2026.04.12 He'll Not Share You

Mark 10:17–23 NIV

17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

►►►SLIDE [title]

He’ll Not Share You

If you’ll open your Bibles to Mark 10, we’re going to walk through this passage a little bit today.

This is a terribly familiar story to most church folk. I want to look at it closer … because, as I’ve cautioned before, the passages that are most familiar to us often hold things we miss because of our familiarity.

First a couple of notes:

This story appears in 3 of the 4 gospels. Only John omits this.

The man had a lot of stuff, so he is certainly rich. 

This story is often called “The Rich Young Ruler”.

Only Matthew calls him young.

And only Luke calls him a ‘ruler’ or an official.

So, for today, I’ll call this story The Rich Man

Looking at the story in Mark ...

Now a couple of non-rhetorical questions...

What does the man want? [eternal life]

And what question does he ask Jesus? [What must I do?]

What does his question assume? [non-rhetorical; I can earn eternal life]

Are these things true? Is this really how God’s system of salvation works?

He’s effectively asking: “How can I earn my way in?” “Ain’t nobody got time for that whole ‘being transformed’ thing!”

Jesus’ answer:

Follow the commandments.

In Mark, Jesus jumps right into which ones, but in Matthew’s gospel he makes the man ask, “Which commandments?”

We just spent several weeks on the 10 commandments. How many Old Testament commandments are there? [613]

SIX HUNDRED THIRTEEN! Hey, Jesus … you think you can abbreviate that list for me? Just tell me which ones really matter and I’ll focus on those.

So Jesus ticks off a few of the commandments, and how does the man respond? [non-rhetorical]

First, I want to note that the man actually listened to Jesus at the beginning. He approaches and calls Jesus “Good teacher,” and Jesus questions him about using the term “good”. Notice in verse 20, he drops the “good” and just calls him, “Teacher”. Sometimes it’s the small things that crack me up. Jesus resists the man’s buttering up, so he pushes through dropping the particular word Jesus got stuck on.

The man says, HEY! I’ve done all that since I was a kid!

I was baptized as an infant.

I took CCD classes as a kid.

I made my First Communion in Second Grade, first Penance in the Fourth.

I was confirmed in the Eighth Grade.

I started doing ministry of some sort in my early college years, and haven’t stopped.

I worked in Christian radio.

I’ve had some form of accountability partner since the early 2000’s.

I graduated the seventh largest Seminary in the world with a 3.3 GPA.

What I hear the man saying is … I’M GOOD TO GO! I GOT THIS!

Notice that Jesus doesn’t bust his hump because we all know that man had NOT been doing all of those things without fail since his youth. He feels love for him. If you remember previous discussions of the Greek terms for love … this says Jesus agape’d the man as he responds.

I want to be careful while talking about what he tells the man to do … because I’ve heard people suggest that everyone should do what Jesus tells this man to do … and I don’t see that in this passage.

Jesus says, “uh … hold on a minute. There’s one thing you lack.” Matthew uses the word teleios, “If you want to be complete. If you want to be whole. If you want to be perfect ...” get outa here and sell all your stuff … give to the poor … THEN come follow me!

Imagine for a moment if this were true for every human wanting to follow Jesus.

Last week, we confirmed 7 young people in their faith. Imagine that if day 1 of confirmation classes was that you had to sell all your stuff … give to the poor. and THEN come follow Jesus. How would you react if Jesus said this to you?

I’ll be first in line to admit I would struggle with this beyond most other struggles on earth!

And we church folk have often thought poorly of the rich man because of verse 22.

The man walked away sad because he owned a LOT of stuff!

But thinking he didn’t do what Jesus told him to do is ASSUMPTION! We don’t have the end of this story. He may have walked away sad because he knew it would take a long time to sell so much stuff, and he’d likely be left behind from Jesus’ traveling band of followers. Maybe he did exactly what Jesus said, and then caught up with the fellas down the road.

In all three gospels, this story is situated near Jesus’ last trip to Jerusalem. I’m sure he could’ve caught up with him on Palm Sunday if not earlier. Maybe his is a redemption story. We simply don’t know, so we can’t assign motive to his sadness.

We only know he walked away distraught and that having a lot caused the stress.

I’ve always seen the topic of this passage as being money’s hold on us, and I think that’s still a STRONG possibility. When I asked about Jesus making this demand of you … your reaction (and mine) demonstrate that our money and our stuff does indeed have a hold on us.

But I read this differently this week.

I’m not convinced it’s about what has a grip on this young man.  I’m more convinced that it’s about Jesus’s demand on His followers.

Several years ago, Isaiah’s birthday at Chuck E. Cheese [uggh]

Bunch of his friends

Two of his friends, we’ll call them Brian and Wesley didn’t get along

It became clear that they were fighting each other over Isaiah’s attention

They just couldn’t accept that Isaiah had other friends – jealous of each other

12 times in the Old Testament God is described as a jealous God:

►►►SLIDE [reference]

Deuteronomy 4:22–24 NLT

22 You will cross the Jordan to occupy the land, but I will not. Instead, I will die here on the east side of the river. 23 So be careful not to break the covenant Yahweh your God has made with you. Do not make idols of any shape or form, for Yahweh your God has forbidden this. 24 Yahweh your God is a devouring fire; he is a jealous God.

►►►SLIDE [title]

He’ll Not Share You

This man’s downfall was his money, but it could have been anything.  Our downfall could be job, or family, or even church.  Yahweh your God is a jealous God. 

HE WILL NOT SHARE YOU with your money, your job, your family, or even your church. Whatever is yours, He will not share you with it!

I don’t believe Jesus is telling us all to sell everything and give it all away.  I believe he told this rich young man to do that because it was keeping him from following wholly, completely, perfectly, teleios.

He gave us those resources, so it doesn’t make sense he would want us to give them all away … He wants us to use them for His purposes.

He doesn’t want to leave us without any resources, he wants us to be free from resources that hold us away from following Him!

I've given up radio twice in my life, and I still miss doing radio. The first time was in answer to God’s call to ministry, and then He dropped radio back into my lap. When it became a hindrance to pursuing His Call on my life, He told me to leave radio again.

I miss it, but I have no time to do radio on top of ministry. At some point, He may give it back to me again, but I’ve laid it down because it made it difficult for me to follow Him.

Jesus tells the disciples that it’s difficult for the wealthy to enter his kingdom because the wealth is such a distraction from following, but we could easily add to that list of distractions, right?

It’s difficult for a workaholic to enter the Kingdom

It’s difficult for a professional athlete to enter the Kingdom

It’s difficult for a mom or dad …

… for a man, for a woman …

The reality is … it’s DIFFICULT TO ENTER THE KINGDOM…Why?

Because God is a jealous god and he will not share you! He is not the type to force you to choose Him, but He will not accept a dual-minded follower. He won’t share you with work. He won’t share you with your house or other belongings. He won’t share you with your friends. He either takes top priority or none at all.

►►►SLIDE [Luke 14:33]

Luke 14:33 NASB 2020

33 So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

C. S. Lewis puts it this way in Mere Christianity:

Christ says "Give me All. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. … Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked — the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours." ”

Lewis, C.S., Mere Christianity, HarperCollins Publishers; New York, renewed 1980, Book 4: Chapter 8, pp.196-197.

John Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service cautions: “Christ will be all in all or nothing.”

►►►SLIDE [title]

He’ll Not Share You

Many of us have made a life out of half-hearted service to Jesus.  I’ll serve Him when:

it’s convenient

it’s easy

it’s popular

It’s safe

He says, “You’ll serve me always or not at all. I will not share you with your convenience or your ease or popularity or even your safety.  Do you want me or not?  I gave my entirety for you and I expect the same in return. 

I’ll take it all, or none at all!