The Rich Young Ruler
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Introduction
Introduction
In the last passage we looked at, there was much emphasis on the fact that the Gospel is meant for everyone, even the Samaritan’s and Gentiles. Then, last week we looked at the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple. The key verse here was:
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else:
The overall theme, then, seems to be that God shows no partiality towards race, culture, or social status. Rather, He looks at the posture of the heart. Luke organized the pericopes of the last journey to Jerusalem in such a way that we are seeing many social norms in Israel cast aside. In alone we see that a tax collector is justified over a Pharisee, children are the prime example of who enters the kingdom of heaven, a rich young man does not inherit eternal life, and a blind beggar receives sight and praises God.
So, it seems as if Jesus is flipping the whole world upside down, but rather, He is flipping it right side up. The classes were split up into (2) and there was no middle class.
The poor were looked down upon spiritually for several reasons. First of all, the people saw poverty as sign that you did not have YHVH’s blessing upon you. They read all of the Psalms and Proverbs that spoke of the prosperity that God would give to the righteous, but they neglected the verses that spoke of how they were to treat the poor and the outcast. Secondly, the poor were many times too poor to even keep the ritual observances in the temple, so they were even further seen as unrighteous.
On the other hand, the rich were seen as righteous for the very same Psalms and Proverbs that speak of the blessings to the righteous. Again, they neglected much of the condemnations that the prophets brought on the rich who neglected God. Secondly, the rich had the means to observe all of the rituals in the temple due to their wealth, so they were seen as even more righteous. They had it all twisted. They had taken on many of the philosophies of the Graeco-Roman world as they were more beneficiary to them. “Based on the Old Testament (especially ), the crowd assumed that the wealthy will come into the kingdom of God. Conversely, many thought the poor were in their situation due to lack of diligence (; ; ).” had stuck in their minds very much. However, the Pharisees had made light of the prophets, and Jesus was the Prophet.
18 A ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone.
Luke tells us that a ruler asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Luke is the only one who points out that this man was a ruler. BDAG says specifically that he would have been a member of the Sanhedrin. However, this word is also used of synagogue leaders. The fact is that it is not specified over what it is that he rules over. The emphasis is that he is a man of authority, and he is rich, and he is young (we know this from Matthew). Obviously, this young man would have been highly admired by most people. He was probably the model of what a righteous person was thought to be.
He asks Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”. It is interesting that he uses the word “inherit” here, as he probably had inherited much of his wealth too. He probably thought himself righteous in asking this question. Who knows, it may have been a very generous question. He does ask specifically what he must do to inherit eternal life. I wonder if he realized the contradiction in his question. The very nature of an inheritance is that you don’t do anything. I won’t harp on the translation as “inheritance” though, since it could simply mean receive. Even this, though, shows that it is given. To him, the question was, “What must I do to merit eternal life?”. We are not given the motives. Therefore, we must take the question at face value. This man is asking how he can live forever. He wasn’t even asking about entrance into the kingdom. He wanted to know how he could live on into the ages - the ultimate blessing from God. Maybe that is his mentality, “I’ve acquired all of these other blessings from God. How can I acquire the ultimate blessing from God?”.
In response, Jesus first corrects the man by asking him a rhetorical question, “Why do you call me good?”. He is not saying that He is not good, but He wants the young man to think about his words and why he is calling Him good. After the rhetorical question, Jesus points out that no one is good except God alone. In essence, Jesus was breaking down this man’s words of flattery. Jesus saw right through it. If there was flattery, then perhaps the man’s motives in asking this question were not pure. He probably did think that he had nothing else to do and just wanted Jesus to confirm the fact that he was on the right path to heaven. Jesus (and Paul) think very little of empty words. He wanted him to mean what he was saying. Jesus was pointing out that if he meant what he said, he was putting Him at the status of God. He would have been correct in this, but he didn’t know or mean what he was saying. Did Jesus pull this out of thin air? No, for says, “There is no one who does good, not even one.” This would mean that God alone is good. Therefore, if this man did not believe that Jesus was God, then he shouldn’t be calling him good. By implication, Jesus was pointing out that this man did not believe that He was God, therefore, he had no place to be calling Him good. His words were empty.
20 You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother.” 21 “I have kept all these from my youth,” he said.
After correcting this, Jesus tells the ruler that he knows the commandments. This is probably where the commentators assume that this man was a ruler in some religious capacity. That very well may be the case. However, the commandments that He is about to list out would have been very well known. Jesus proceeds to list 5 commandments. These are all commandments which we know to be “horizontal”, which means that they deal with our relations to one another. However, there are 6 of these horizontal commandments, and Jesus left this one out, perhaps purposely. These are some very lofty commandments, especially if one understands all of the spiritual implications. Even if they were just speaking to the outer actions, they were very lofty.
The young man responds by telling Jesus that he has kept all of these from his youth. These are very hard to keep, but if we think about them purely in an action based environment, without Jesus’ expounding in the Sermon on the Mount, then perhaps it is possible that somebody kept them. I, however, find it hard to believe that this young man had always honored his father and his mother. This is so hard to do! It means that he never disrespected them. Regardless, this man believed that he had kept this commandment and all the rest that Jesus listed. And he actually said that he had kept all of these since he was a child until then.
22 When Jesus heard this, he told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell all you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 23 After he heard this, he became extremely sad, because he was very rich.
21 “I have kept all these from my youth,” he said. 22 When Jesus heard this, he told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell all you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Luke 18:21-22
Luke 18:
Once Jesus heard the man say this, he told him that he still lacked one. “Thing” does not exist in the Greek. Jesus may very well have been saying that he still lacked one of these horizontal commandments. I’m not going to be dogmatic about this train of thought though, because then I might try to force the “Thou shalt not covet” command into the horizontal relationships category, when it isn’t necessarily so. He did have a problem with coveting, though, as we will see here. Actually, if coveting is strictly seen as wanting what belongs to another, then Jesus may not even have been thinking about this commandment, as the rich young ruler already possessed all these riches. However, the word that the LXX uses for covet is not just tied to wanting what belongs to someone else. BDAG says, “to have a strong desire to do or secure someth., desire, long for w. gen. of the thing desired (Hdt. 2, 66; X., Mem. 1, 6, 5; ; ; , ; EpArist 223; TestSol 16:2; ApcMos 6; Jos., Ant. 12, 309) silver, gold, clothing .” This is for the word “epithumeo”. I believe that this young ruler did have a problem with the heart of this commandment.
Jesus tells him the one that he lacks: he needs to sell all he has and distribute it to the poor. This will then earn him treasure in heaven. Then he is to come and follow him. Jesus gave him 4 commands here and 1 promise. Imagine being commanded by Jesus to sell everything: your house, your car, your guitars, your computer, your phone, your clothes, your shoes, your books, your surfboards, and everything else and then taking that money and giving it to the poor. Jesus literally wanted this man to make himself destitute. Why? Had all of the disciples done this? The 12 apostles had, but Mary, Martha, and Lazarus didn’t, yet they still were believers. Cornelius didn’t sell everything, yet he still inherited eternal life. Obviously, this wasn’t a commandment to everyone, but it was a specific commandment to this young ruler. It was the one thing that he still lacked in order to inherit eternal life. That one thing was actually 4 commands, but they are encompassed in the heart of one theme. If I sold all I had, I would probably get close to $50,000 dollars. That is a lot of money to give out to the poor. If a poor person sells all he has, it’s probably like $50 worth of things. Who will have a harder time selling all they have and following Jesus? I will.
However, Jesus points out that he isn’t losing everything by doing this. Rather, he is exchanging the treasures on earth for the treasures in heaven, for He promises this man that he will have treasure in heaven if he does this. Therefore, the command to sell all you have isn’t mandatory for everyone, but the promised blessing is. You don’t have to sell all you have and give it to the poor as a Christian, but if you do, you will gain treasures in heaven. Jesus doesn’t say what those treasures are, but He does promise them to him. Selling all you have isn’t a negative. Rather, Jesus is putting it in a positive light by saying that you will gain treasures in heaven. Treasures actually are the motivation here; it’s just that they have to be treasures in heaven and not on earth.
The reason that this was specific to this man though was because it was keeping him from doing the second set of commands that Jesus gives - to come and follow Him. There is no way that this rich young ruler could come and follow Jesus if he did not sell all that he had and give it to the poor. Why? Because riches didn’t just consist of money back then. They consisted of houses and livestock and many other things. He had to care for all of those things if he was going to keep them. Even if he just kept the money, Jesus told him to sell it, because he probably would have sought to buy treasures on earth again with that money. Jesus was telling him to take the one thing that was hindering him from following Him and getting rid of it completely. He wanted him to forsake this sin. He then wanted to him to become one of His disciples. If He was the Teacher to him, then he must become the learner. But there were things getting in the way of him becoming the student - namely covetousness.
He loved the things of this world. He loved his riches. How do we know this? Because verse 23 tells us that he became extremely sad when he heard this because he was very rich. This is actually the first time that Luke mentions that this man was rich. If you were hearing this story for the first time, you would be in suspense until this point. You would probably be thinking that this man is definitely going to forsake everything and follow Jesus, but then Luke tells us that the man became very sad, because he was very rich. Pastor James is right in saying that Luke doesn’t specifically say that this man did not do these things. It most likely was the case that he didn’t, but we are not necessarily told this. The point that Luke, and Jesus, are making here is the fact that this man became very sad at this because he was very rich. I get the same exact feeling if I think of selling all of my possessions. It’s a difficult thought when you own a lot of things! If this man had nothing to sell, then he wouldn’t be sad. If we could get to the point of being rich, and not get sad when asked to sell everything and give it away, then our treasures are not of this earth. If it makes us sad, then it is a stumblingblock to us and something that God has to deal with.
Furthermore, if there is anything that is getting in the way of us following Jesus, we have to have God deal with it.
24 Seeing that he became sad, Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.”
When Jesus saw the response of the young ruler to His words, He pointed out how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. He doesn’t say it is impossible, but that it is very hard. When you have wealth, you have a lot more that you may have to give up to follow God. You have a lot more potential for idols in your life, because you have more things. You have many more things to give up. You have many more distractions. You have many more things that take little pieces of your heart. You have many more things that keep you from going and following Jesus. You have many more things to forsake.Therefore, when you have wealth, it is very hard to enter the kingdom of God! It is difficult for the wealthy to enter into the kingdominion of God, for they have many other masters, and one cannot serve both God and Mammon.
Why is it hard? Because 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 is pretty much saying that it is impossible for a rich person to be saved. The qualification is that it is impossible for them to be saved on their own. It is not impossible for God. However, Jesus is saying that it takes a bigger miracle for a rich person to be saved and that it is very rare for this to occur.
26 Those who heard this asked, “Then who can be saved?” 27 He replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Given the previous context that I gave in the introduction, the response of the people who heard this made absolute sense. If those who were thought to have God’s blessing can hardly be saved, then how could the rest of them be saved and enter the kingdom!?
Jesus responds by saying that what is impossible with man is possible with God. He has different capabilities than us. He is infinite in power, and wisdom, and everything that is good. He is infinitely capable of that which is possible and keeps with His character. Man cannot save himself, but God can. So then, if you are rich, look to God to deliver you from your wealth. Look to Him to strip you of everything that would get in the way.
2. William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 371.
1. Benjamin I. Simpson, “Wealth,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).