When Good Isn't Good Enough: The Rich Young Man's Wake-Up Call

Faithful God, you caused all the holy scriptures to be written for our learning.

Help us to hear them, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort

of your holy word we may embrace and always hold firmly to the blessed hope of everlasting

life which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

Some questions, when answered honestly, have uncomfortable answers.

Do I look good in this?

No, you don't have to answer that.

We watched a show recently where office staff were asked anonymously to peer review each

other and it left everyone in the office uncomfortable because people answered honestly.

Some questions have answers that make us uncomfortable.

In our reading today, Jesus is asked a question and the answer leaves the person who asked

very uncomfortable because it is not the answer the man expected to hear.

Jesus told the man that he loved his money more than he loved his God and that for this

reason he would miss out on eternal life.

That's uncomfortable.

And there are a couple of things in this passage that make it even a little bit more uncomfortable

and we'll look at those in a moment.

But before we jump in, some brief context, we're in the Gospel of Matthew.

Jesus has been teaching the disciples about the kingdom of God and about eternal life.

The passage immediately before this one, Jesus invites the little children to come

to him.

He says, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of

heaven belongs to such as these.

Entry into the kingdom, Jesus teaches, needs childlike dependence on God.

Our passage is the very next scene where a young, rich, presumably very capable, likely

well-respected man comes asking Jesus about eternal life and he receives an uncomfortable

answer.

The first uncomfortable truth that this man receives is that the good guy, and I think

he is a good guy, is not good enough.

The young rich man, he approaches Jesus with his burning question, teacher, what good thing

must I do to get eternal life?

It's a deep question.

And the man is asking the right person, who better qualified to answer this question than

Jesus, the one who has come from eternity into our world.

So that's a good start.

He's asking the right person, Jesus, about eternal life.

But if we look carefully at the question, what good thing must I do?

It reveals the man's thinking.

The man thinks that if he's going to inherit eternal life, he has to do something.

That it's about his good work.

This is a common way of thinking about our eternity, that our good works will equal entry

into eternal life.

Often when people are asked, on what basis do you think that God will let you into his

heaven, people answer, because I'm good enough, because I've lived a good life.

And so maybe the young man's question is a question that we have of Jesus.

What must I do, Jesus, to inherit eternal life?

So what does Jesus say?

Well in Jesus' typical way of answering, he asks another question.

Why do you ask me about what is good, when there is only one who is good?

Jesus here draws attention to the fact that only God is good.

And Jesus' answer hints that maybe, just maybe, that this young man is not quite as good as

he thinks that he is.

And so then Jesus says, if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.

The commandments Jesus refers to are those commandments given by God to his people in

the Old Testament, commands that God's people failed to keep over and over and over again.

Even the best, most righteous of God's people in the Old Testament couldn't keep all of

the commandments.

And so the rich young man, he asks another question, he's trying to work out the loopholes

in Jesus' statement.

Maybe Jesus is just referring to one of the commands or a couple of the commands.

And so he asks in verse 18, which ones?

And here Jesus' answer, you shall not murder, shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal,

you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother and love your neighbor

as yourself.

Well, that's quite a list.

And you've got to love the confidence of the young man.

All of these I have kept.

Now we're just going to ignore for the moment, the impossibility of always perfectly honoring

your parents or a hundred percent loving your neighbor as yourself, or even telling the

truth a hundred percent of the time.

In this, the young man realizes something for all his perceived goodness, that he still

lacks something.

And he asks Jesus, what do I still lack?

In his self-righteousness, he's savvy enough to recognize that there is still something

missing, but he doesn't know what it is.

But I do think he's recognizing at this point that actually just living a good life might

not be enough.

Now what is the man expecting Jesus to say?

Maybe he's expecting Jesus to say, go, go and do this heroic thing for God, then you'll

inherit eternal life.

Or go on this pilgrimage, and then you'll inherit eternal life.

Or go and pay for this project at the local synagogue or temple, and then you'll inherit

eternal life.

Or maybe he was waiting for Jesus to say, actually, now you got this, mate, you're good.

You've already got eternal life.

But what Jesus says instead is an uncomfortable answer, an uncomfortable truth.

Jesus answered, if you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor,

and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come follow me.

Sell everything you have, follow me, and then you'll have eternal life.

Now the young man was wealthy, and Jesus' command reveals the idol of his heart, that

this young man had broken the very first commandment that God gave, to have no other gods before

our God.

But this man loved his money more than God.

He loved his money more than Jesus.

He loved the comforts of this world more than the comforts of eternal life.

And the young man was not ready to give up his idol.

And so he walked away from Jesus, sad.

He walked away from the king of God's kingdom.

He walked away from eternal life.

What a travesty.

It's uncomfortable.

Good works, living what our world perceives as a good life, does not mean we will automatically

enter into the kingdom of heaven.

This young man, he was asking deep questions.

He was seeking to live the good life.

And yet when he encountered Jesus, the depths of his heart was revealed.

His true love was revealed.

The good works can do that to us.

Good works can lull us into a false sense of comfort, a belief that we're okay with

God that covers over the fact that we are loving something other than God, that we're

not worshipping the Lord with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind,

with all of our strength.

Good works are not enough.

Good works, like with the rich young man, leave us lacking before God.

And there are plenty of good works that people rely on today instead of loving Jesus.

Some people think that just coming to church is enough, or having been baptised when they

are younger is enough, or taking communion is enough, or being generous with their money

is enough, or being caring towards others is enough.

But if we come to Jesus, like this rich man did, and ask Jesus to confirm for us what

we need to do for eternal life, it might just uncover our hearts.

It might just uncover the fact that we think that our good that we do is just covering

up our true love.

Now in this story, the true love for this young man was his money.

He loved his money more than he loved Jesus.

So the good guy is not enough, he still lacks.

And so we come to uncomfortable truth number two.

Money can't make you good enough.

The focus of the conversation now shifts from the rich young man to the disciples.

And you know how when someone wants to emphasise something, they say it twice?

That's what Jesus does here.

Jesus says in verse 23,

Truly, I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And then in verse 24, Jesus says the same thing.

I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone

who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

That's quite an image, isn't it?

I don't know about you, but thread and a needle, they're meant to go together.

I can barely get the thread through the eye of a needle.

It's very painful.

Imagine trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle, or the car that you drove

in this morning.

Try getting that through the eye of a needle.

You can't.

It's not possible.

And so there is a warning here for Jesus' disciples and for us, that love of money can

keep us from entering the kingdom of God, can stop us from receiving the promise that

Jesus offers of eternal life.

See, money can buy many things, but it cannot buy you eternal life.

It cannot buy you eternal comfort.

It cannot stop that internal longing that you have, that something needs to be fulfilled,

like the rich unruly ruler had.

Yet this is the story our world sells us, isn't it?

Our world tells us that money can buy you happiness and comfort and security.

People buy lottery tickets with the hope of winning lots of money, and that that lots

of money is going to solve all their worldly problems.

But when people love money and put their hope in money, they don't look to Jesus and

put their hope in him.

The rich young man is a warning to us all.

Now you might be sitting here this morning, and you might not be feeling particularly

rich today.

There's a cost of living crisis.

You might look across the road at your neighbour and be longing for what they have.

But there's a reality that you may or may not be aware of, which is if you have a fridge

at home, you're in the top 15% of the wealthiest people in the world.

And I don't say this to make you feel guilty, but actually just to help you realise how

good we have it in Australia.

It is something to thank God for.

But actually it's also, I point it out, because we can be like the rich man who loved his

things, who loved his money more than he loved Jesus, and miss out on eternal life.

Is money an idol of your heart?

Do you spend more time thinking about money than you do in prayer?

Does the value of the share market keep you awake at night?

If you're anxious about money, do you then bring those concerns and worries to God?

Are you generous with your money?

Do you tithe towards church?

In the Bible, tithing is an act of worship before God, where we give out of the good

resources that God has given to us to steward.

It's God's way of ensuring that we're dependent on him and that the local church is financially

supported.

The majority of our income as a church comes from the generosity of saints like yourself

who give regularly.

Do you put your hope in money more than you put your hope in Jesus?

Would you prefer that all the money and things that you have be taken out of your life?

Or would you prefer that Jesus be taken out of your life?

These might be hard questions with some uncomfortable answers.

The reality is that wealth can stop us from following Jesus.

Jesus himself said you can't love both God and money.

Jesus says we have to leave the idols behind.

So he tells the rich young man, sell everything he has and give it to the poor.

But here's the paradox, the puzzle of this parable.

It's not really a parable actually, this actually happened.

The rich man, he could have gone and sold everything he owned.

He could have given all that money to the poor and that would have been a good thing

to do.

But unless he followed it up with the second thing that Jesus says, come and follow me,

it would have been for nothing.

Because just doing a good work does not get you into heaven.

It does not guarantee you eternal life.

We need to do something more.

We need Jesus.

It's impossible for us on our own to qualify ourselves for heaven like a camel through

the eye of a needle.

And this is the challenge of discipleship.

Jesus calls us to value him, to love him and the things of heaven more than the things

of this world.

I wear to be like the person who found a pearl of such great value in a field that they went

and sold everything that they had so that they could buy that field and get that pearl.

That's a little story that Jesus told and the pearl is the kingdom of heaven.

It's worth giving everything up for.

Now I think it's worth saying at this point that I don't think Jesus is asking us to go

and sell everything that we have.

But if you know that your money is stopping you from loving Jesus, is stopping you from

trusting him and stopping you from living for him, giving it all away is a very good

start.

Money can buy us good things, but it's a terrible saviour, a terrible God.

So far we've come across two uncomfortable truths about eternal life.

The good guy is not good enough and you can't buy your way into heaven, but actually more

than that, money can actually stop you from entering into eternal life.

Now the last truth we see today, and it's a comfortable truth, we've had two uncomfortable

truths, we'll finish with a comfortable truth, and that is if we follow Jesus, we can have

eternal life.

The disciples, they've seen the rich man walk away from Jesus, they've heard Jesus talk

about how hard it is for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

In verse 25, the disciples are greatly astonished and they ask, who then can be saved?

The impossibility of entering into eternal life is dawning on them.

As Jesus sums up nicely in verse 26, with man this is impossible.

We cannot be saved if it relies on us.

But Jesus continues, with God all things are possible.

God makes it possible for the camel to be able to go through the eye of the needle because

of Jesus.

When Jesus calls his disciples to follow him, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to the cross

where at the hands of evil men, Jesus will be crucified for our sin.

Jesus came into our world and he gave up everything for us.

He gave up being with the heavenly father in glory to come into our world.

And while he was in our world, he didn't seek riches or power or status, but he denied it

all.

He gave it all up so that we could be saved.

Jesus on the cross took the judgment from God that we deserve.

The judgment for our idolatry, the judgment for our love of money more than our love of

God.

It means that when we follow Jesus to the cross, we can find forgiveness.

We can find eternal life.

And Jesus asks us to do no less than he did for us.

To leave everything and follow him.

To give up our idols in this world and instead love him.

And it's worth it.

The disciple Peter says in verse 27, we've left everything to follow you.

What then will they be for us?

And Jesus says eternal life.

Verse 28, Jesus says at the renewal of all things, when the son of man sits on the glorious

throne, you have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

We will get to be with Jesus around his heavenly throne, sharing his rule.

And verse 29, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother

or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will

inherit eternal life.

Whatever we give up in this world for the sake of Jesus, we will be rewarded in glory

beyond our imagining.

This week, or maybe it was last week, Elon Musk was declared a trillionaire.

That's a lot of money, isn't it?

Who knows?

What would you do with a trillion dollars?

A trillion dollars though is just going to be like the smallest drop in a bucket compared

to the masses of blessing that God is going to store on us in heaven through our Lord

Jesus Christ.

Hudson Taylor, he was one of the first missionaries to go into China.

In his life, he gave up much.

In England, he lived a frugal life.

In China, he gave up the way he liked to do things, to adopt Chinese dress and customs.

He gave up his comfort, his safety.

Four of his children died while he was on the mission field in China, but he said that

every time he gave up anything for God, he found so much blessing that he felt himself

better off rather than worse off for having given up whatever it was.

Now Hudson Taylor was able to say that this side of heaven.

Imagine what it's going to be like when we're seated with Jesus on his throne.

When we give up things for Jesus, Jesus blesses us in ways that we cannot imagine.

So today we've seen two uncomfortable truths.

Two answers that we might not want to have heard from Jesus.

That our good works are not good enough.

That money cannot buy us eternal life, but can actually stop us from entering eternal

life.

But we've also heard one comfortable truth that can transform our lives.

That we can follow Jesus, and because of his death for us, we have the promise of eternal

life.

The question is not what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?

Rather it's more of a statement.

Thank you Jesus for the good thing that you have done so that I can inherit eternal life.

Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we can be the person who goes through the eye

of the needle.

It's not impossible with God.

So come, follow Jesus.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father we praise you for your son Jesus Christ.

We thank you that he gave up everything, coming down to this world, dying on a cross, so that

we could be forgiven.

And thank you heavenly Father that he's now with you in glory, exalted, the name that

is above every name, and that when we follow Jesus, that we get to look forward to being

there with him, ruling with him, sharing in the blessing that will go on for eternity.

So Lord help us now to follow him, uncover the idols of our hearts, and we pray that

you will give us the grace not to walk away sad like the rich man, but instead to follow

Jesus and inherit eternal life.

And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.