The Rich Young Ruler Luke 18.18-30 Some people serve as a positive example and other people - not so much. Luke allows us to listen into a conversation a young man has with Jesus - to learn from his decisions. THE RICH RULER This young man is wealthy and powerful, two things we might aspire to in various ways. He has a conversation with Jesus. He asks a question it s not a bad question, but it s basically asking: What s the bottom line for inheriting eternal life? You know as I do, behind every question like this is what s going on in a person s mind. This young man starts with arrogance, not humility. He doesn t come empty-handed to receive - his hands are full of his achievements to show, in front of everyone, how his life has already answered the question he poses. He wants affirmation you re a good guy. Jesus runs through some basic commandments. Don t murder, don t steal, don t lie, honour your mother and father. He replies, I ve obeyed them since I was a little boy. JESUS IS NOT A GOOD MAN Let s jump back a second - remind ourselves how he sees Jesus he calls him good teacher, Many religions, philosophies, and spiritualties approach Jesus in this way. He s a Mahatma Gandhi a Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. or a Mother Teresa. He s a good leader. He s a role model but he s not their Saviour. This man looks at Jesus and says, You re a very good teacher. Jesus corrects him and says, Don t call me good unless you think I m God because only God is truly good. Perhaps he sees Jesus using the same sliding scale of goodness we use. Like this man, we place ourselves and others along it. God has only two categories: sinner, sinless. Jesus says, The only person in the sinless category, in the really truly good category is God. Basically - don t say I m good unless you think I m God. Now let s go further - Jesus isn t simply the best version of us. He s in a category all by himself. He didn t live a good life, he lived a sinless life - a perfect life.
CS Lewis said - Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. This young man placed Jesus along a sliding scale and it led him to approach Jesus in a way undeserving of his true identity. THE IDOLATRY OF THE HEART A characteristic we see in Jesus and in God is that they don t give as much time to intellectual questions as they do in answering the question of our hearts. Although the question posed was, What must I do to save myself? Jesus redirects the conversation as he says - you still lack one thing. Jesus sees this man s heart and mind - Outwardly you ve kept the commandments, but internally you re motivation is wrong. Martin Luther says The first commandment is there s one God alone. The second commandment is you are to only worship that God alone - now if obeyed the first two commandments, we wouldn t disobey the rest. It s like the man or woman who buys the gift for an anniversary because it s the right thing to do but there s no love in their motivation behind it. There s no thought, no feeling, no love it s done to be kept in the good books or be seen to do the right thing. IDOLATRY IS MISAPPROPRIATED WORSHIP On our sliding scale we evaluate people based upon their outward moral behaviour. If they re not behaving rightly, we say they should change their behaviour. Jesus approaches this differently, he isn t trying to change the man s behaviour - he is trying to change the man s God. So what do I mean by that? Adultery is not so much a sexual problem as it is a relationship problem. However sex, pleasure or convenience can be made into an idol.
If we overeat - when we re sad, happy, to reward ourselves all with food - the problem is an emotional void we re filling. We make an idol of food. If we re an angry person - we don t have an anger problem we have an idol problem. We make an idol of poor control, selfishness - we feed it, stew on it and empower it. Most of us say - I feel I m a good person. I don t have any real behaviour problems. John Calvin says the human heart is an idol factory. It s not about behaviour modification to stop idol worship, it s about worship alteration to direct worship to a proper relationship with God. For this man, it was - Look at my success, my achievements, and my possessions. FROM GOOD TO GOD Idolatry is often a good thing that becomes a god thing. Worship are acts of sacrifices. We always worship in one way or another in sacrificing our time, our health, our money. However, the very things we sacrifice can become an idol - we seek in them a sense of comfort, peace, security, meaning, value, purpose, fun, identity, and community. We let them begin to promise something only God is meant to provide. That s why Jesus transitions to discussing the kingdom of God. Remember, this man says he wants eternal life a relationship with God as his greatest treasure. Jesus confronts him, sell all you have and give it to the poor let me become your greatest treasure! The man left very sad because he was going to lose his status his greatest treasure. Jesus just exposed his idol. We might not know what our idol is unless faced with the prospect of losing it. Today you might think you have no idols but put yourself in the young man s shoes! Imagine Jesus has called you to downsize your living and upgrade your giving in finances - time, relationships, and even your plans for the future. What nerve would this expose in your life?
IDOLS DIG DEEP Let s dig deeper into how idols control: 1. Idols requires worship, they begin to push us to manipulate our relationship with God so we can give greater attention to them. 2. Idols require we give it greater time and energy to keep and preserve the level of worship. 3. Idols may become all-consuming to the point they can replace God. Maybe we get a great job, or better health, or good grades, or a new relationship we don t want to let these things slide, or lose them so we start sacrificing our time, our worship and our relationship with our real God to maintain them. But then perhaps our idol starts slipping away. We lose a job, we get a bad health report, we drop our grade average or that relationship is in jeopardy - what then? 4. Losing our idols can leave us devastated, destroyed and maybe even angry at God - How dare you take my treasure from me. (Like Gollum from Lord of the rings) Jesus is saying to the man, I am grieved - because I m meant to be your treasure. DIRECTIONS TO YOUR HEART We can t say, I love my family, but I don t feed them, Or - I love the homeless but there someone else s problem - But don t judge me. You don t know my heart. Well actually we can know your heart - one of the surest ways to find your idol is to follow your money and your time. When it comes to finances, people say I ll give when I have more. Everyone thinks someone else is rich - others give more because they have more. Statistically, the more you make, the less you will give. Those who are poorest tend to be most generous. On the earth right now, our social demographic is the richest. The underlying problem is not money - it s the comfort, security, identity, and community that we associate with money. Roughly twenty-five percent of Jesus teaching is about money, finances, wealth, and possessions. He kept talking about it because we continually failed to understand.
Let s be honest, we don t need to be rich for money to be an idol. We could be poor and obsessed with money - making foolish investments, trying to get rich quick. The same goes with time. Always thinking about how much we don t have so we fail to be generous with it- we covet it and are jealous of those who seem to have more. Yet time and money aren t the issue - it s what lies beneath are they idols? Here s my encouragement: Whatever you struggle to tithe or give to God in your life now, is most likely the thing you have made an idol out of. In this case, whatever you feel you need more of (money, time, love, etc.) start by tithing what you have and focus on getting more of Jesus. JESUS AS YOUR TREASURE Jesus wants to be your treasure - not enslaved to idols. There are two kinds of slavery. One is imposed, the other selected. Imposed slavery is being overtaken against our will. Selected slavery is choosing someone or something to rule and control us. Most idols are selected slavery when it came for the young man to decide, he chose wealth and status as his saviour. If you have selected idols, let Jesus expose them. Whatever keeps you from following Jesus faithfully, whole-heartedly and consistently - get rid of them. For those who have imposed idols and say, My idol is a person, a job providing income, emotional trauma. Jesus knew idols have such a hold that it s as though it would be easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle, than surrender them. If you feel overwhelmed like those around Jesus felt listen to Jesus reply what is impossible for mortals, is possible for God - those who give up everything for him, will receive more - in this world and in the world to come. Friends, learn from our young man today - don t follow Jesus for what you will receive, follow Jesus because he is worthy even if that requires all you have. Let s pray Mark Driscoll sermon notes used - http://markdriscoll.org/sermons/jesus-on-money-idolatry-and-comedy/