Story of the Rich Young Ruler

Dear friends:  In preparation for this Sunday's message, I direct your attention to Mark 10:17-31.  This is a familar story -- it is the story of the rich young ruler -- but be careful that we don't mistake familiarity with true understanding!

 

You may know the story.  A rich man approaches Jesus and asks Him what must he do to be saved.  This is the evangelist's dream passage!!  How easy it is, though, to focus on the preaching potential of the question, and miss Jesus' response. 

 

Anyway, Jesus tells the man that He must give up all his wealth, and then He will find eternal life by following Him.  And this is too much for the man to take!  In Jesus' day, to be wealthy meant that you were blessed by God.  This is the reasoning behind the whole Book of Job.  A wealthy Job is obviously blessed by God but is still afflicted, and everyone's theology is blown to smitherenes!  Anyway, as the wealthy man (and the disciples, too) reasoned it, if one gave up one's wealth, then that meant he wasn't blessed by God; and yet God said do so to find eternal life.  It didn't compute, and the man went away without finding what He was looking for.

 

But there is a deeper truth here.  Jesus is not telling us to necessarily give up our wealth when we become disciples.  Some believers are called to vows of poverty, but it is not a prerequisite for salvation.  Salvation comes through trusting Jesus with our lives.  The wealthy young man trusted himself and his possessions.  He couldn't lay that mindset aside so he could trust in the Lord.

 

This has profound implications for us, because this passage challenges us to think about what possesses us, which is just another way of saying that we need to think about those attitudes and items that we trust more than we trust God.  We're going to take a good, hard look at this on Sunday, and I look forward to seeing you in church!