Introduction
I’m going to start by asking you three questions. They are not trick questions. They are straightforward “would you rather...?” questions. There is no right or wrong answer; there are only honest answers. Are you ready?
The first is to do with money. Would you rather be £10,000 a year better off or £20,000 a year worse off? Hands up please if you would rather be £10,000 a year better off… And now raise a hand if you would rather be £20,000 a year worse off… (If you’re tempted to go for the second category, you can always give the extra to me…)
The second question is to do with age. Would you rather be 20 years older or 10 years younger? Hands up please if you would rather be 20 years older, losing two decades of your life… And now raise a hand if you would rather be 10 years younger and get a decade back…
And the third question is to do with power. Here it is… In choosing your holiday next year would you prefer a choice of 1,000 worldwide destinations or a choice of 2, both in a dodgy part of Grimsby? Hands up please if you would rather choose from 1,000 destinations… And now raise a hand if you would rather have a choice of 2…
From that unscientific survey, clearly, we would rather be richer, and younger and with more choices.
Intro: The Rich Young Ruler (v17-31)
So welcome to the world of the man in the second half of our reading. He is rich (v22), young (Matthew 19.20) and powerful (Luke 18.18 describes him as a ruler”). In other words, according to our little survey, he has what we want. He’s the kind of person that is admired. He’s successful. He’s an achiever.
Intro: The Children (v13-16)
On the other hand, in the first part of our reading, we find children. Toddlers perhaps; Mark describes them as little children.
We love little people – but in small doses. The thing everyone says to me about having the grandchildren to stay is “Oh, it’s great, you can give them back.”
Why? Because they cry easily and they cry a lot. They want you to play with them when you’re busy. They’re messy eaters. They want you to read them a story when you’re exhausted. They wake up at 5.30am and bounce on your bed. They have toilet accidents and you get to clean them up.
In Jesus’ day and in his culture, kids were not valued at all; much less than today. Nobody took children seriously. They were dismissed as silly, easily-led and immature. No public figure would waste his time talking to them.
But such is Jesus’ magnetic appeal, that people bring their offspring to him in the hope that he will at least notice them. This is, after all, the one who heals sick people, who casts out darkness from tormented souls, who lifts the mood of the oppressed, who gives hope to the crushed.
If it’s a good day, he might even quickly bless their kids before attending to more important things. So it says “people were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them but the disciples rebuked them.”
The Rich Young Ruler (v17-31)
We’ll come back to that. Let’s skip back to the rich young ruler. Apart from the fact that he’s got money, youth and power, he has four things going for him.
1. He wants life (v17). He wants eternal life, in fact. Like a kid outside Fenwick’s shop window, marvelling at the Christmas animation, he sees in Jesus something else; a quality of living in colour, HD and 3D, and he really wants it.
2. He openly admits that, while he wants it, he hasn’t got it. Despite his money, his youth, and the options at his fingertips, there’s still something missing in his life.
3. He has worked out that to get life, someone has to give it to you. Notice he asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” which probably tells you how he came to be wealthy. Someone died and left him a fortune. And now he wants to know if Jesus is the one who can give him the one thing that is missing in his life.
4. He’s ready to do whatever it takes to get this eternal life. Jesus says, (v19) “How good do you think you are? Have you kept the Ten Commandments?” “Oh yes,” he says, “I’ve been there, done that,” but that didn’t bring life. It can’t. So he’s still got this great emptiness, this aching sense of needing something more, inside.
Jeremy Paxman, after leaving Newsnight said last year, “I‘m no longer interested in catching out politicians. I’m interested in the bigger questions. Is there a purpose? What do things mean? And what is the right way to live?”
Can you relate to this? Do you ever ask yourself, “Is there more to life than this? What is life all about? What am I living for? Who am I and where did I come from?
Dr. Andrei Arkhipov, of the Institute of Radio Astronomy in Kharkiv, Ukraine, a respected intellectual, claims we grew out of waste that was left here on earth by aliens. Seriously.
These are the questions that the rich young ruler is asking.
But there are two problems with his question. Here’s the first; and it’s a stumbling block that many people fall on.
The question he asks is “What must I do..?” In other words, “How can I earn eternal life?” Essentially it’s, “How can I save myself? What religious duty must I accomplish, what good deed must I do, what pilgrimage will I have to go on, so that, on top of all the other great things on my CV, I can add, “I saved myself. And I did it my way.”
His starting point is a shed load of achievements “Look how amazing I have been! Now Jesus, tell me, what more could a man like me possibly do to prove how deserving I am?”
But no. That doesn’t work. The only way, the only way to get eternal life is to come to Jesus empty handed and ask for it, offering nothing back. It’s a free gift, never a reward.
The second problem is that he’s got Jesus all wrong. This man looks at Jesus and says, “Credit where it’s due, you come across quite well. I like listening to you.” He calls Jesus “good teacher.”
So many people put Jesus in that category, just a good teacher. There’s a long list of cults, and philosophies, and spiritualties that say of Jesus “Oh, he lived a good life. He was a great moral teacher.”
Actually, Jesus is the finest teacher this world has seen. But he is not just a good teacher. He is Almighty God in human form. Jesus didn’t just live a good life; he lived a sinless life. So Jesus says here, “Only God is truly good. Don’t patronise me by calling me ‘good’ unless you think I am God.”
Then Jesus drops the bombshell. “Oh, and there’s just one thing you lack,” he says. Which is funny, because he then goes on to list four things; firstly “Go”, secondly “Sell all your stuff,” then thirdly “Give to the poor” which will give you treasure in heaven and fourthly, “Come, follow me.”
The one thing he lacks is that he is not prepared to follow Jesus. Everything else is just the obstacle that prevents him.
Jesus doesn’t mean here, “The prerequisite of getting closer to God is that everyone must get rid of all their stuff and live like a monk.” The Bible says “God… richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” The issue is that for this young man money comes between him and God. He is unwilling to make Jesus his treasure.
Whatever comes between you and God has to go. For some, it’s money or the house. For some, it’s a particular relationship. For some, it’s food and drink. For some, it’s work and career. For some, it’s an obsession with health. For others, it’s a preoccupation with leisure and holidays. It can even be family.
These are all good things. But when you turn a good thing into an ultimate thing it’s an idol, and you have to choose between Jesus and whatever is coming before him.
You cannot have Christ and everything else any more than you can push a camel through the eye of a needle. You can try…
What a pity! He would have been such a great addition to Jesus’ team! But Jesus doesn’t call out after him, “OK, come back, I’ll do you a deal… let’s make that half your possessions, 50/50, what do you say?” Jesus lets him leave, crestfallen.
Following Jesus is all or nothing.
The Children (v13-16)
So, finally, back to the children.
When Jesus sees that his disciples are shooing the kids away, “he is indignant” (v14). Just over the page, (9.37) he had told his disciples, “Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me.” Now, just days later, they’re telling the kids to scram. No wonder it annoys him!
Jesus is telling his minders, “What do you think you’re doing, sending the kids away? You’re out of order. I want to see these children, and I want them to see me because the kingdom of heaven belongs to ones like this.”
Some people think that children cannot grasp anything spiritual until they become adults. It’s the exact opposite. We adults will never grasp anything spiritual until we become like children.
What is it about little ones that Jesus says is important to imitate? Was he talking about their simple faith? Children tend to trust you. Was he talking about their joy? I read this week that children laugh on average 150 times a day. For adults, it’s 6 times a day.
He didn’t mean that they were innocent. They’re not. Children tease their peers mercilessly. They have to be forced through gritted teeth to share toys. They deliberately do the very opposite of what you tell them.
I spoke on these verses a couple of years ago and I said then that there are three things you will find with practically all children; they have an open mind to believe, and an open hand to receive, and an open heart to love.
Here’s a little story that shows all three:
A vicar in Tonbridge, Kent was speaking in church a few years back on the theme of healing. And as he was in full flow, talking about the healing power of Jesus Christ, a small boy about four or five walked up to the pulpit and looked up with his big brown eyes.
So the preacher paused, and crouched down and asked the little boy if he’d like to say anything. “Yes,” he said. “I hope Jesus can heal Derrick.” So the vicar said, “O.K., who is Derrick. “Derrick is my hamster. I’d like you to pray for him.” “Oh!” says the vicar, “All right. And what is wrong with your hamster?”
“Well, he’s dead!” And so, thinking on his feet, the vicar quickly prayed along the lines of “Lord, thank you for this creature and for the joy it brought to this family. Thank you for this little boy who wants to talk to you about it. Help him to find another pet that will be just as nice.”
You see, vicars anointed with great faith for the hamster resurrections are hard to find!
One of the questions that children sometimes ask is, “What is heaven like?”
Adults often approach the subject with scepticism. But children see the whole realm of death and heaven and God, and they marvel at the wonder of it all.
That’s why they are the VIPs of the kingdom of God, and why Jesus wants us to be like them, more than the wealthy, successful celebrities our society admires.
Ending
As I end, I want to make it possible for anyone here who wants to get eternal life to do so. Remember Jesus said, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of heaven like a child [with an open mind, an open hand and an open heart] will never enter it.”
There may be somebody here who says, “I don’t want to leave this church with the empty heart I came with.”
I’m going to finish with a simple prayer. Why don’t you make it your own? And if you do, come and tell me afterwards…
Heavenly Father, I am sorry for things that I have let stand between me and Jesus in my life (maybe there’s something in particular that your conscience brings to mind). I now want to make Jesus my number one. Thank you that he died on a cross for me so that I can be forgiven and start all over again, and really begin to live. Thank you for the gift of eternal life. I now receive it, open-handed, like a child. Please come into my life to be with me forever. Thank You. Amen.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 19 November 2017
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