Dude, you (don’t) Rule
Mark 10: 17-31
A Tale of two Rich Young Rulers
When it comes to wealth, having much money, there are generally two stances. Some say that it is impossible to become wealthy without walking over people to get there. They see wealth as a mark of immorality. Whole philosophies are built on this stance. The other stance is it’s opposite. There are people who see wealth as a sign that somebody leads a moral life pleasing to God. In this understanding wealth is a sure sign of godly approval. Job’s friends had this view on wealth. The disciples in this passage seem to look up to the rich young ruler (he is called that in the other accounts. Matthew just calls him a man).
Both are off course wrong. They are wrong because they are blanket statements. Not everybody that is wealthy is wealthy because they did things pleasing to God to get wealthy. Some are wealthy because they evade taxes and hoard up money and do not compensate people fairly. Also, people that are poor are not always poor because they are lazy and immoral. Some of the most morally upright people don’t have much. But wealth can also be acquired by virtue rather than by vice. And yes, poverty can sometimes be due to vice like laziness and victimhood rather than virtue.
Jesus never tells this man that it is wrong to have money. But He also did not treat the man as if his road to eternal life was reserved. He told this man, to the astonishment of his disciples that he lacked something. Jesus lets the man go away disappointed. The disciples are unsettled. Jesus does not try to be popular here. I love it how Jesus sometimes doesn’t take sides but show us a whole new angle to a long-standing debate!
So what is going on here?
The Approach
Note that this man approaches Jesus with reverence. It was sure to raise the status of any Rabbi if a rich ruler took a knee in front of him. He addresses Jesus as good. He asks Jesus for instructions. Many Christians would get quite excited if a politician bows down in prayer publicly and asks Jesus for directions. The details the Bible give us of this man, even though his name is never mentioned, is also telling. Rich, which means he was healthy and in the understanding of his people, a man blessed by God. A ruler, which means that he was powerful and well respected, perhaps even feared. And he was young which probably meant he was attractive, talented, and ambitious. He is the kind of straight A student that also came first in the 5000 meters and volunteers and the soup kitchen on Sundays. Definitely not the man people think lacks anything.
But he did lack something. If that wasn’t the case, he would not seek Jesus out and fall down on his knees and ask Him for directions. You see his issue was salvation and when you depend on what you do for your salvation, you will always have doubt. Even when you are young, rich and powerful. Even when everybody around you admires you and think you have it all together. I find it fascinating to walk around downtown Vancouver when I get the odd chance. Its like downtown Vancouver only has extremes. The people there are either extremely young, in shape and good looking or extremely ugly, old and obese. It is so easy to think of the good looking ones as “the good guys’ that made it and the others as the “bad guys” who messed up their lives. But if you were to interview the good looking ones, you would discover that they think they lack much. Some of them are so in shape and good looking for the very reason of covering up their blemishes and seek a version of themselves that are not true in the hope that they might attain it somehow.
Note also that this man calls Jesus good, but Jesus says He shouldn’t. This is not because Jesus feels He that is Jesus is actually bad. But Jesus knows this man approaches him not as his Saviour but as his Boss. One willing to execute orders in order to attain desired results. As an expert not as Lord of his life. By saying he shouldn’t even call a revered Rabbi good, Jesus points out a dilemma, that as broken human beings who are imperfect, we are not only unable to save ourselves but we are also unable of being saved by other imperfect human beings.
The Encounter
So Jesus knows what this man lacks and needs. He needs a Saviour. It is better to look up to and respect Jesus than to disrespect and disregard him. But his business is ultimate salvation, the gift of life eternally, a transformed life and for that this man has to move from looking up to Jesus as a respected Rabbi to surrendering to Jesus as the only one that can save him. Jesus does not ask him to sell all his stuff and give it to the poor to solve poverty. Jesus asks him that to show him his fake saviour, the one he thinks can save him but can’t. It says the man went away sad. Because he just couldn’t see any hope without his wealth. You know, the Greek word we translate with sad here is a the same word the gospel of Matthew uses to describe Jesus’s struggles in the garden of Gethsemane where He had to come to terms with the fact that God will forsake him. It means “deeply aggrieved” So “sad’ does not cut it. This man wasn’t just sad, he was deeply aggrieved. He was having an existential crisis. This man’s identity and hope was tied up to his wealth. That was what his problem was. Not the fact that he had much money but the fact that he had too much hope and trust in that money.
Now another word on this encounter. When Jesus sees this man, it says that He loved Him. It unusual that the assumed would be stated like this. It means Jesus had deep empathy for this man. Why? Because Jesus was a Rich Young Ruler par excellance before he came to earth. Way more and exceedingly so than the man before him. Jesus enjoyed unfathomable wealth, power and health with his Father in heaven. Jesus knows what it is to give up everything. More so than the man would ever do.
But Jesus could and that is the point. The disciples saw a wealthy blessed and righteous man unable to save himself and got worried. They took their eyes off the better young rich Ruler who was Jesus, and did give everything up to not only be our boss, but our saviour, our brother and our friend. Jesus could do what neither this man nor the disciples could. He somehow loved us enough to get a camel through the needle and do what was necessary for our salvation.
And us…
You see, it is not about how much or how little money you have. It is about how much you tie your hope, identity and trust in what you have. Wealth isn’t a bad thing but it is no ultimate thing. When we come to Jesus, we do not only need to repent of the bad things we did wrong like what we stole or how drunk we got. We also need to repent of how we made good gifts from God idols, ultimate things we have pinned our hope and salvation on. Because these things took a place in our lives that belong to Jesus.
It takes some deep soul searching to get to the place where you know what is the thing that competes for your heart with God. Most of us are completely blind to it until we lose it. Some people only realize how much they depended on financial success until they go bankrupt. They assume they will now die and find true life in Jesus. Some people tie all their identity up into being a good parent or spouse. They think their kids success will bring everything their heart longs for and then that kid aren’t successful despite their best efforts or the kid does turn out to be successful but they still feel a nagging emptiness. Their partner leaves them even though they did manage to be a great spouse. There are just an endless list of things that can prevent us from devaluing Jesus as our only Saviour.
The good news is, He saves us despite of it all. He either allows us to go through painful loss or He allows us to achieve success and experience how empty it is. But with those painful experiences He also blesses us with the gift of seeing Him for who He really is. The Son of God, the Lamb of God that can take away the sins of the world. The one capable of getting the camel through the needle’s eye.
When this happens, we start asking different questions. We stop asking like this man: “What must I do?” and start asking: “What can we do?” We stop looking for how little we can do, and our eyes open for how much we can actually do to glorify God’s name and express our faith in him. Our giving moves from obligation to it being an honor, something that frees us rather than something that robs us like a thief or demands a pound of flesh like the tax man.
Close
In Africa, there is a simply way by which people used to catch monkeys. They would put edible beans or treats in a can. They would tie a line to the can and put it out where monkeys like to hang out. The monkeys would come and one curious one would pick up the can and hear and smell that there is something of value in the can. The monkey would stick his hand in the can and grab hold of the beans. The monkey will now be trapped with the line. If he just let go of the beans, he will be free but most monkeys refuse to let go and some lose their lives because of it.
Don’t be a monkey. Ask God to show you what you need to let go off so that He can grab your hand.
You see, this man’s story ends sad. It says that this man, whom Jesus loved went away aggrieved. But there is one thought that makes this story bearable to me. The thought that perhaps it wasn’t the end. By this time Jesus hasn’t quite given everything yet. That He would do on the cross a short while later. And I like to believe that when this man heard or perhaps saw this, he got it and let go so that he could let God save him.
And even if this did not happen, we can today add many footnotes that can make this story less sad. We can say yes, the man went away sad, but even two thousand years later Jill and Linda and Gabriel and Ron and Bob and Jean-Pierre came to Jesus because He opened their eyes up to the fact that belonging to Him is more precious than all the gold, status and acclaim the world can offer. If you need proof that Jesus can get camels through needles, look at these people and how Jesus changed their lives.
Amen