Slices
Prepare
What do you truly value above everything else? That is the big question Jesus will ask you today. Get ready to answer him.
Bible passage
The rich and the kingdom of God
18 A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’
19 ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good – except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honour your father and mother.”’
21 ‘All these I have kept since I was a boy,’ he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’
23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’
26 Those who heard this asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’
27 Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God.’
28 Peter said to him, ‘We have left all we had to follow you!’
29 ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus said to them, ‘no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.’
Explore
This passage has nothing to do with wealth and everything to do with priorities. It appears also in Mark 10:17–30 and Matthew 19:16–29. Like most Jewish people at that time, Jesus’ disciples saw wealth as a sign of God’s blessing and approval (v 26). If this man doesn’t make the grade, then the rest of us should simply give up trying. Or so it seems.
Jesus has already made the point clearly in Luke 12:34: ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ John Calvin expresses this truth in his famous assessment that ‘The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.’* We have a problem of eternal consequence that we simply cannot solve on our own. Left to our own devices we will make it worse day by day.
The only hope is if God intervenes and actually changes us from the inside out. Jesus assures us that this miracle is already under way in verse 27. But wait (as they say in the TV advertisements): there’s more! Not only can we be saved, but also richly blessed (vs 29,30). Our eternal future is not in some grey refugee camp but in abundant life with a loving Father.
*John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1536
Respond
Jesus’ command to the ruler applies to us today: put everything aside and follow him. There is no other way. Take a moment to reflect on Hebrews 12:1.
Deeper Bible study
Read the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1–17. Which challenges you the most? How will you respond?
The ruler’s question isn’t a casual one. Even his unusual address to Jesus as ‘Good teacher’ (v 18), which Jesus pushes back against to test the man’s insight (v 19), suggests that this is a personal question, which matters: what must he do to inherit eternal life? Jesus points him to the commandments. The man replies that he’s kept them all since he was a boy, yet clearly this hasn’t brought him peace or he wouldn’t be asking the question.
Jesus hears the man’s sincerity and longing,1 but he then challenges him about coveting and possessions (the tenth commandment, not previously mentioned). The man has so much, but there is one thing he lacks: his attachment to his possessions makes him unable to choose the kingdom. The irony is that his lack is that he has everything. That is what stops him following Jesus. Literally ‘deeply grieved’ (v 23) because of his wealth, he cannot follow through. Jesus has compassion for the man’s distress and recognises how hard his choice is, but there’s no getting away from it: wealth is what stops him receiving the kingdom. For him, it cannot be both/and, it has to be either/or. You can’t get a camel through the eye of a needle; this man, though he longs to follow, cannot do so unless he yields up what has such a hold over him.
Wealth as a spiritual problem (not as a sign of blessing) shocks all who are listening (v 26). Peter blurts out that they’ve done what’s required: ‘We have left all we had to follow you!’ (v 28). Jesus then reassures the disciples that sacrifices made to choose the kingdom of God will not be in vain, but that the challenge to choose the kingdom always comes first.
Ask God to show what stops you seeking his kingdom and righteousness first before all things.2 Be accountable to another if God shows you need to change.
1 Cf Mark 10:21 2 Matt 6:33
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Genesis 32,33; Matthew 12
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray that Data Analyst Meri Suokas will have wisdom as she works with the rest of the Digital Solutions team to understand better how we can use analytics to improve the user experience on our website. Pray that this will enable the wider Movement to reach the 95 more effectively.
