Matthew 19:16, "Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, 'Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?'"

Here's my question: why did that particular man ask that particular question?

See, I think most of us assume that he asked the question because he was having the "Luther experience." You all know what the Luther experience is, right? Martin Luther, our forefather in the faith, came to really understand the Gospel because he was terrified that he could never be good enough to please God and therefore, he thought, he was destined for an eternity in hell. And a lot of us, I think, assume that that's what's happening here. A man comes up and asks Jesus, "what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" He must be concerned, maybe frightened, maybe even terrified about going to hell. But I'm quite convinced that that's not at all what's happening here. And the reason I think so because of verse 22. It says, "When the young man heard this, he went away sad." In other words, he wasn't sad to begin with. He became sad over the course of this conversation. This same story, by the way, is recorded in the Gospel of Mark and in Mark it says more than just that he went away sad. It says, when Jesus said what He said, the man's "face fell." [Mark 10:22] Well, in order for that to happen, his face had to be up first, right? So, he didn't come to Jesus sad and frowning. Sounds to me like he was in a good mood, maybe even smiling, when he asked his question. There's no indication at all that he was having the Luther experience. So, why then, did he ask the question at all? Well, there are some clues.

Who was this man? When the story starts, that's all we know about him. He's a man. Verse 16 says, "Now a man came up to Jesus...." In verse 20, we get another detail. He wasn't just a man. He was a "young man." And in verse 22, we find out something else about this young man. He was rich! "He had great wealth", according to Matthew. There's one detail we know about this man, though not from Matthew. In Luke's account of the story, he's not just called a rich man. He's called the rich young ruler. [Luke 18:18] We don't know exactly what that means, but the point is that he had some position of authority.

So, he was young. He was rich. He had authority. This man was successful. And since he was young and successful, I guess we could say he was a high achiever. He was a doer! He had built quite a resume in his young life. But despite all this, it appears, that he had a problem. He had a serious problem, though I'm not sure even he realized it. His problem was that the success and status and wealth and everything else he had achieved in his life had become for him an idol.

Now, that's a pretty big charge. Why do I say that? Well, there are a few clues in the story.

First of all, don't you find it interesting what Jesus says to him? A man comes up to Jesus and asks him, "What good thing must I do to get eternal life?" And Jesus says, "Oh friend, you don't have to do anything. You are saved are by grace through faith and this is not from yourself, it's the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast!"...No, that's not what He says. That's what He should say, shouldn't He? But no, the man asks Jesus, "how do I get eternal life?" and Jesus tells him "Obey the commandments?" What kind of answer is that? This is Christian doctrine 101 here. If it wasn't Jesus saying it, we'd all say that Jesus needs an evangelism training course or a confirmation refresher seminar. But look very carefully at what Jesus goes on to say...

Verse 18, "Which ones?" the man inquired. And Jesus replied, "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself." "All these I have kept," the young man said.

Look carefully at that list of commandments Jesus gave. You may remember that theologians divide the 10 commandments into two "tables" or "sections." The first table of the law includes commandments 1, 2 and 3 which are all about our relationship to God. The second table includes commandments 4 through 10 which are all about our relationship with others. Which of the two tables does Jesus pull commandments from? Notice, they're all from table two. Until He gets to verse 21.

"Jesus answered, 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'"

Now, there's no indication that this is a universal command. In other words, Jesus is not saying that we'd all do this if we really loved Him. We know this, because Jesus encountered other rich people in His life and He didn't ask them to sell everything. This was a specific direction to this specific young man. The point is not that we all have to do this. The point is, would you do it, if Jesus asked you to? Or, like this man, is your wealth and your status and your success more important to you than Jesus?

It says in verse 22, "when the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth." Again, though, it wasn't the wealth itself that was the problem. It was that success had become his idol, his false God, the thing he loved above everything else, and it was destroying his life without him even realizing it. And what we have to understand is that this is a very common problem, especially today.

Recently, I read an interview with Madonna, the legendary pop music artist. Here's what she said,

"I have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy... I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and think I'm mediocre and uninteresting...again and again. My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that's always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I've become Somebody, I still have to prove that I'm Somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will." [Quoted in Keller, Timothy, Counterfeit Gods, Dutton, 2009, p. 72.]

Sydney Pollack was an incredibly successful and famous movie director. And not long before he died, there was an article written about how he couldn't slow down and enjoy his final years with his loved ones. Even though he was sick and his work was wearing him down, the article said, "he couldn't justify his existence if he stopped." He explained, "Every time I finish a picture, I feel like I've done what I'm supposed to do in the sense that I've earned my stay for another year or so." But then, he had to start over." [Ibid, p.73]

Chris Evert played professional tennis is 1970's and 80's and became one of the greatest tennis players of all time. But after she retired, she said this in an interview, "I had no idea who I was, or what I could be away from tennis. I was depressed and afraid because so much of my life had been defined by my being a tennis champion. I was completely lost. Winning made me feel like I was somebody. It made me feel pretty. It was like being hooked on a drug. I needed the wins, the applause, in order to have an identity." [Ibid, p. 77.]

I hope you can see a common theme emerging there between Madonna and Sydney Pollack and Chris Evert and the rich young ruler in our story. All of them had become "achievement addicts". Achievement and success had become their idols. And this is how idols work: they demand our worship in return for giving us something. But over time, they demand more and more and give less and less until they finally demand everything of us and give us nothing. And the most important question you have to ask yourself today is this: is it happening to you? Because we see from our story that it was happening to the Rich Young Ruler and he had absolutely no clue.

The good news is that there is a way you can tell if it's happening and it's right in our story. In verse 22, it says, "When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth." But, I'm not sure "sad" is the best translation there. In the Greek, it's actually a much stronger word than that. Jesus uses this same word in John 16:21 when He says this, "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come." The word for "pain" is the same word used for "sad" in our story. Now, friends, I was there when my wife gave birth to our two boys. And I can tell you this: "sad" is not a strong enough word to describe how Linda felt during labor! I think a better translation might be "when the young man heard this, he went away in total agony, because he had great wealth." The apostle Paul uses the same word in Philippians 2:27 when he talks about his dear friend Epaphroditis. He says, "...he was ill and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow." The word for "sorrow" there is the same word used in our story for sad. So again, he wasn't just sad. He was devastated. He was in agony. His wealth and status and success meant so much to him that it would have absolutely destroyed him to lose it. He didn't even know who he was without that.

My question for you today is: what is "that" in your life?

Have you ever noticed that some people retire and it's like they got a new lease on life, but other people retire and it just destroys them because without that job they don't know who they are anymore? They've allowed their career to become an idol.

Have you ever noticed that some people age so gracefully? Their hair thins and grays, their face gets filled with all kinds of wrinkles, they have to get stronger and stronger glasses, and it doesn't seem to affect them at all? But other people are just absolutely devastated by the effects of aging on their appearance? Their physical appearance has become an idol. There's nothing wrong, of course, with trying to look nice, but when it devastates you that you don't look like a 20 year old anymore, that's a problem.

For some people relationships become an idol. Now again, there's nothing wrong with wanting to have a boyfriend or girlfriend. We all want someone to love and to love us. That's perfectly normal. But when it crosses over to the point that you feel that you have no value or worth because you don't have someone to take you to prom, that's a problem. That's relationship idolatry.

There's a wonderful old hymn that says,

"Lay your deadly 'doing' down, down at Jesus' feet.
Stand in him, in him alone, gloriously complete." [Ibid, p. 89.]

The rich young ruler needed to hear that hymn and so do we, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just about how to get to heaven when we die. The Gospel makes us "gloriously complete". When we really understand the Gospel of Jesus we start to realize that we don't need anything else to give us status or self-worth or meaning or purpose. If Almighty God Himself was willing to give up His only son to the death of the cross in order to redeem us then we already have more status and worth than could ever want or need.

You know, my favorite verse of all in this story is also not in the Matthew version. It's only in Mark. In Mark's version, Jesus lists all the commandments he should obey and the rich young man says, "Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy." And then it says this one line that's only in Mark: "Jesus looked at him and loved him." [Mark 10:21]

Isn't that great? Jesus looked at him and loved him—not when he got it right, but even when he got it wrong. Even when he knew he was going to walk away. Even when he was prideful and arrogant and full of himself and still didn't get it—Jesus looked at him and loved him.

Do you understand that Jesus is looking at you right now and loves you? Not because of your success, not because your career, not because of your good looks, not because all your so-called achievements. Jesus looks at you and loves you, simply because you're you and you belong to Him. Even with all your failures and sins, He looks at you and loves you, and that will never, ever change.

"Lay your deadly 'doing' down, down at Jesus' feet. Stand in him, in him alone, gloriously complete!"

Amen!

]]> http://www.reachgrowserve.org/s2012/20120520.htm http://www.reachgrowserve.org/s2012/20120520.htm Sun, 20 May 2012 09:30:36 GMT