Today's scripture focus is : Matthew 19:13-30
13 Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.
16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” the man inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’[a] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, 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.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
27 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”
28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother[c] or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Good morning! I always love the passages where Jesus makes someone something who usually is nothing. Women and children often were insignificant in ancient cultures and even still sometimes are.
But where my eye caught today was on the story of the rich young ruler. Notice this first:
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”Then notice this:
27 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”Never made this connection before and it didn't make sense before, but I gather that Peter thought you had to sort of buy your way into heaven. Peter's like 'hey Jesus, you just told a rich guy to sell everything to the poor and then he'll get into heaven. We have nothing, how are we going to get there? Cuz you know, we are dirt poor!' But Jesus is faithful and doesn't speak in too confusing tones. At the very end he tells them that those who followed him will inherit eternal life. I love how he continues to use the money theme there.
I'll tell ya, there are still many people who think they can buy their way into heaven. And it seems that was a thought process in those days. I wonder if the rich guy was thinking and implicating to Jesus the same thing. He asked what he had to 'do'. I wonder if he meant, who he had to 'pay' or how much he had to 'pay'. I wonder if he knew that Jesus was the Christ and thought he was going to get into heaven via cash to the son. But he was sad because Jesus wanted him indeed to give, but not to Jesus, rather to the poor. See, I wonder if the rich guy thought he could give some but not all to Jesus. You know, give what I have to to get what I want, but then be able to sit back, relax with the rest for myself. He thought he could get to heaven by giving the minimal to Jesus and keep most of his money for himself.
Ouch. Conviction! Hadn't thought of this passage in that light before. What do you think?
Tomorrow's scripture focus: : Matthew 20:1-16
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Ezekiel 32-34
5 comments:
I think there are a lot of people who give only what they feel they absolutely have to to the church and then they've done their duty. They can do whatever they want with the rest, because after all, God has blessed them with this stuff, so they should be able to enjoy it. While I agree that there is nothing wrong with enjoying God's blessings, I do think there are many Christians who have substantially more than they need but it doesn't occur to them that perhaps they could be using that excess for the benefit of others rather than themselves. They've given what they need to, duty done, box checked off on the to do list, waiting in comfort to get to heaven. (I'm sure that they don't consciously think of it in those terms.)
I love the story about Jesus and the little children/infants - one that's in all four gospels! And one of them (can't remember which one now) shows that Jesus was angry with his disciples for their reaction. Jesus often got frustrated and disappointed with His disciples, but rarely was He angry. And here He was angry. He loves children. He created them. He gave them to us as gifts and blessings. He also gave them to us, entrusting them into our care, that we would teach them the truth about His kingdom - teaching purposefully, through circumstances and all of life as things come up, through modelling our own beliefs and of course, praying for them. And He wants them returned back to Him.
One thing that is interesting to note is that the rich young ruler lied. It is impossible for anyone to have kept the 10 commandments 100% of the time. And yet this man claimed to have done so. He wouldn't recognize his own sin. And it's impossible to be saved without recognizing your own sin.
And then Jesus told Him to sell everything he had, give it to the poor and follow Him. And he wouldn't do that either. He would not submit to the Lordship of Christ or give Him the authority to rule his life. He wouldn't forsake everything in order to follow Jesus. He wanted eternal life, but decided the price was too high.
Very good point, Tammy. I hadn't thought about that before.
One point MacArthur brought up - the reason the disciples were so shocked by his teaching that it was impossible for the rich to be saved (when they come on their own terms), was because they had been taught the opposite. They could buy all the sacrificial animals they needed, they could give alms - if they couldn't be saved, who could?! So there definitely was some teaching that you could buy your way into heaven.
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