Leaving All to Follow Christ

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.  And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:25-33).

As Jesus continues on His way, great multitudes follow. These are not Jesus’ disciples. They are following Jesus out of curiosity. They want to see Jesus the miracle worker. They want to see him heal, and cast out demons, and multiply loaves and fishes. He tried to teach His disciples privately but, as soon as word spread, the multitudes sought out Jesus.[1] Every time the multitudes came to Jesus, he had compassion on them. He did heal the sick and feed the hungry. More importantly, he taught them about the kingdom of God. The people were more concerned with meeting their physical needs. Jesus will demonstrate that this is not what we should worry about. We should worry about eternal life. Multitudes would continue to follow Jesus throughout his ministry. So little do they understand Jesus and His purpose, that they will meet Him as he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, hailing Him the Son of David; by the end of the week they will stand before Pilate and call for Him to be crucified, asking for a murderer in exchange.

Jesus clarifies what is really important. He says to them that anyone who would come to Him must hate his father and mother. What does this mean? Are we not taught by Holy Scripture that he who does not love does not know God, for God is love?[2] How can Jesus tell us we must hate our families? Jesus is the same God who gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai. Is Jesus now contradicting The Fourth Commandment, which says thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother? If He is, He is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as he claims.[3] God does not change, and He does not lie.[4] No, Jesus is admonishing the multitudes to examine themselves. Following Jesus would demand, from an earthly perspective, great sacrifice. Christ Himself said that he came to bring division;[5] in other words, some people would believe in Him, and some would not. Even families would be divided over faith in Christ. If anyone would follow Jesus, his love for Christ must precede all other love, even the love of family and friends.[6] He can have no other gods. Jesus shows this to the rich young ruler. The man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, something which cannot be done perfectly. The young man answers that he has kept them, but Jesus exposes his idolatry. He calls the man to sell all that he has and distribute to the poor. The man loved his wealth more than God. He went away sorrowful.

We, too, belong to the multitudes. We would treat Jesus as our own personal bread king. We want Him to grant us health, money, love, success, and all manner of other earthly blessings. We think these things are the most important things. Jesus would show us otherwise. We are working for food which perishes, and for treasure which will rot away.[7] Jesus would have us seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.[8] He teaches us to pray, not for piles of wealth so that we can live our best life now, but for our daily bread.[9] It was our sin which put Jesus on the cross. We, along with the multitudes, delivered Jesus up to death; we killed the author of life.[10] We justly deserve His temporal and eternal punishment. But it was to save mankind from such punishment that Christ came into the world. While we were still his enemies, Christ came to earth in human flesh, kept God’s law perfectly, lived a sinless life, and went to the cross to die for us, the ungodly.[11] He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God, in Christ.[12] And though He died on the cross, on the third day Jesus rose again. Repent, and believe the Gospel. Jesus did not come into the world so that we could be rich and successful; Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom we are the worst.[13]

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[1] Luke 9:10-11

[2] 1 John 4:8

[3] John 8:48-59

[4] Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; Number 23:19; John 17:17

[5] Luke 12:49-53

[6] Kretzmann, Paul E. Popular Commentary of the Bible. Vol. 1. 2 vols. St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 1921.

[7] Matthew 6:19-21

[8] Matthew 6:33

[9] Luke 11:1-4

[10] Acts 3:14-15

[11] Romans 5:8

[12] 2 Corinthians 5:21

[13] 1 Timothy 1:15

Woe to the Pharisees and Lawyers

And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you. “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.” Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.” And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation. “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.” And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him (Luke 11:37-54).

 

Jesus and His disciples go to dinner with unwashed hands. The Pharisees marveled, but not because they were disgusted at Jesus’ dirty fingernails; they marveled because Jesus and His disciples did not observe the Traditions of the Elders. The washing in question was a ceremonial one. It wasn’t meant to scrub the grime from their hands; it was meant to cleanse the gentile filth with which they may have been contaminated. These traditions, it was taught, were commands given by God, through Moses, to the Elders on Mt. Sinai, orally. They were not written down by Moses. The scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law taught that these traditions were God’s word, just like the written Scriptures (Torah[1]). By disregarding these traditions, Jesus shows His disciples, and us, that they are not.

 

Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites. They take great care to observe the Traditions of the Elders, but ignore God’s actual Law. Jesus says that they honor God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.[2] They were teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. They didn’t believe they were sinful. They were keeping all the rules. They did not repent. They did not believe the Gospel. They did not have faith in God; they had faith in their own good works. Jesus calls them unmarked graves and whitewashed tombs because of this. An unmarked grave looks like normal, healthy ground, vibrant with life in the form of thick, green grass. Beneath the surface, however, lies a rotting corpse. The painted tomb looks pretty and neat but inside there are dead men’s bones. According to the Law, to touch a dead body would make a man ceremonially unclean. He would have to be excluded for a time from the community, and the temple, where forgiveness of sins was to be found.[3] Jesus is telling the Pharisees that, because of their rejection of God’s commands in favor of man-made laws they thought they could keep, they are unclean. They are cut off from God, like the ceremonially unclean person who cannot offer his sacrifice for sin in the temple. Though they may look holy by their outward acts of piety, they are actually dead inside.

 

The temple and the sacrifices prescribed by God to be offered there were type and shadow of what was to come: Jesus. The temple was where God dwelt with His people Israel. Jesus, true God and true man, is Immanuel - God, with us. In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God came into the world, though the world did not know Him, and His people did not receive Him.[4] Even now He is with us, according to both His divine and human natures, through Word and Sacrament, and the working of the Spirit, even until the end of the age.[5] The sacrifices showed the true cost of sin; only the shedding of blood could atone for it.[6] Animal sacrifice was insufficient. They had to be performed over and over again. Jesus is the one perfect sacrifice for sin.[7] He became sin for us so that the guilt of our sin would no longer be counted against us.[8] Jesus is our salvation. He is the one greater than the temple.[9] He is the payment for our sin - all of our sin - and the sin of the whole world.[10]

 

Since the temple was a shadow of the reality that was fulfilled in Christ, we need to participate in the real thing. The washing that counts is not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom God poured out abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.[11] This is baptism, which saves us.[12] It is how we take part in Christ’s death and resurrection.[13] It is not a work done by men as a mere ceremony; it is a means by which God delivers to us His Word and promise, the forgiveness of sins won by Christ on the cross, and works repentance and faith in our hearts by His Holy Spirit.

 

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[1] The Torah is the law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.

[2] Matthew 15:7-9

[3] Number 19:11-13

[4] John 1:1-13

[5] Matthew 28:19-20; FC SD VIII 78.

[6] Hebrews 9:22

[7] Hebrews 9:22-28

[8] 2 Corinthians 5:21

[9] Matthew 12:6

[10] 1 John 2:2

[11] Titus 3:5-7

[12] 1 Peter 2:18-22

[13] Romans 6:4-5; Galatians 2:20

A Sinful Woman Forgiven

The Crucifixion - Lucas Cranach the Elder

Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.” “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (Luke 7:36-50).

Was the sinful woman forgiven her many sins because she did all the things described in the Gospel passage? No. Jesus explains, quite simply, that the woman’s faith saved her. So, what does that mean? Perhaps it means that this woman’s actions are evidence of the genuine repentance and faith which the Holy Spirit worked in her heart. She certainly did not merit the forgiveness Jesus proclaimed to her; Scripture tells us this is not possible. Scripture says we are saved by God’s undeserved favor, through our faith in Christ, which also comes to us as a gift from outside ourselves.[1] Repentance is also God’s gift.[2]

When Jesus says the woman is saved by her faith we get a wrong impression of what He is saying. That is because we naturally have a wrong understanding of what repentance and faith are. It is not surprising. We sinful men are so inwardly focused because of sin that we cannot, apart from the Holy Sprit’s working, understand spiritual things.[3] It is our natural inclination to earn heaven. We are naturally inclined to think that, even though we may be sinners, we are not really as bad as a lot of other men. That is supposed to make our sin somehow better, and more acceptable in our minds. I might sin and make mistakes sometimes, but I’m not as bad as Hitler. I’m basically good; I just need a little help. We trick ourselves into believing we can make up for our “mistakes” by doing something good. This is what we think the sinful woman was doing when she comes before Jesus with tears; except, that wasn’t what was happening with the sinful woman. Jesus shows us that with one sentence. He says to her, “Your faith has saved you.”

Christ has saved us from beginning to end. No part of our salvation depends on our work. He created us.[4] He died on the cross as the payment for our sin.[5] He uses His means of word, water, bread and wine to repent us of our sin and create faith in us.[6] Any work of righteousness we would do to merit Christ’s gifts are as filthy rags.[7] When Jesus declares that this woman’s faith has saved her, He is saying that He saved her. Far from encouraging us to try to manufacture enough faith to be counted worthy by Christ, He is actually showing us that such a thing is impossible for us to do. Faith is not an act of our will; it is not something we decide to do after being convinced through reasoned argument or emotional manipulation. It is Christ’s gift. Hear the Word. Repent. Believe the Gospel. Be forgiven. Rejoice. Love much; we have been forgiven much.

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[1] John 1:12-13; Ephesians 2:8-10

[2] 2 Timothy 2:25

[3] Romans 8:6-8; 1 Corinthians 2:14

[4] Colossians 1:15-16

[5] 1 John 2:2

[6] Matthew 26:26-30; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Titus 3:5-7

[7] Isaiah 64:6

Ash Wednesday

“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. (Matthew 6:16-18). 

I grew up in a congregation of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod that practiced the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. The people would approach the pastor, who was standing in the front of church. He held a silver vessel containing an unappealing black substance. It was the burned remnants of the palm fronds from the previous year’s Palm Sunday mixed with oil. As the people would come to the pastor, he would blacken his thumb with the ashes and make the sign of the cross on the person’s forehead. He would tell each person, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I never realized, however, that this was fasting. Growing up when and where I did, I also didn’t realize that what was to me a natural part of the Ash Wednesday worship service was, in other places, quite a contentious issue. 

Later, attending college in what is referred to by some as the “Bible Belt,” I met many people, Christians and non-Christians, who were shocked by this worship practice. Lutherans were few in number in Murray, Ky. Most of my friends were some flavor of evangelical protestant. Knowing that I professed to be a Christian, when the inevitable discussion would arise, many would quote this passage of scripture to me, and tell me the imposition of ashes was unbiblical. I had to admit that I had not thought about it in that way before. It certainly seemed logical. 

It has always been the Confessional Lutheran view that the Church should not do away with good traditions and practices, but only those things that take away from the Gospel. The Imposition of Ashes is one of those good traditions. Fasting was an important part of the Jewish religion. The problem Jesus had with fasting was not the practice, but that the hypocrites turned it into a work of self-glorification. Jesus does not forbid fasting, either here or elsewhere. He expects his disciples to fast. Jesus says, “When you fast…” The issue with fasting is not should it be practiced, but rather, are we doing it so other people with think we are holy? Do our hearts feel true sorrow and humility? Fasting can be good training for our will, but God does not command particular times, places, or forms of fasting.[1] There is nothing we have to offer, no work we can do, no ceremony we can perform, in order to merit God’s forgiveness. 

After leaving church on Ash Wednesday, sometimes people forgot that they had a smear of ashes on their forehead. Sometimes they would inadvertently scratch their foreheads. The residue on their finger would serve as a subtle reminder that they were dust, and to dust they must one day return. Before going to bed, looking in the mirror, one is once again reminded they are marked with the black stain of sin. 

Those ashes, however, are drawn on the forehead in the sign of a cross. Not as if the cross is some kind of magic sign to ward off evil. It is also as a reminder. The cross reminds us that the guilt of mankind’s sin has been paid for by Christ’s death. The blood of Christ shed on the cross has justified us. We did not participate in Christ’s saving work at all. It happened while we were still powerless.[2] God has given us forgiveness as a gift, through Christ Jesus. He sends His Holy Spirit to us to create faith in our hearts through the means of his Word and Sacraments. He enables us to do works that please him – not in order to earn his favor – but to glorify his most holy name. Fasting, and other traditions like the Imposition of Ashes, can help us to look at our sin, confess it, and acknowledge our need for a savior. These traditions, used properly, and not imposed as a law, focus us on Christ and Him crucified.

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[1] Luther, Martin. Luther's Small Catechism. Translated by Concordia Publishing House. Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1991.

[2] Romans 5:8-9

Give, and it will be given to you...

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:37-38).

Health and wealth heretics and prosperity preachers love to point their unwitting flocks to this verse, and others like it. They are skilled at using them out of context to manipulate their flocks into sending them money. “Give,” Jesus says, “and it will be given to you!” If you are generous, God will be generous to you. If you give, God will give to you. So, if you want to experience increase, whether in your bank account, your health, or your love life, give. More specifically, give money to me, the TV preacher. Sow your seed offering. Be like the widow who gave all she had. Give until it hurts so God knows you are serious. And if, after you sow your seed and step out in faith, you don’t receive your “increase”, it isn’t because I am a liar; You simply must not have given enough. You didn’t have enough faith. Never fear! The TV preacher will allow you to send him as much money as it takes to obtain your blessing. This is what has been called the Prosperity Gospel. False teachers have been using it to bilk people of their money for many years. It works especially well in America, where we do not experience the hopeless, soul-crushing poverty prevalent in many other areas of the world.

But, looking at Christ’s words, isn’t that what the plain reading of the text says? Give and it will be given to you. Isn’t Jesus literally telling His disciples that he will bless them if they give generously? No. These two verses come from the middle of a sermon that spans 29 verses in Luke’s Gospel. Understood in their context we learn what Jesus is actually discussing: Jesus is talking about forgiveness. He wants us to forgive others. He has granted us a generous portion of forgiveness, we are to do likewise, if we really believe what Jesus says is true. That good treasure He has put into our hearts by the working of His Holy Spirit through the Means of Grace should overflow out of us. Is this any surprise? This is the same Jesus who teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”[1] This is the Jesus who told Peter the parable of the unforgiving servant, and that he should forgive his neighbor, not seven times, but seventy times seven times.[2] 

We, who have been freely forgiven by Christ for our sin, should treat our neighbors likewise. If we don’t, we must reexamine whether we really believe that God has forgiven us by his grace, in Christ, apart from our works. We run the risk of being that unforgiving servant. If we removed verse 38 from the discourse here recorded by Luke, is there any doubt that Christ is talking about mercy and forgiveness?  Does it make sense that His focus should shift from forgiveness and mercy, to a magic formula for having your best life now, for the space one sentence? Of course not. We daily sin much and deserve nothing but punishment. Since God has given us forgiveness through His Son freely, we will also heartily forgive, and also readily do good, even to those who sin against us.[3]

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[1] Matthew 6:9-13

[2] Matthew 18:21-35

[3] Triglot Concordia: the symbolical books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words. When they had come, they said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.” So they brought it. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at Him (Mark 12:13-17).

The Pharisees and Herodians are hoping to catch Jesus in a misstatement. They were afraid of the reaction of the crowds if they should come out against Jesus overtly and imprison or murder Him[1]. They figured that the only way for them to get rid of Jesus without causing a riot would be for Him to incriminate Himself. Their question is designed to put Jesus between a rock, and a hard place. If He answers that they shouldn't pay taxes to Rome, He is a subversive, a threat to Rome, and subject to it’s punishment. If He advocates paying taxes, then the Pharisees can say that He is a traitor to His people and the people would then call for His head. They open with a bit of flattery. We know you are true, they say; we know you care about no one, that is, Jesus is no respecter of persons. He’s not diplomatic and will speak what He thinks regardless of who is listening. These statements are made to soften Jesus up. If they thought, as they said, that Jesus taught the way of God in truth, why did the Pharisees and Herodians not simply accept what Jesus was teaching, rather than questioning Him?

These men, who knew what God’s Word said to look for, saw what Jesus did, and they knew what it meant. They saw Him heal the sick, restore the sight of the blind, make the lame to walk, and they understood that these were signs that pointed to the coming Messiah[2]. But they weren’t looking for the right kind of Messiah. They were looking for a political savior rather than a spiritual one. They were looking for a messiah who would save them from their bondage to Rome, not from their bondage to sin. Rather than embrace His coming, rather than repent and believe, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians were more concerned with holding on to their political power and religious authority[3].

Jesus would not assent to the faulty premise of their question. He uses the chance to show the true relationship between temporal and spiritual things. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. Jesus tells us that, while our first allegiance is to God and His kingdom, we are bound to obey all legitimate civil authority[4]. He has instituted government for good order and our protection. Where the two come into conflict, we must obey God rather than men, as the Apostles showed us when they were imprisoned for preaching the Gospel after being ordered by the authorities to stop.[5] But, concerning earthly matters we are to obey the government which has authority over us.[6] Jesus tells us bluntly to keep our priorities straight. May we be careful to always render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and render unto God what is God’s.

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[1] Matthew 21:45-46

[2] Luke 7:22; Luke 4:16-21

[3] John 11:48-53; 18:13-14

[4] Romans 13:1-8

[5] Acts 5:22-32

[6] Kretzmann, P. E. (1921). Popular Commentary of the Bible (Vol. I). St. Louis, MO, USA: Concordia Publishing House.

Jesus Counsels the Rich Young Ruler

Christ and the Rich Young Ruler

Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Mark 10:17-31).

The rich young ruler comes to Jesus. He asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him that he already knows the answer. He must keep the commandments. Do this, and you will live. The man tells Jesus that he has, just as we tend to tell ourselves today. I’m no thief; I don’t commit adultery; I haven’t murdered anyone. But we all are these things, even if we don’t realize it. This is the point Jesus makes in the Sermon on the Mount. To lust after a woman is to commit adultery; to hate our brother is to murder him. This goes for the First Commandment, thou shalt have no other gods, as well. Doubtless, this rich young ruler thought he was keeping the First Commandment by doing all the things prescribed in the Law for an Israelite to do concerning the worship of God. Jesus, however, shows him that his true object of worship, his idol, was his wealth.

Jesus looked at the man and loved him. By pointing out the man’s breaking of the First Commandment, Jesus calls him to repentance. The fruit of Jesus’ love, the forgiveness of sins, waits for the rich young ruler if he sells all he has, gives to the poor, and follows Christ. Life is not offered this man on the condition of doing the work of charity, nor is Jesus implying that wealth is inherently evil. Money isn’t evil; the love of money, we are told elsewhere in Scripture, is the root of all kinds of evil. In the case of the rich young ruler, love of money was the root of idolatry. He feared, loved, and trusted in his wealth instead of God. Jesus' instructions to the man point this out in a glaring way. For the man to do as Jesus told him would have been for him to repent and believe. 

The disciples were now greatly astonished. How hard it is for those who have riches - who trust in riches - to enter the kingdom, Jesus tells them. If these people, who are wealthy and powerful, have trouble getting in, what chance do we lowly fishermen have? Indeed, what chance do any of us have? We have, in fact, the same chance as the disciples and the rich young ruler: no chance at all. After all, with man, Jesus says, it is impossible. On our own, trying to be good enough to measure up to God’s standard of holiness and perfection set forth in the Law, we cannot succeed. With God, however, all things are possible. Since God grants faith and forgiveness as His free, undeserved gift because of Christ, we all may receive them, through the means of His Word, by the working of the Holy Spirit. That is a comforting thing whether you are a child, a rich young ruler, a Pharisee, a disciple, or a “modern” man.