Getting Job-ed
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Luke 18:18-27 ESV
What does Jesus mean when He says, “it’s hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God?’ That’s what we’re going to tackle in this article.
This is such an interesting section of Scripture, and how misconstrued and twisted it has been made in history. I think this lends a lot of us to think, “ok, if I don’t make X amount of dollars, then I’m not rich and then I’m doing better in Jesus’ eyes…” That’s not the point of the passage. I believe what Jesus is getting at in this passage is the condition of our heart, not the amount that we own or the salary we make. I don’t even think it’s about the good that we do with the wealth we do own. Take the conversation back to it’s root: how are you saved? Are you saved by a Herculean effort of how much work you do for God? Are you saved by how much or how little you own? No. You’re saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:1-10), and we all need to be checked out of our self-righteousness from time to time. So what is Jesus really getting at with the rich young ruler?
What does it mean to be rich?
For one, in the passage above, we see that the man is not really looking towards faith and grace for salvation, he’s looking towards his own ability. This is a fool’s errand to think that we can do anything to earn the merit of an infinitely holy God. Read the Old Testament, salvation has always come from the grace of God. Look at John 6:44 ESV, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” In the Greek it’s even more plain: we do not have the ability or the power to come to God unless He is the acting agent in His grace.
As we read on, we see that the man keeps the commandments in the Old Testament, but as Jesus does throughout the Gospels (especially Matthew 5-7) He clarifies the intent of the Old Testament law. Jesus reveals that the laws were also about the intention of the heart, not just about checking a box and saying ‘ok that’s enough.’ So Jesus gets to the heart of the man by knowing that he had an extreme amount of wealth. Jesus calls him to sell everything and then “come, follow me.” But the man can’t. He loves his wealth too much. It’s not that it was a certain amount that he had, it was the condition of his heart towards Jesus.
Jesus knew that there was at least one law that the man was wasn’t faithful to: the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” This was the greatest and most important commandment, and the man put something else in place of that love and loyalty to the King. Now the question is, what does it mean to be rich? I would argue, from this section, that if we put anything in front of our love and loyalty to our King, we are rich. Being ‘rich’ is the condition of the heart. You can be poor and be rich, you can be rich and be rich.
So what do we do?
First off, we have to recognize that it is not by our power and ability that we can be saved (reread John 6:44). Yet look at the opening verses in verses 26-27: “Those who heard it said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ But he (Jesus) said, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God.’” We are saved by faith through grace (Ephesians 2:1-10), we are saved only by God’s power. The answer is not my power, but God’s power. Not my doing, but God’s doing. The answer: run to Him for grace and mercy, not your own power to merit salvation. We all need this reminder: God is a different King. The only answer to salvation from the wrath of God is God Himself.
Conclusion
Flip forward a chapter in Luke to 19:1-9 ESV, pay close attention to the italics:
He (Jesus) entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.”
Notice the contrast between Zacchaeus and the rich young ruler in chapter 18: they’re both wealthy. Zacchaeus is a Chief Tax Collector, meaning, a super crook. But look at the condition of His heart: He wants to see Jesus, He receives Jesus joyfully into his home, he vows to right the wrongs he’s done… Zacchaeus is a very different person, and it’s not the outward expressions from Zacchaeus that lead Jesus to say, “Today salvation has come to this house…” But rather it is the condition of Zacchaeus’ heart: He truly loves God, and this love has changed his outward expressions. The rich young ruler did not love God but wanted to fix his outward actions. That’s a big difference.
So, what are these passages saying to you today? Jesus is calling you to not be rich, but this isn’t dependent on the amount you make. Most of us in the US would be considered to be rich by the majority of the world, despite our income level. What does it mean to be rich in God’s eyes? What is the condition of your heart today?
– Austin
