WWUTT 2203 Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:17-22)

A rich young ruler comes up to Jesus and says, good teacher, what do I need to do to have eternal life? Jesus says, well, you need to obey the commandments. The young man says, I have. But Jesus says, nope, not all of them.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Mark’s Account of the Rich Young Ruler

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Mark, we've been in chapter 10 this week, and we're up to the exchange that Jesus has with the rich young ruler who asks Jesus, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life?

So I'm gonna read here Mark 10 verses 17 through 31 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. And as he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him and began asking him, good teacher, what shall 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 murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother.

And he said to him, teacher, I have kept all these from my youth up. And looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, one thing you lack, go and sell all you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

But at these words, he was saddened and he went away grieving for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus looking around said to his disciples, how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.

And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus answered again and said to them, children, how hard it is 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 even more astonished saying to him, then who can be saved? Looking at them, Jesus said, with people it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, behold, we have left everything and followed you.

Jesus said, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake, except one who will receive 100 times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms along with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.

But many who are first will be last and the last will be first. Now there are several gospels that recall this exchange that Jesus has with the rich young ruler. But oftentimes whenever I reference it and whenever I will read from it or teach from it, I will choose Mark's version.

Mark's version of this exchange that Jesus has with the rich young ruler. And it's mainly because of one phrase is the reason why I will teach from Mark's account. And it's where Jesus looks at him and loves him.

It's Mark 10, 21, and looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him. Only Mark includes that phrase. You also find this exchange in Matthew chapter 19 and in Luke chapter 18, but only Mark has it stated that Jesus looks at him and loves him.

So even this thing that he says to the young man that causes him to walk away from Jesus, Jesus says to him in love, tells him the truth, even though it means that the young man will not follow. Now Jesus has an exchange with the disciples as well in which he calls his disciples children.

That's in verse 24. Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. And as I said to you yesterday, the section that immediately precedes this encounter with the rich young ruler sets this up because the children are brought to Jesus and they're asking him to lay his hands on them and bless them.

Jesus says, permit the children to come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. And what are we reading about here in this section? The rich young ruler asked Jesus, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life to see the kingdom of God?

And Jesus tells his disciples how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God and calls them children because it is the children of God who will see his kingdom. You see the interconnectedness now between the section we looked at yesterday and what we will see today with this rich young ruler.

He is young, but he is not a child of God. Let's come back up to verse 17. We probably won't get through this entire section, everything that I just read today, especially that portion where Jesus tells his disciples what they have left in order to follow him and what they will receive in return.

We may save that until next week, but at least have this exchange between this young man. So in verse 17, Jesus was setting out on a journey. So he spent his time in Southern Judea on the other side of the Jordan.

Now he's resuming his ministry elsewhere. And a man runs up to him and knelt before him and began asking him, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now, we don't have in this exchange it being said that this young man is a rich young ruler.

We see that he is young, and later on it will say that he is rich, but how do we get that he is a ruler? Well, that actually comes from Luke's account. That's in Luke 18, 18. A ruler questioned him saying, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

So we come to understand this as the exchange that Jesus has with the rich young ruler, because we look at all three of those accounts in the synoptic gospels to come to this conclusion that this young man was not only rich, but even a ruler.

Now, what does it mean that he was a ruler? Likely it means that he was a Pharisee or that he was some sort of teacher of the law, because they will be referenced in the gospels as being the rulers of the synagogue or of the temple.

So this is a wealthy young man may have been a Sadducee because the Sadducees were the wealthier between the Sadducees and Pharisees. Pharisees were like the common working man, Sadducees were kind of more of the aristocracy.

So they were more well-connected and came from a wealthy background. So it's interesting then that the young man asks Jesus, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Maybe he wasn't a Sadducee, maybe he was just one of the teachers or scribes or something like that.

But if he was a Sadducee, remember that the Sadducees did not believe in the afterlife. So it could be if he is indeed a Sadducee that he's beginning to question this. Well, I've heard this Jesus going around talking about eternal life.

So if there is such a thing, then how can I have it? And maybe that's what prompts him to ask this question of Jesus. I'm being speculative here, but that could be something about his background or even what motivates him to come to Jesus and ask this question.

Regardless, even taking it at face value, he knows what Jesus has been teaching, he desires eternal life, he wants to know how to get it. So he comes to Jesus and says, good teacher, sign of reverence, a sign of respect, maybe even buttering him up a little bit.

If I show respect to this guy, perhaps he will give me the answer that I want to hear. So calls him by a very reverent title, good teacher. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now, in whatever Jesus says to this young man is challenging the man and says it in a loving way, of course, because we have that statement that Jesus looks at him and loves him.

So he loves this young man enough to tell him the truth, convict his heart, help him to think about things so that he might come around to understand his errors and the way that he must go in order to enter the kingdom of God.

So pushing back on the young man immediately, he says, why do you call me good? Have you really thought through what you're saying when you call me good teacher? Because Jesus says, no one is good except God alone.

Now, there are skeptics who will say that Jesus confesses that he is not God through this response that he gives to the young ruler. If Jesus is going to say no one is good, but God alone, well, then that's Jesus confessing that he's not God.

So why are you calling me a name that should be attributed only to God? That's not the reason why Jesus responds this way. Again, it's to challenge the young man. Now, there's a lot of twisted scripture that comes out of this particular account.

You're going to see that as we keep going here. But he's saying this to challenge the young man. He might think of Jesus as being a teacher, but does he think of him as God? And that's what the young man must come to terms with.

Remember, we're also reading this on the heels of in the previous chapter, Peter confessing that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. So does this young man recognize that Jesus has been sent by God?

No one is good except God alone. So really think through what you're saying when you call me good. There's also a challenge to the young man in the sense that the young man thinks he is good. Like the young man thinks of himself that he's good.

Jesus knows that of his heart. And so saying that no one is good except God alone is going to be part of the conviction that Jesus attempts to convey to him in helping him to recognize the things that he is clinging onto that will actually keep him from the kingdom of God.

So Jesus says, you know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother. Now it's interesting that do not defraud is in there.

You might recognize that as not being one of the 10 commandments, but it was certainly an instruction in the law that you need to use equal weights and measures. You don't show favoritism toward the rich, partiality to the poor, or anything like that.

You must be fair and equal just in your treatment of others. That you're using the same standard of judgment with one person, the same manner of business even that you would deal with one person as you would deal with another.

So that's certainly in the law, even though it is not one of the 10 commandments. And Mark is kind of unique in including that one in that respect. So the young man says to him, teacher, I have kept all these from my youth up.

Now, if the young man had really been listening to what Jesus was saying, then he would have known he had not kept the commandments well, because Jesus started this by saying, no one is good except God alone.

So you need to measure yourself by the standard of God if you want to inherit eternal life. And are you good? Well, the young man has just said, yes, I am. I have just kept all these commandments, ignoring the fact that Jesus just said, well, that can't be true because no one is good but God.

And if you are really examining yourself according to God's standard, then you will realize just how far short of the mark you fall. This young man is unwilling to recognize that. He is not humbling himself.

He is desiring to puff himself up, to congratulate himself, to pad his resume. So he is sure that when he walks through those gates, he's getting in because I've earned this. I've done everything that was required of me.

You owe this to me because I have been so successful at being good, which is self-righteousness. Young man does not realize just how bad he really is. And so Jesus, looking at him, loves him, does not let the young man continue in his delusion, but is willing to say something to him that will even break his spirit, we will see, as he walks away dejected.

But Jesus is not doing this to be mean, to be cruel. He's doing this because he loves him so that the young man could see his errors. And sometimes, friends, we've got to say hard things to people. And it is necessary for us to say those hard things to people so that they will wake up and realize the truth, walking away from error and sin or behavior that might be destructive to them.

Yes, they will probably be deeply offended and even angry at us that we would have to confront them in their errors. But it's because we love them that we won't let them continue in a way that will lead to their destruction.

And that's where this young man was headed. If he continues on that path of thinking that he is able to measure up and be as good as God, he was going to find out a very harsh reality on the day of judgment.

So Jesus, looking at him, loves him to tell him the hard truth. You know, it would be much easier for us whenever we have somebody that we know who is drunk to just give him a drink or let him drink, makes him happy.

It would be easier for us to just let him go through that behavior. If there's a young woman that comes to us, unmarried, has fornicated and is now pregnant, the easiest thing to do would be to take her to an abortion clinic and get her an abortion.

The hard thing to do would be to love her and provide her with the support and help her deliver that baby, taking her to a crisis pregnancy center, giving her housing or whatever financial help she might need to have that child, and then setting her up so that she is able to provide for herself and for the child that is in her womb.

That's the hard thing to do. When you have a young man that comes to you and says that he is struggling with same-sex thoughts, the easiest thing to do would be to tell him, well, you were born this way.

It's just who you are. This is your identity. So embrace it. Don't try to hide it. Don't try to suppress it. There's nothing you can do to change it anyway. Might even be easier for you to change your theology a little bit.

Well, I believe a young man can be a homosexual and a Christian. Those are the easy roads to take. The difficult path is to tell somebody the truth, to stand in their way and prevent them from going to a way that will destroy them.

The drunk stopping him and saying, quit going out to the bars. You are going to destroy you. You're destroying the lives of the people around you. Repent of this. The scriptures even say that the drunks will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Drunkenness will not receive the kingdom. It's harder to help the young woman prepare for the baby that she is now expecting. It's easier to either ignore her entirely. Well, you're on your own. You've sinned.

So you take care of this yourself. And then what's she most likely to do? According to the advice of the culture, she's going to go get an abortion and kill her child. But to stand in her way and say, no, that is murder.

Don't kill your child. And do you not know that murderers will not inherit the kingdom of God? It's easier to let the young man be who he wants to be and chase his own passions and the desires of his flesh.

Instead of saying, hey, scripture says the same thing to you. Those who desire such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Even the desire for homosexuality will result in your destruction if you don't repent of this and have a new heart and a new mind that has been transformed by Christ.

These are difficult things to do, but that's the loving thing to do. It is to do as Christ has done. Even using the law here with this young ruler to help him to see that he is not perfect. He is not good.

He has not kept these commands. And even though Jesus has rattled off several of them here that have led the young man to say, I've done all of these from my youth. Jesus says, one thing you lack. Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

What was he challenging the young man on? Coveting. He was greedy. He enjoyed the world's goods. He had other gods that he was raising up before the God of heaven. And it was his material possessions.

All the stuff that he had, that was his God. And so Jesus in challenging the young man was showing him, you've disobeyed the first commandment. You have other gods before me. So you must go and sell all you possess, give it to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.

But at these words, the young man was saddened and he went away grieving for he was one who owned much property. He did not want to give up the kingdom of this world so that he could have the kingdom of God.

He considered the kingdom of the world more profitable. The kingdom of the world that is coming to destruction and will be destroyed with fire when God returns in judgment. This young man thought that was better.

Then the kingdom that never perishes, the eternal kingdom above where Christ is. That kingdom that we are promised that we will inherit and inhabit forever. And Jesus will go on to talk with his disciples about in the next section.

And we're going to wait until next week until we get to that. Even in the exchange that Jesus says to his disciples about a camel entering the eye of a needle, that's another one of those passages in this exchange that gets twisted to mean something other than what Jesus meant.

Misreading Jesus’ Challenge to the Rich Young Ruler

Speaking of that, let me back up to where Jesus says to the young man, go and sell all you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. A lot of people use that passage to say, well, Jesus is telling you that you have to give up all that you have and give it to the poor.

And if you haven't done that, then you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. In fact, there are plenty of skeptics out there who will say that Christians don't really believe their own religion.

They don't believe their own teacher because he said, give up all you have to the poor in order to have treasure in heaven. And look at this, these Christians aren't even doing it. But Jesus was not saying here that every single person has to give up all that they have, give it to the poor in order to have treasure in heaven.

So do you need to do that? The answer to that question is maybe. You might need to. Maybe you do need to loosen your grip on the things that you have. Maybe you're holding too tightly to that stuff. Maybe you need a challenge just like Jesus gave to this rich young ruler.

Sell all that you have, give it to the poor and come follow me. If Jesus were to say that to you, would you walk away sad? Or would you be delighted for your savior? Yes, I will give all of this up for you.

Does that challenge need to be given to your heart? Now, of course, it's really easy for me to say that and for you to be on the other side going, well, yeah, I'm willing and ready to do that, but you really have to examine yourself as to what you possess.

Do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you? Is this stuff really your God? That you feel satisfied and secure and I am sufficient, everything is sufficient for me now that I have this stuff and my life is complete because of all that I have.

If that's how you would define your life, then you're worshiping false gods because you are saying there is something else in your life you need in order to feel complete and unless you have this, then life is not fulfilling to you.

If all we need is Christ, if you know that all you need is Christ, then you have come to understand as the Lord said to the Apostle Paul, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Some of us do have to struggle a little bit to really test ourselves and put ourselves through trial and trial by fire and recognize, do we really love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength?

Or do we love the gifts? Do we love the gifts more than the giver? In which case we need to do some real self-examination and be willing to give up all that we have in order to follow Jesus and enter the kingdom of God.

There's nothing inherently wrong with being rich for the Apostle Paul, when he was talking to Timothy about this in 1 Timothy 6, had instructions for Timothy to give to the rich in his congregation and one of those instructions was not they have to give up all that they have to the poor and then they will have treasure in heaven.

That was something specific for this young ruler because this young man did indeed love his stuff more than God. So instead what Paul tells Timothy to do, he says in 1 Timothy 6, 17, command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

Life for us is not going to be the life that we experience on this earth, true life is everlasting with God forever in glory. And that's where we need to be setting our hearts, that's where we store up our treasure in heaven above where Christ is, amen.

Prayer and Closing Exhortation

Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read here and as we come to the end of this lesson and even think about those things that we'll read about further after this exchange that Jesus has with this rich young ruler.

May we be ready and willing to examine our own hearts in light of these things. We do need to be keepers of the law, we do need to fulfill the law's requirement and that is to love one another as Jesus had challenged this young man and even loved him to give him the hard answer.

May we be willing to hear those hard truths and be convicted of heart and repent where we need to repent, letting go of sin or our grip on things that are in this world and set our eyes above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, setting our mind not on earthly things, but on the heavenly, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all that we need will be added to us as well.

Give us wisdom that we may know how to deal with one another and give each other the hard things that sometimes somebody else needs to hear. Help us to be courageous in that effort to sanctify one another and build each other up in this most holy faith.

Sometimes that can be kind of painful, but what a wonderful reward we will reap in the end. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study When We Understand the Text.