In Matthew's narrative segments a change of journey means a change of subject. Up to the first change (Jesus "went away" v. 15,) the subject has been marriage and the family; now the subject changes to wealth and possessions. The subject after the next journey change at 20:17 will be power and privilege.
In each of the three sections, the disciples register a protest. That is a feature of the pattern too. The protests are:
i. 9:10 - The disciples said, "If that's how it is to be with a man and his wife, it's better not to marry."
... the marriage standard Jesus set is too high;
ii. 19:25 - When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying "Who then can be saved?"
... the attitude to wealth for which Jesus asks is too harsh;
iii. 20:24 - When the ten heard it, they were indignant with the two brothers.
... the attitude to privilege Jesus requires is unfair.
The third episode is about position, about 'getting on,' about pride of place. Matthew then winds this section up with a summary statement in vs. 29-34.
Marriage and family, wealth and possessions, power and privilege (girls, goodies and getting on ... or sex, shekels and success ... or pleasure, profit and prestige) are the areas of greatest temptation. These are where 'the world' gets its hooks into us. They are aspects of the 'flesh' (the 'creature' we worship and serve instead of the Creator, Rom. 1:25) which lure us away from God. It is in these areas that we most commonly look - instead of in God - for fulfilment. They are the primary areas of our idolatry. Pastoral experience confirms it. Nine times out of ten when someone phones me and says, "Pastor, I'm in trouble" the 'trouble' will have to do with sex, money, or a job or career threat.
This is underlined by the way this episode is introduced: it is a question of 'eternal life': how to find 'the good life' - for the phrase 'eternal life' in the Bible refers to quality of life rather than to duration of life. Take v. 16 and vs. 23 & 29 together and it will be seen that 'eternal life' and the 'kingdom of heaven' mean the same thing. Where shall we find 'the good' we seek? Jesus will say, "There is none good but God." So to seek the good, we must seek God; to find the good, we must find God. It is found only in Him, not in anything the world offers, whether sex or family, money or possessions, power or privilege. If we have to lose any or all of those things to find life, so be it. For a man's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses, as Jesus said - not even when family and career are included in them.
That first by way of general introduction.
Then note what ties sections I and II together: how you qualify to be in the kingdom ...
i. Be a child (the previous paragraph)
ii. Be a poor man (this paragraph), whether in terms of
relationships, riches or rank. In precisely these areas the King
Himself, when He rides into Jerusalem, is seen to be poor:
in relationships : He has no family of His own
in riches : He is a penniless prophet
in rank : He has none by this world's standards
"Behold, your king comes to you ... humble, riding on an ass." This is Matthew's build-up to the Palm Sunday episode which we rarely take into account. The Lord practised what He preached.
And how reminiscent of the Beatitudes it all is. "Blessed are the meek, Blessed are the poor, Blessed are they who mourn." The teaching of this whole section is in fact an echo of the Sermon on the Mount: the treasure to set our heart on is 'treasure in heaven'; we have to choose between God and Mammon which will master us. It is not a higher standard of living we should be after, but a higher standard of life: the Rule of God and His righteousness. (In this episode Jesus has righteousness 'on stage' very early in the piece in fact, with His talk of commandments.)
Note third that the form of address the young man uses in v. 16, "Teacher ..." is not a term used by the disciples in Matthew's Gospel; they call Him Lord. To receive Him as Teacher is not enough.
The first surprise in this episode is the way Jesus responded to the young man's question, "Why do you ask me about what is good?" v. 17.
What a way to start counselling an enquirer! Much is made of the conversation Jesus had with the woman of Samaria as a model of personal evangelism; few use this episode as a model. It does not support our neat formulas. By any of the normally recommended methods, Jesus 'did it all wrong' here. He had an eager enquirer who was asking the right question. "How do I get eternal life?" Why didn't Jesus get right to the point and talk about the gift of God, the way Paul does in Romans 5?
First, He picked the young fellow up on what was probably a mere courtesy, the word 'good' in "Good Master."
Second, He talked about the Commandments, if you please! To discuss the Law is not the way to offer a person the gospel. Every good manual on how to share the Gospel will tell you that. You talk about Grace. Jesus didn't. He took a wrong tack ... didn't He? It sounds for all the world as though He was suggesting that the way to get eternal life is to keep the commandments. Are we saved by keeping the Law, or are we saved by faith? What on earth did Jesus think He was doing here?
We had better look and see.
"Why do you call me good?"
Jesus is doing three things here:
i. Disclaiming any goodness of His own; the goodness that was His was God's.
ii. Challenging the young man to recognise that in meeting Him he has met God.
iii. Challenging the root of sin in him: that he had sought his good elsewhere than in God.
The three things are all wrapped up together.
Jesus is not saying modestly, "I'm not good at all." He is saying, "The goodness you see in Me is not mine, but His Who sent me. Goodness has its rise in God alone; there is no other goodness any man may know. It is that goodness you see in Me, and I do not disclaim it. But understand that in coming to me therefore you have come to God."
The young fellow went to Jesus to talk about spiritual reality ... and found himself unexpectedly face to face with the ultimate living reality. He must suddenly have felt He had unwittingly fronted up to God Himself, incarnate in Jesus, and he would feel a stab of fear, of alarm ... as children, who have been playing at burglars, might suddenly be seized with fright: was that a real footstep they had heard in the hall? (C. S. Lewis, 'Miracles' [Geoffrey Bles], p. 114)
By facing him with commandments the Lord's purpose was to oblige him to take his eyes off his record and look at himself. * "I've done all that," he said, "lived by the Book all my life, and it hasn't got me where I want to be. Is there something wrong with me?" That is the question Jesus made him face.
It is the question with which He faces us all. He disturbs our complacency. He calls our whole being into question, quite fundamentally. We discover how bankrupt is our morality without God. Leave Him out, and "all is vanity, and a striving after wind" ... even our best endeavours.
Jesus has obliged the young man to look at God ... and at himself.
THE CHOICE HE HAD
And then Jesus obliged him to look at his world.
"Go sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me."
Now he has to decide what or Whom to trust: his wealth or God. The choice we all must face - God or the world - he faced in stark reality: God confronting him in the Person of Jesus, or the world beckoning to him in his wealth and possessions.
"You want 'life'?" Jesus asks in effect, "You may have it, now, this instant, from God. Only from God. Only He has it in His hands to give it to you. You have to go to Him for it. Like a child, you have to hold up empty hands to receive it from Him. So empty your hands, and hold them up to Him. You say you trust God? Then drop your toys, so it isn't them you trust."
One way or another, that is what we all have to do. It is a question of what we look to, what we trust. As Martin Luther so simply spelled it out: "Whatever it is you look to to make you safe and happy, that is your God."
Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up Lord,
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul ...
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.
The young fellow could not do it.
"You ask me to let go the one thing I depend on to give fulness, pleasure and meaning to my life. I cannot do it." That is where this world had got its hooks into him. His wealth was his god.
It was not always wealth, not for all those who went to Jesus. For the fishermen it was their fishing: that is what Peter went back to when he felt there was nothing else left. For another aspiring disciple it was his family. ("Suffer me first to bury my father.") Of what would I have to say, "Take that away from me, and I have nothing"? Is it God? Until it is, I have not entered into life.
"I came to you," the young man might have complained, "to add something to my life. But You want me to let go everything for the one thing You would give me?'
"Yes, my son. I will give you ... God. And when you possess Him, you will be possessed of all that He has it in His hands to give you. But you must have it from Him, not instead of Him."
He could not rise to it, not then at any rate. Another day, perhaps? Who knows? It gets harder, of course, the longer you cling.
Jesus makes us a promise: "I will lead you to the enjoyment of everything your heart desires. I will. But you must come with Me all the way."
* The commandments are from the Ten in Exodus 20, and the 'Neighbour' from Lev. 19:18. There were two Tables of the Law: Table I : 1-4 - God; Table II : 5-10 - Neighbour. In 22:39 Jesus will sum up the Commandments as "Love God and love your neighbour." That He does not here bring in "Love God" is, I think, to reveal the poverty of heeding only Commandments 5 - 10. The question, "What lack I yet?" is the point.
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