What's All You Have For Jesus?

Introduction

A passage that many rich are uncomfortabel. it is a passage that many avoid to read and to preach in a materialistic society.

no wonder many people claim themselves as not a rich person even though he has lots of money and possession.

Not referring to the rich only. The heaven is not only for the poor. Cost of discipleship What is all the you have to give to God? With all ur heart, soul, mind

the call to discipleship involves a cost of discipleship.

The standard/heart of this man (v17-20)

He ran up to Jesus and feel on his knees before him. it shows his eagerness and earnestness to become a disciple of Christ. it is a sign of submission and surrender, at least outwardly. he comes with overflowing emotion.

He knows everything about God. He knows that Jesus is a special teacher different from the other rabbis, even almost like God, because no one would call a rabbi as good in those days. in Judaism, only God is characteristically called “good”. Rabbi welcomed any number of titles, but only rarely was a rabbit addressed as “good teacher”, for fear of blasphemy against God.

the word “Good” means kind, one who does good. having desirable or positive qualities. However, these are only moral quality which can be found in all other religious teachers. He is looking for something that is good, rather than God himself. He assumes that there is someone who is better than God than he could rely on. He also assumes that one can find goodness in human resources and accomplishments. Probably, he identifies himself as good as well and asks his question from one good man to another.

He wants to inherit eternal life. No one who heard Jesus tech in Galilee asked a question of such magnitude, not even have Jesus’ own disciples. i dont know how much he understand about this eternal life, but at least he acknowledge the reality of a life after death. however, it could be also possible that he is looking for a life that is lasting so that he could enjoy whatever he has.

He knows the commandments. in Greek, there are different words for “know”. the word used here is just a knowledge from a cognitive way. that means he aware of a fact or specific piece of information. He possesses the information and knowledge. of course, he does not only know, but he observe. in verse 20, he told Jesus, all these i have kept since i was a boy. that means he practice and guard closely to the teachings. however, all those commandments are towards man. that is from the fifth commandments onward. How about the first 4 commandments towards God?

As the scene develops, Jesus’ demands turn out to be far more costly than this young man has bargained for.

The standard/heart of God

Jesus loved him, but Jesus reveals to him clearly that goodness and slavation do not come from our own valiant efforts but only as a gift from God.

Jesus does not sneer at his claims to have obeyed the law. He believes what he says about his obedience, but because he loves him, he direcly challneges him. He does not try to spare his feelings or avoid offending him but candidly speaks tha truth. The man regards himself as respectably good, but being respectably good is not good enough.

it is often assumed that this man was hypocritical in bringing his moral report card to Jesus. That would not seem to be the case, from the way Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus did not look on hypocrisy with love. given Jesus’ affection for the man, it seems more reasonable to assume that his ready presentation of his goodness was not arrogant. the word for “looked at”is an intensified compound of the normal word for look, meaning to look at it intently, to examine. Jesus sees inside him and loved him. The wor for love (Agapan) is the highest form of love in the NT comes from Agape., meaning love that characterizes God and of which God is worthy. there must have been something rare and admirable in the man, for of no one else in the Gospel does Mark say that Jesus “loved him”.”

Jesus says, one thing you lack. this is so sacarstic to a person who is rich. How can he lack of anyting? The children in the former story who possess nothing are not told that they lack anything, but rather that kingdom is theirs; yet this man who posssesses everything still lacks something. He had too much. the statement implis that knowing the commandments and faithfully keeping them do not secure eternal life. Jesus does not tell him specifically what the one thing is but gives him four directives.

“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

there is a sequence here.

Go

Sell everything & give to the poor. Total commitement to following JEsus and love for the community. it is not easy, as we might ask “why should I give up for others what I worked so hard to get?”

come

follow me

By looking at the face value, it is as if Jesus is demanding for legalistic response. but these commands stress that if one wants eternal life, everything depends on one’s response to Jesus.

one thing that he is lacking is trust. God requires radical trust. Like so many today, this rich man wanted to serve God on his own terms. He obeyed all the commandments that suited im but resisted giving his whole life over to God. He was afraid to expose imself to the uncertainties and insecurities of the future or to make himself vulnerable as a child, by selling off everything. He accumulated possessions to secure his life in this eorld, and eh accumulated obedience to the commandments to secure his life in the world to come.

another thing that he lacked is compassion for others. The man was unable to give what he had for the benefit of others because he cared only about himself and nobody else. He was imprisoned in a dungeon of concern only for his own welfare.

Jesus’ command is for everyone, as the word “rich” is just a relative term. Everyone is challenged, whether u see urself as rich or poor. it is difficult for the rich to sell everything, it is even more difficult for the poor to sell off everything. That is why Jesus praised the woman who gave her 2 little coins in the temple.

the command to sell all sounds quite unreasonable to us, but most in the ancient world would have hear it as radical but sound advice for those who were seriously devout. The dead sea scrolls required adherents to the sect to contribute their possessions to the common treasury. Acts reeposts that members of the first Christian community in Jerusalem did the same to assist the needs of their fellow believers. Even pagans would have understood the imporatance, in principle, of renouncing wealth.

Few followed through on this ideal, and the later rabbis specifically forbade giving away all of one’s resources. They limited the maximum that one could give away to 20 percent so that one would not become penniless and a burden to others. Jesus insists, however, tht the wisest investments accrue interest in the treasuries of heaven.

many of us even struggle to give up our 10% for God a tithe to the Lord. How could we follow Jesus? Talking about tithe, it is not after u deduct all necessary expenses, but our gross amount.

Jesus does not reject having possessions. Many of his first followers did have possessions. The central issue has to do with one’s ultimate loyalty. The point of this story is not to drive home the need for all of Jesus’ followers to sell their possessions. Jesus did not insist that Zacchaeus sell all his goods and give them to the poor before he would eat with him.

Few are willing to risk divesting themselves of whatever provides them security in this life to enter a new quality of life under God’s rule. What are we relying on?

The problem of this man

his face fell and went away sadly. he had just followed what Jesus instructed, go away. His unhappy departure reveals that he does not want to enter life under Jesus’ guidance. a person who leads an examplary life, who even endears himself to the Son of God, can still be an idolater. Jesus’ word is too hard for him. He goes off, presumably in search of a second, more accomodating opinion.

At the same time, let us pay attention to the response of Jesus’ disciples. they were astounded/amazed. it is not a positive emotion, but reflects that they were shocked, utterly surprised.

Jesus did not renegotiate the terms, however. Jesus lets a good man slip away whose deep pockets could help advance the the kingdom cause, or at least their meager treasury. Jesus astounds the disciples further by observing tht the rich will have a hard time entering the kingdom of God.

He was not able to sell off his wealth and give away. He is too rich. Jesys said it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.

Richness can be reflected in many ways today.

This young man is rich in his knowledge, his wealth, his morality, but not his spirituality. He was taught since young by his parents. how about us today? What did we teach our children? i see many parents teaching their children financial planning, investment, good manners, but not his relationship with God.

the young man’s response might also reveal his over confidence on his good prospects. he is either expressing a defensive reaction or a triumphant exclamation. He has been good, and one should no more doubt his sincerity than that of the apostle Paul who claimed himself as a zealous Pharisee who is blameless according to the righteousness that comes from obedience to the law.

He wants to know how to ensure that his goodness will pay off in eternal life. He hopes that Jesus can relieve any lingering doubts about his chances and inform him if there is anything in the fine print he needs to worry about.

“i have kept all since young”. how about “i have learn to sacrifice for Christ since young”?

what Jesus required is a whole-hearted commitment. this high level commitment come with a price, at the same time a promise. the price is to give out his richness and be ready for persecutions, but the promise would be far more greater than what we have paid to follow Him.

I think one thing all parents can teach our children to give to the Lord is by teaching them the meaning and practice of offering tithe to God. Look at what Jesus address his disciples in v24. He addressed them as children, to remind them that they must become like children if they are going to enter the kingdom of God. Children have little concept of the value of money. Adults, however, do because they know how hard money ist o come by and all the things that it can acquire. Money is power for adults, while for children, it is nothing.

Adults easily fall prey to Mammon and become decieved into thinking that they can find life in wealth and possessions. Many find it hard to give up even 10%, not more to say giving up all they have, even for the hope of eternal life.

Jesus resorts to colourful hyperbole to reinforce tha point that those who are ruled by money cannot be ruled by God. The rich will find entering the kingdom of God more difficult than trying to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needile.

again, the focus here is not to ask you to sell everything and give away. as even if you do that, but your heart is not in tune with God, it does not save and give u eternal life. Jesus replied to the young rich man as such, because he in the first place assumed that one coul dattain eternal life by doing something. Since he wanted something he could do, Jesus obliged him.

to enter the kingdom of God, one must submit to God’s rule so that God reigns over every aspect of life.

one of the most common attempt to rationalise this passage is to refer Jesus’ saying to the name of a low gate in Jerusalem called “Needle’s Eye”. A camel can get through the needle’s eye if it throws off its burden and gets down on its knees. The lesson becomes practical, the rich no longer worry if they just are humble. this explanation has no historical basis at all. there is no such archeological evidence for this legendary gate until the ninth century. It is an invention of a wealthy church searching for loopholes. A more erudite interpretation claims that “camel” is a mistranlation of a similar Aramaic word for “rope” or a “ship’s cable”.

Conclusion

Salvation is not by how much we know. it is neither by how much we observe the teaching of God. It is also not to be gained by how much we desire and how great our response is outwardly.

this morning, we are having baptism and confirmation. the purpose of baptism - does not save us, but serve as an outward ritual to remind us the inward grace.

the ritual of baptism and confirmation is not just for the person who is to be baptised, but also for the whole congregation. For those who have been baptised, it reminds us of our commitment made before the Lord when we are baptised.

Mark Twain said, “it is not those parts of the Bible that i cant understand that bother me, it is the parts that i do understand.”

We do better if we confess that we are too weak to follow Jesus on his terms than if we try to find loopholes that allow us to continue in our complacency.

No Christian is immune form the danger of Mammon. Covetouesness is like a virus that takes residence in the soul and begins slowly to work its destruction.

Those with possessions may find coming under God’s rule so hard because they thinkg that they have so much to lose. But God requres the same of everybody - rich and poor, fishermen and toll collectors, preperous landholders and destiture day labourers holding up their signs. All must give up whatever stands in the way of total commitment to following Jesus and love for the community.

When the disciples were amazed and wondered who can be save, Jesus told them that all things are possible with God. Jesus is actually trying to save this young man.