Crossing The Line Mark 10:17-22
MESSAGE Crossing the Line Running from Fear to Hope Mark 10:17-22 Introduc)on We are surrounded by a sea of humanity that is constantly engaging us. Almost everywhere we turn, we are in con@nuous contact with others in one way or another. At work, as we shop, and even at home, we are being influenced and touched by people even though they are separated by hundreds, if not thousands of miles through modern technology. We are connected through television and radio. We have instant access to hundreds of friends on Facebook. Smartphones keep us connected on the go. We have an invisible net we call WiFi that keeps all our technologies working and in sync. Yet even for all our technology and connectedness, we s@ll ojen struggle to connect with God because the culture we are connected to is ojen opposed to the God we seek. This is! 1
because this world, our culture and society, may reflect a god- likeness, but actually stand in opposi@on to God. Essen@ally, we are caught in a constant bamle between our culture and our Creator. Even though we realize this, the line that separates the two is some@mes blurred. It is easy to become confused about which side we are following, but we must decide between the culture or the Christ. Background Robert P Dugan, Jr. defines the culture as, [T]he ways of thinking, living, and behaving that defines a people and underlies its achievements. It is a na@on's collec@ve mind, its sense of right and wrong, the way it perceives reality, and its defini@on of self. Culture is the morals and habits a mother strives to ins@ll in her children. It is the obliga@ons we acknowledge toward our neighbors, our community, and our government. It is the worker's dedica@on to crajsmanship and the owner's acceptance of the responsibili@es of stewardship. It is the standards we set and enforce for ourselves and for! 2
others: our defini@ons of duty, honor, and character. It is our collec@ve conscience. 1 The culture in which we live is defined by the thoughts, ideas, tradi@ons, and accepted norms of the people within that culture. In America today, we have many thoughts, ideas, and tradi@ons that are rooted in a Chris@an heritage, but that does not necessarily mean that they point to Christ. This was the same in Christ s day. The main point of the story we will study today is how do we find God in a culture that mimics godliness, but is ojen not really of God? What follows are four steps that are necessary for crossing the line that separates a cultural religion, to a Chris@an rela@onship. Expository Outline I. Find the Line As chapter 10 begins, Jesus is crossing into the region of Judea and across the Jordan to minister. As His ministry in this area draws to a close, He is about to leave on a journey when a 1 Robert P. Dugan, Jr., Winning the New Civil War, p. 169. Found also at the link above.! 3
young man runs up to Him, kneels before Him, and ques@ons the line. I began to wonder why he is running. Has he just found out that Jesus was in the area and ran to catch Him before He con@nued His journey? Has he delayed going to Jesus, but upon hearing the news that his opportunity was about to end he decided that he could wait no longer? I believe he tells us why he is running in his ques@on. He is not running to Jesus but from something else. Something the world sees as dark and cold. This is something that has filled humanity with dread and fear since the beginning. He is running from the inevitable. He is running from death. Look at the ques@on. It is not a ques@on of how to please God. It is not a ques@on about developing a deeper rela@onship with God. This man is afraid of dying and wants to know how he can overcome death. It is a ques@on based on understanding, somehow knowing, that even though he was moral, he was not at peace with God. He honored Jesus and respected Him as, Good Teacher. He had heard of this man named Jesus and hoped,! 4
assumed, and expected that He could answer the ques@on. Where is the line, and how to I get to your side? This young man, a rich ruler, knew something. He understood a basic truth that extends through @me and space into our world even today. He recognized that God and this world are not on the same side. He knew that there was something that must be done for him to join God on His side. And he rightly recognized that the line has to do with Christ. II. Define the Line Hearing the ques@on, and knowing the implica@ons of answering it, Jesus responds in what seems like a peculiar way. Instead of answering the ques@on directly, Jesus asks a ques@on in return, Why do you call Me good? At first, this seems awkward and unnecessary, but that is not the case. It was unusual that the young man referred to Jesus as good since this word is indica@ve of excellence and worth above others. That descrip@on was typically reserved for God alone. If Jesus came to seek and save the lost as we are told in Luke 19:10, why then does He not simply answer the! 5
ques@on instead of replying with His own? It is because Jesus knows that salva@on is more than a prayer or process. Salva)on is a changed life based on understanding that He is the messiah and accep)ng Him as Lord and Savior in faith based on this understanding. Rodney Cooper writes, But we see from Jesus teachings in other places that Jesus ojen used ques@ons to draw a statement of faith from a seeker. For example, in Luke 8:45, a woman was healed of a hemorrhage by touching the hem of Jesus garment. He asked, Who touched me? Jesus knew who had touched him, but he wanted her to come forward and acknowledge her faith. It helped restore her to community. Other examples of Jesus using ques@ons to solicit a statement of faith are in Luke 9:20 and Mark 8:29 ( Who do you say I am? ), in Luke 10:36 ( Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? ), and John 8:10 ( Has no one condemned you? ). 2 Why would he run to Christ, kneel before Him, and call Him good? This is why Jesus asks the ques@on. To allow this 2 Rodney L. Cooper, vol. 2, Mark, Holman New Testament Commentary; Holman Reference (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 167.! 6
man a public profession of faith, but it does not come. Could it be that this man was simply giving lip- service to Christ? Was he claiming that Jesus was important to him when he actually viewed Jesus as a mere tool to be used in order to gain what he desired? Was it vain flamery? We do not know, but we certainly see in verse 22 that Jesus was not the most important thing in this man s life. To further bring the line into focus, Jesus begins talking about the commandments. It is interes@ng to note that when Jesus recalls the commandments to this young man, He purposefully speaks of commandments that are based on disallowed ac@ons. Murder, adultery, thej, lying, and honoring parents is what He points to. embraced, encouraged, and exalted by his culture. These would have been This young man claims in verse 20 that he has obediently followed these rules. Jesus wanted to show him that if what you have been doing is not having the effect you desire, then something is not right. So He does not men@on the command this young man is missing yet. This commandment would serve as the basis for all other commandments. It is a commandment that cannot be forced upon you buy a culture,! 7
only embraced as a personal choice. It is the command that ins@lls the mo@ve to obey all other commands. This command would cause the follower to simply obey the other commands as byproducts of its obedience. It is the command that he is missing and causes him to ask the ques@on. It is the command to have only one god, the LORD God. When Jesus is ques@oned in MaMhew 22:36 concerning which is the greatest commandment, He looks to none of those men@oned to this young man. Instead, He replies, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. Now we must ask why Jesus did not address this with the rich young ruler. The answer is clear. Jesus men@oned things that he has done all life. All of his life, he has obeyed these commandments, followed these rules, yet here he stands before Jesus asking the ques@on, seeking the missing piece. He had to see that none of the things he did could answer the ques@on, but only burden him with more rules. The commandments had a purpose, but they only pointed to how desperately we needed Christ.! 8 Now that the Messiah has
come, they are insufficient. This man s culture, built on these rules, has not recognized Jesus, so they con@nue to follow rules instead of Him. And they will con@nue to feel that something is missing. You see, their culture was much like ours. Since it s founding, America has known primarily one religion, which established our culture. The teachings of the Bible were adopted and promoted by nearly every genera@on since the colonists. Of course this does not mean that every single person has been a Chris@an, but the society accepted the biblical teachings as a standard upon which they built their moral code. The Jews were much the same. Their iden@ty was found in their religion. It was how they belonged in their communi@es. It formed the basis of their legal, poli@cal, and social world. Anyone born into a Jewish family would, for the most part, iden@fy with other Jews through this common history. Likewise, there are many people who claim Chris@anity on the basis of how they were raised. They submit to a moral code ins@lled in them by their parents and their parents! 9
parents. This gives them a basic standard of morality, a tradi@on that might cause them to be more prone to amend church, but that does not mean that they are truly Chris@ans. To truly be a Chris@an, you must follow Christ. III. Address the Line When Jesus fixes the line, it is fixed not by what you do. It is defined by who or what you follow; by who or what you give your live to and invest your @me and energy in. There are staunch atheists who are good, moral people. They have never murdered anyone. There are Buddhists who have not commimed adultery. There are Muslims that do not steal. There are Hindus that do not lie about others. There are pagans that do not take advantage of others. They love and honor their parents. They do all the things Chris@ans do. But that is not what makes us Chris@ans. The line is defined by Jesus and bridged by Him. Jesus created a bridge that allows man, no mamer how moral or immoral, to find his way to God. Jesus defines the line and it is our rela@onship with Him that defines which side we are on. We must forsake everything and follow Him.! 10
When it comes to salva@on and eternity, if you lack one thing, you lack everything, because there is only one thing that mamers Jesus. This is where the ques@on came from. As he came to Jesus he knew that even though he was moral and he had lived a good life, there was something missing. I believe that there are many people who are Chris@ans in culture and morality, but no mamer what they do, they simply cannot feel sa@sfied. There is always something missing. There is always one thing they lack. That is the close walk with God, the rela@onship with Him that comes only by following Jesus. IV. Pick a Side The young man was stunned. He knew something was missing, but he never expected it to be this. Maybe he thought there was something more to do. Perhaps he hoped that Jesus would tell him that he was ok? Look at the word grieved. When do you grieve? What causes you to feel grief? Grief is experienced whenever you lose something. Something that is valuable and important. What had he lost? Hope. Once the line had been found, defined, and confronted, he knew that he would not cross it.! 11
The line creates a fissure, a fracture that divides man from God. Jesus created a bridge so that we could cross it, but for some, like this young man, it is a bridge they will never cross. Christ looked into his heart and saw that despite this his knowledge of the law, despite his obedience to the rules, despite his eagerness to have eternal life, despite his public confession on his knees, despite all these things he had done right, he had done the most important thing wrong he had not recognized Christ as the Lord of his life. He had not crossed the line from cultural religion to following Christ in a rela@onship. Christ looked into his heart and saw that his wealth was his true god, despite everything else being right, his heart was all- wrong. So Christ gave him the command to get rid of the one thing that had priority over Him in this man s life. That is where the line divides. It cuts deeply into the assump@ons of a moral man and the tradi@ons of an ailing culture, to penetrate the heart of the issue. This man grieved, for the wound was too great. He went away saddened, not because he failed to meet Jesus, not because he had been unable to speak to Him, and certainly not because Jesus had rejected him. In fact, we are! 12
told specifically that Jesus looked at him and loved him, and it was this very love that caused Jesus to tell him not what he wanted to hear, but what he had to hear; the truth. Conclusion There are two main reasons that we fail to give up everything for Christ. The first is an inability to trust. At @mes, it is so much easier for us to trust what we can control. God tells us to trust Him and relinquish all control to Him. The second reason we fail to give up everything for Christ is that we are simply unwilling to turn those things over. Regardless of what it is, if you cannot give it up for or to God, then you are on dangerous ground. While there seems to be two main reasons for failing to surrender everything to God, there are four main areas where we ojen struggle to surrender. These are )me, talent, tes)mony, and treasure. We are unwilling to give our @me to serve, study, and worship. There are more pressing things that we must devote ourselves to. Our culture would say that we should spend our! 13
@me on ourselves when God would ask that we devote some to Him. Time is a very limi@ng factor. You only have so much. We are some@mes unwilling to give our talents to God in His service. Our culture says that we must sa@sfy ourselves with our talents, but God would ask that we use the talents and gijs He has given us to serve Him by serving others. Perhaps you struggle with giving your tes@mony to God. Our culture demands that we be tolerant. Our society says that it is uncouth to talk about religion. God, however, asks that we would share the hope we have in Him with others who need it as desperately as we did. God. Then we find ourselves struggling to give our treasure to This is not a sermon about @thing, but it is a sermon about trus@ng God. Some of us do not trust God to care for us enough to give back to Him at all. We do not give to the local church, we do not give in the community, we just try to hang on to as much money as we can because we trust it more than we trust God. We have adopted a form of righteousness that seems right and acceptable within the context of our society and culture, but there is one thing we lack Jesus. In order to cross! 14
the line, we must choose to follow Him and trust Him more than anyone or anything else. We must joyously and generously give it all to Him and wish that we had more so that we could give more to Him. Today there are some of us who are here not because we are running to God, but because we are running from guilt, fear, and convic@on. Because we know that no mamer how moral we are, how righteous according to our culture or society, there is something missing.! 15