Rich Young Ruler

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0:00 Well good morning, glad you made it. Thinking a little bit this morning, this is the last Sunday of the church year. So next Sunday starts a whole new church year which feels like maybe that is something new that can start for you or maybe that there's a sense of anticipation we can invite or hopefulness we can invite into our lives with the new year.

0:33 And we've been thinking about this idea of the gospel being in the prerogative of God. That God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God that creates the world and creates life, this God initiates. This God moves first and we respond. So several weeks ago, I shared that like meditation that my dad had given me in college

1:05 from this Renaissance era monk where the invitation is to imagine where you were before you came into existence in the womb. The reality that the world was spinning fine without you and would have gone on fine without you. But the God would not have a world that you didn't exist in. We talked about the reality that our existence is evidence that the God of creation and life

1:40 goes first, that the God calls us out of nothing. We talked about that story where Jesus goes to see the little girl and she has died. And in her death, he walks over to her and the gospel writers preserve the Aramaic word. He whispers to her to Litha Kum, little girl, get up. And while she is dead, life reenters her body that she can do nothing but respond to the

2:11 movement of God towards her. And last week we talked about the Apostle Saul on the road. And I love the idea that Jesus makes a special trip out of heaven in order to get this one dude Saul who by all accounts has been at least acting like a jerk. Like to say it nicely, he is persecuting the followers of the way.

2:42 He does not merit a special visit from the risen Savior out of heaven. But the risen Savior always moves first. And then we respond. And the movement of God is not based on our behavior, even our beliefs. It is based on the prerogative of God to move towards those he loves. And I want to think today about this one little story.

3:12 We are going to have two kind of stories today that I didn't realize they went together and maybe they don't. But they go together for me today. We will see if it works. So the first story is in Matthew's account of the gospel. If you will look there with me. It's kind of a famous story. It's in several of the gospel accounts. A lot of the, I think three of the gospel writers remember this story and record it for future readers. So in Matthew it's in chapter 19 starting at verse 16.

3:52 The way Matthew remembers it, Jesus has come down from the Mount of Transfiguration and is in a section of teaching where he's teaching people about how to live and how to understand what the kingdom looks like. And then he says right before our section in verse 13, he tells the people who are following around behind him listening to the teaching. The important thing is to remember that you come to the kingdom of God not like some learned

4:28 scholar where you know all the answers as though the kingdom of God is for the only the wise or the holy. He says come to me like little children. Let these little children come to me because he says unless you come to me like little children, you'll never inherit the reign of God. So he's saying you need to come just recognizing that I give freely like children look for something from their parents. Now we're getting a lot of questions about candy. We ought to let them have all the candy because their hollowing candy is dwindling.

5:03 They don't need to merit it. They just need freely giving of candy. Jesus says that tell us to his followers, let the little children come to me. If you want to inherit the reign of God, come like little kids just expectant asking for good things. And just after that, this rich young guy comes up and this is the story I want to start with in Matthew chapter 9 verse 16. Says, and behold, a man came up to him saying, teacher, what good deed must I do to have

5:33 eternal life? The rich young ruler recognizes and maybe you do too that however well or poorly life is going for you right now, there's coming a day where this life will end and there's something else. The rich young ruler is doing pretty well. He's a rich young ruler. We don't remember his name because he goes away. But he's a rich young ruler. So he's doing well.

6:04 He's got money and power, but he recognizes they'll come and end to those things and he wants to secure an eternal life. He recognizes that his money and power will protect him and provide for him for a period of time. And then after that, he'll die and he needs something else. So he's like, tell me what good deed I have to do in order to merit eternal life. In going on what we've been saying, you might expect Jesus to simply say, no good deed

6:38 will merit you eternal life, rich young ruler. You get in on my prerogative. But Jesus' response is more nuanced than that. Behold, and teach her what good deed must I do to inherit eternal life, verse 17. And he, Jesus said to him, the rich young ruler, why do you ask me about what good deed must be? What is good? There is only one who is good.

7:09 Jesus is saying, you think you can do the right amount of good deeds to get you into eternal life? You're already on the wrong foot. There's only one who can pull that off. Right? Wink not. There's only one who can pull that off. There's only one who's good. If you would enter eternal life, he's like, just keep the commandments. If you want to do the good deeds, keep the commandments. And the rich young ruler doesn't catch the wink and the nod and says, well, which commandments

7:40 do you want me to keep? And he said to him, which ones? And Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. It's a pretty robust list, right? But the rich young ruler doesn't, hasn't gotten to where he is by lacking confidence or discipline. So he's like, I got that.

8:13 And Jesus says to him, all right, man, if you want to be perfect and secure eternal life, you want to be perfect, go and sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and then come and follow me. A lot of people kind of speculate on why Jesus told him this. Of course, Jesus doesn't tell every wealthy person to give away everything that they have. As a matter of fact, if you read the story of Acts, there are wealthy people who provide

8:44 well for the church to gather in their homes, to provide for other churches. Health can be used for a lot of things and in noke is not in every case that Jesus tells a wealthy person to give away everything that they have. There must be something about the rich young ruler where Jesus recognized in order to demonstrate a heart change for him to come to Jesus like a little kid, he would have to give away his riches and his ruling power. He would have to give away the things that he's counting on in order to only count on

9:19 Jesus. So if you want eternal life, if you want an eternal security provided for you, give up the things that you're counting on now and count on me. Jesus says, and when the rich young man heard this, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. I don't know. I mean, well, it maybe is easier to give away everything that you have if you don't have

9:58 very much. I remember a couple of years ago I was in this group of people and most of them, I'll just say, I mean, were farther along in their wealth creation than me. They had more stuff. And in the nature of the conversation, we were talking about like the legacy of slavery in the United States and it was a mostly white conversation.

10:30 And somebody in the conversation had said they had heard the notion of an act of repentance for that as a benefactor of a privileged system that is biased towards white folks. He said he'd heard an act of repentance might be to tithe on your net worth. And I can remember everyone in the room at the table was like, and I had a little bit, I said, well, let's do it fast because I could still do the math for my net worth in my head

11:01 and I can afford that over a couple of years. It's easier when you have less to give it away that people around the room had more and the idea of tithe on their net worth was a much harder proposition. Jesus tells the rich young ruler, hey, if you want to be able to have security after the grave, it's beyond you. You're not good enough. You can't keep the commandments well enough.

11:31 Your ability to accumulate money and power won't protect you on the other side of death. Jesus of Nazareth says, give away all of your things and count on me. And this is particularly hard for people who have something to lose. Most of us in reality have something to lose. This is where the other story came to mind because I was thinking about that rich young

12:04 ruler going away and I was thinking about his money and power not being a bad thing. It's very easy to imagine that God allowed the rich young ruler to accumulate the money and power because he was a good dude. Most accounts he had kept the commandments. But somewhere the money and power flipped from a blessing to some sort of barrier from his

12:38 hope. It was like a gift from the God had turned in. God's provision, the physical things of provision had turned into a thing that he hoped in or hoped for. Instead of hoping in the God who gave him riches and power, he hoped in the riches and power that God had given him to secure his future. Reminds me of this story. It's a little bit obscure but it's kind of fun so we'll look there.

13:11 The first part of the story comes in Numbers which is not a book we go into that often but it's in the first, the Torah, the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. And in this section in Numbers God has delivered the Israelites up out of Egypt. He's taken them out of slavery. He's defeated the Egyptian army. He's defeated the Amalekites. He's spread the Red Sea. He's given them the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.

13:42 They have a written description with his own finger of what life will look like now that he has close proximity to them and they're wandering through the desert because they ended up, their faith failed them. They couldn't believe that God would actually give a nation of slaves, the Promised Land, walled cities and fruited vineyards. It was too good. And so they said there's no way God could give them this and God said fine I won't wander for 40 days or 40 years.

14:13 Wait for a generation to die off and your kids will go and receive the promise. Because maybe they'll be able to believe that I could give it to them. While they're wandering they have different seasons of grumbling. And one of the seasons of grumbling here in Numbers they get these snakes. Actually God allows these snakes to come into the midst and start biting them and they're dying. And he announces he prescribes a solution. They call out to God and say God would you deal with these snakes? We want to stop grumbling and God gives them an answer in Numbers chapter 21.

15:01 I lost it guys. Oh here it is. Numbers chapter 21. Look down at verse 7. Numbers chapter 21 verse 7. And the people came to Moses and said we have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he would take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses make a fiery serpent, set it

15:32 on a pole and everyone who has been and sees it shall live. So Moses made the bronze serpent, set it on the pole. And if the serpent bid anyone he would look at the bronze serpent and live. It's kind of a bizarre story but roll with me for a moment. They have this problem where their life is shortened, their security is threatened, their families are broken up, people are dying. They have this problem in their midst and they call out to God and God gives them a solution.

16:04 Make a serpent, put the serpent up on a pole and if people look at the serpent then they will be healed and it works. The plague of the serpents is dealt with because God provides this solution. Okay, now go to the end of the story in 2 Kings. Bronze serpent goes with them through the desert, goes with them. They keep the bronze serpent through the conquering.

16:34 It goes with them with the Ark of the Covenant, across the Jordan River. It goes with them through battles and wars. It goes with them in the tabernacle, it moves. It goes with them into the temple. It goes with them through the separating of the kingdoms. The bronze serpent stays with them. Why wouldn't it? It was the provision of God in the desert. It's a marker of what God can do when we have faith in him to protect us and provide for us. And then look at where it pops up. We don't hear from the bronze serpent again until 2 Kings, which is generations later.

17:09 And there's this good king Hezekiah after so many bad kings. Hezekiah in the third year of the reign of Oseus, son of Eloh, the son of A. has king of Judah, began to reign. He was 25 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that David, his father, had done.

17:39 And he removed the high places. The problem when Hezekiah came into king became king is that Israel, our people had been looking to all these other gods. They had built asheerapoles, they had built altars to other ancient Near Eastern gods, all the other gods except for the God of creation and the life, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so when Hezekiah comes king, he starts breaking down those other tabernacles, those other altars. Verse 4, and he removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the asheerah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses made.

18:11 For until those days the people of Israel made offerings to it, it was called Nahushtim. When I found that I thought, oh, like in the desert grumbling against God, snakes come to bite him, please God save us, cool, here is my salvation. I fixed it. They're like, that bronze serpent is awesome. They pull it out, they give it a name.

18:44 I don't know who named it, they named it. They start giving offerings to the bronze serpent. Bronze serpent, would you heal us? What? Is not the bronze serpent? It's not the bronze serpent. When I was in seventh grade, I remember junior achievement came into my class and I don't

19:16 know why this stuck with me, I think because it just blew my mind. I still remember when I realized that he's teaching us about money, the volunteer from junior achievement that comes into our seventh grade class, he's teaching us about money. And he's like, you know, money is just paper. I'm like, no, no, no, money represents something somewhere else. He's like, it only represents the shared faith we all have in it. I was like, what? Yeah, money is actually just paper.

19:46 Then, when I was in seventh grade, I don't want to do the math to figure out how long ago that was. But I graduated high school in 99, so you can do the math. And when I was in seventh grade, 25% of the money in circulation was hard cash. The rest of it was numbers in computers. Then, when we have staff for the coffee shops, I get money in the coffee shop on a credit card. Somebody changes numbers in a computer to numbers on my computer.

20:18 Then I direct deposit to the staff. I change numbers on my computer. It's all like air. And somehow, this thing that God uses to provide for us, we have such hope and confidence in. As though God can't conjure more air up for us and provide for us as we need it. As though we don't have the author and perfecter of the world looking out for our eternity,

20:48 we have like kneeled at the bronze serpent like some Israelite misguided worshiper. Hezekiah came and broke the serpent and threw it out and said, no more. The rich young ruler in Matthew, oh, I lost my page, guys. Wish me luck. Matthew, oh, here it is. I did it. Chapter 19, the rich young ruler, when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful

21:22 for he had great possessions. I'm telling you, for us, this is a sincere danger. You are rich and powerful. If you're bored, you can stream entertainment. If you feel landlocked, you can travel. If you feel tired, you have safe, comfortable places to sleep.

21:57 If you feel hungry, you can make the food that you are rich and powerful, and this is dangerous. It creates the illusion that we need our money and power. He went away, the rich young man went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.

22:27 Last point on this. I don't know how things shake out for the rich young ruler, but like this moment right here, where Jesus, where Jesus, the incarnated creator of the universe, the fulcrum on which all humanity changes, the answer, the beginning and the end of all things, the source and finishing of all beauty, the beginning and end of all justice, looks at one dude and

23:01 says, why don't you come and follow me? And the rich young ruler walks away. Like I don't know how that comes to bite him. I don't know if he sees a movie at the end of his life and is like, oh, like I hope he turns that story around, but that moment right there, I can feel the sadness in the moment for Jesus watching the rich young ruler walk away, bummed.

23:35 And Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. It will be hard. Again, I tell you, and it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than a rich person enter the kingdom of God. People have tried to make that more possible. They've tried to say that the eye of the needle is like a term for a smaller hole in a gate where you had to, at the outside of a city where you had to like get the camel to kneel

24:09 down and walk through real small or something. If you've heard story, the point is it's near impossible to get a camel to go through the eye of the needle. And when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished saying, who then can be saved? A camel through the eye of the needle. I like that he's saying it's hard for wealthy people to make it.

24:42 It's hard for wealthy people to make it, he said. And then he said it's actually really hard for wealthy people to make it, and the disciples were like, well, the answer for the disciples isn't, well, then we better all be poor. The disciples is, it's not going to work for anybody. Because we're not going to be poor, we know that. Nobody wants that. Obviously people have chosen poverty because they feel like it's easier to count on God

25:14 and poverty than in wealth. Because that doesn't occur to them, they say, well then how can anybody be saved? And Jesus says, but Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. This is where I want to end our church here together.

25:44 All to you is the God for whom all things are possible. The God who does impossible things is available to you. The God who does impossible things is available to you. It may cost you something to follow him.

26:17 It may be hard at times to find the God or to pursue the God through your riches and power in the world, to get away from all of the things, to press through all the things and encounter the God. But I'm telling you, available to you is the God for whom anything is possible. The God who does the impossible is available to you.

26:48 Always. You are never so rich or too powerful that you cannot find your way to God. You are never so poor, you are never so evil or forgotten, you are never so lost or confused. You are never so far away from the God. It is never impossible for you to come back to God.

27:19 The God of creation in life, God of Abraham is it can shake up the God of Christ and the church can do impossible things for you. My prayer is that you would encounter him maybe today or this week. That in the places of your questions, whatever they may be, your questions might be about health or wealth or eternity, your questions might be about purpose or friendship or love.

27:58 Whatever little corner of your life that seems impossible, I pray that you encounter the God who does impossible things today. Lord make us people who find you, who are found by you and give us wisdom, Lord, when you tell us the way that like children we would believe it and go along.

28:34 Lord give us vision to truly see the difference between your bronze serpents and you, between your provision and you. Lord guard us, safeguard us from making idols in the world. Teach us to settle only for you because we know Lord you are the one that does impossible things, do impossible things for us today.

29:06 In Jesus name we pray. Amen.