on what is eternal and by doing so also misses out on the kingdom.
Then we have the well known teaching of Matthew 6 at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
There are firm warnings given in Scripture against riches. They do not say it is a sin to be wealthy but they do give clear teaching of the danger that riches can bring with them and what they can do to ones spirit. If one isn’t careful, wealth can pervert one’s values and priorities. Perhaps that is why Paul told Timothy to issue a warning to the rich people in his church.
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
This verse, in a sense, speaks out against exactly what we touched on last week with having the heart of a little child. We receive the kingdom with humility—not pride. We receive it with hope that is entirely set upon God.
The danger with affluence that can enter in is that we begin to set our hopes on—what Paul calls—”the uncertainty of riches.” It speaks of those who learn dependency, but rather than the helpless dependence upon God that we talked about last week, it is a dependence upon their wealth. I think of Jesus’ words to the church in Revelation…
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
And as Aristotle wrote:
The greater our wealth, the greater our dangers.
Aristotle
There is no sin in wealth. There is no sin in obtaining money. It is all about our relationship to it and to everything that money can buy. What sits in the drivers seat of our hearts? Is it Christ or is it riches?
This teaching shocked the hearers to the point that they were unsure who could possibly be saved.
Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Remember, their culture believed that riches were a sign of God’s favor. If a man living comfortably in affluence—one who could offer an abundance of offerings and alms could miss out on the kingdom, who then has the hope of salvation? That was the general thought.
And so Jesus offers a wonderful word of hope for ALL people—rich and poor. What is impossible with man is possible with God. What a powerful statement and an oft need reminder for all of us. It may be impossible for a rich man to enter heaven…BUT God.
By God’s grace and God’s power. By God’s mercy it becomes possible for each of us to come to repentance and learn dependency upon God and lean on Him for forgiveness and salvation. With God the impossible becomes possible!
As one theologian put it: “Salvation is the work of the Lord, who does himself what would otherwise be impossible.”
The command that left the rich ruler sad and dejected excites Peter. So he pipes in!
And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
First off, let’s clarify that Jesus isn’t promoting that one should abandon familial responsibility. Rather, he does recognize that faithfully following him and the work of the ministry (not simply pastoral, but all the work of ministry we ALL as believers enter into when we hitch our wagons to Jesus) does require sacrifice. So He gives a beautiful promise. No one who sacrifices in such a manner will not receive even more in the age to come!
And Jesus concludes this teaching with the way it began—with eternal life.
CONCLUSION
So where does this leave us? What we do with our wealth, I believe, is a measuring stick of our spiritual health. We must be wary of the dangers that prosperity can bring. So let us consider how we are to live.
The first step is to take stock of our own hearts and our own dependency. So the first thing we must do is strip ourselves of any dependency upon riches.
If we have become dependent in any way on our wealth or affluence, we must ask God to free us from such dependency.
Second, as R. Kent Hughes states:
We must invest our wealth. That is, as our income rises, we must give to God’s work in such a way that it affects our lifestyle, so there are some things we do not buy and some places we do not go because we have made a priority of giving to God.
This is not a message where I am asking you to give your money to the church. But if we have been blessed with more—it is good as believers to prayerfully ask God how can I use this for Your glory, Lord? And as we begin to get into that habit, the less tightly we hold onto the riches. We begin to think less along the lines of, “My money” and more along the lines of “God’s blessing.”
And when we choose to follow Christ, we are giving Him all of us! All of our energy, all of our time, all of our abilities, and all of our resources—they are His. And in turn, as we sacrifice our lives for Him, He promises eternal blessings far greater than anything we have sacrificed of ourselves! No one out—gives God!
And we must learn to not be dependent on our wealth. If we have a similar response to Jesus’ words to the rich ruler, when He said to him, “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
That man walked away extremely sad as it says, “for he was extremely rich.” If that, too, is our own response to those words, then we must ask God to intervene and change our perspective on our wealth.
If we desire to receive the kingdom, we must receive it as a child—as one who is helplessly dependent upon Him. Dependency is key here, but it comes down to what we are dependent on that has eternal consequences.
May we see any material blessing as a gift from God that we are readily willing to give back.
PRAY/COMMUNION
