Luke 18:18-30 First Things First
Good morning! We are returning in our study together to Luke chapter 18. Today we will look at verses 18-30, and that’s on page 877 in the pew Bibles.
Over the last few weeks we have been looking at some accounts in the life of Jesus that point to the sort of upside down nature of the values of the kingdom of God. When we remember the perspectives of Jesus’ original audience and the worth that they ascribed to different people it shows just how upside down the kingdom of God really is compared to the kingdoms of man, of even our own culture.
Our text for this morning continues this theme. Just in this chapter alone we have seen this comparison borne out between the judge, up high, and the widow, down low, between the Pharisee, up high, and the tax collector, down low, of Jesus Himself, up high, and children, down low, and now we’ll look at the rich young ruler and take a look at where he stood.
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 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.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Let’s pray.
Matthew and Mark both record this event in their Gospels, Matthew in chapter 19 and Mark in chapter 10. You can look those up on your own, they both have their own unique flavor.
Luke tells us that a ruler, that is a person in authority, a leader, came up to Jesus and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Now, I admit, as a pastor, this is a dream scenario. It’s Matthew that refers to this ruler as a young man, but Luke tells us that he is influential, and wealthy, and he wants to know how to be saved. These are visits pastors love to get! Way better than a call from some helpless widow, or crooked tax collector, or little kid.
The disciples must have been thrilled to see this guy come along, a guy with money, and power, and he wants to know how to get into the kingdom, that’s a ten out of ten! A five star recruit! But man looks on the external appearances, God looks at the heart.
This man came sincerely to Jesus, he wasn’t trying to set him up or catch Him in His words like the Scribes and Pharisees often did. He came to Jesus and honestly asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus doesn’t see things the way we see things. I admit, I can think of times in the past where people have come to the church I was in that I thought were people of means, with resources and talents that we could really use and valued them above other people. This is exactly the type of thinking that Jesus has been confronting through this whole chapter.
Instead of welcoming this wealthy, young, influential young man into the band like I would have, Jesus immediately confronts him with a pretty stinging question: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
There has been much debate about this statement from Jesus, arguments that I’m not going to get into, but we can recognize that Jesus is telling this man, “You call me good falsely unless you acknowledge that I have come from God.”
Because we know that Jesus is God we know that when we listen to Jesus we hear God speak.
If you want to hear God speak, read your Bible. If you want to hear God speak audibly, read it out loud.
Without giving this guy a chance to react to what He just said Jesus continues, “20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”
All of a sudden this prime candidate for joining the disciples starts to smell a little funny.
At this point, after Jesus quotes the seventh, sixth, eighth, ninth, and fifth Commandments, in that order, the rich young man should have appealed to God’s grace because of his weakness and inability to keep those Commandments. Instead, in foolish arrogance, he boasts that he has fulfilled his duty from childhood.
RC Sproul wrote, “Anyone with an in-depth understanding of the Ten Commandments would not claim to have kept the Law for five minute, let alone since his youth.”
The rich man looked into the mirror of the Law and blindly missed his blemishes.
But remember, he didn’t come to Jesus for grace, he was not a humble, repentant sinner like the tax collector was, he simply felt like he hadn’t done enough and wanted to know what he needed to do to secure his place in the kingdom.
At this point we need to settle the questions in our own minds: Who is fit to enter the kingdom? Upon what basis will entry be granted?
If we take from what Jesus said here that all we have to do is follow the Ten Commandments the best we can then we can enter, we miss the entire gospel, we miss the whole point of Jesus coming to earth in the first place.
Righteousness is what is required, and that is impossible for us to earn, we can only receive it as a gift through faith in Jesus.
The whole purpose of the Ten Commandments is to show us our sin, because it is impossible to do what this man claimed he had done. And that was only the second half of the Ten!
Where this man really stumbled was in the very first Commandment: You shall have no other gods before me.
22 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.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
John Calvin wrote, “I confess that we are nowhere commanded in the Law to sell all; but as the design of the Law is to bring men to self-denial, and as it expressly condemns covetousness, we see that Christ had no other object in view that to correct the false conviction of the young man.”
Jesus gave the young man a choice: me or money. In truth, his wealth was more important to him than even God and so he was in violation of the first Commandment. The order to sell all he had and give it to the poor was not an addition to the Law but a search and discovery of a concealed sin. He worshipped his wealth.
Robert Jamieson wrote, “When riches or heaven, on Christ’s terms, were the alternative, the result showed to which side the balance inclined. Thus was he shown to lack the all-comprehensive requirement of the Law – the absolute subjection of the heart to God, and this want corrupted all his other obediences.”
24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
It’s clear that Jesus’ first audience still did not understand. Let’s make sure we do.
It’s easier to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, what a ridiculous picture! This isn’t some secret code, the eye of the needle was not just a really small gate or hole in the wall of Jerusalem where you had to take all the stuff off your camel to squeeze through.
Literal camel. Literal needle. Absolutely impossible.
So is earthly good bad? Only when wealth possesses us instead of us possessing it will it close the entrance to the kingdom to us, only when we hang our hearts on it. But one doesn’t need to be rich in order to be shut out of the kingdom as a rich man.
It’s just as impossible for a poor man to enter the kingdom as it is a rich man without Jesus. Only an act of God can get us in.
The rich young man saw his wealth as too important to give up for the sake of Jesus. Jesus called him to give it up, piece by piece, and see the source of his earthly joy, pride, and hope dry up drop by drop. Only when he had killed his selfishness to the roots could he see himself as perfect in love. And that would only be possible by following Jesus and growing in His grace.
What Jesus was asking this man to do and us to continue to pursue is to surrender what takes first place in our lives.
And that sacrifice is not without reward!
28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
This is a description of the church! We are in no way commanded here to forsake our immediate families but rather to surrender them to the will of the Lord, to surrender our homes to His use, to use what we have been given for His glory not our own.
If we are unwilling, like the rich young ruler, to surrender to Jesus what we value the most, what does that say about us?
Do our possessions actually possess us, do we grip them tight in a clenched fist or do we hold them in open hands to the Lord for His use, His glory, and for the expansion of His kingdom?
The question for us really is not about wealth but what we value the most. If anything takes that top spot that isn’t Jesus Christ we need to repent, submit our lives fully to Him and live for His glory.
Let’s ask Him to reveal our true priorities, not just what we say, but what we prove by how we live.
Amen.
