One thing you lack.

Mark 10:17 - 27

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’
18 ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good – except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.”’

20 ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy.’
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’

22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, ‘Children, how hard it is[e] to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?

27 Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.’

Something's missing! Ever had that feeling?  All is well on so many levels and yet there's a dislocation or sorts in your soul...somethings not aligned but you just can't quite put your finger on it.

Here we have a young, rich and probably handsome man who recognises that something's eluding him.

So he approaches the new rabbi on the block called Jesus, probably expecting the same answer (like all the other rabbi’s he’s asked).  

The answer that Jesus gave stunned the onlookers, left the disciples' spiritual worldview in tatters and the young man deeply saddened.

A bit of context...

If you were a Jew you’d grown up with two very fixed ideas about wealth:

1. That if you weren’t a Jew and you’d accumulated great wealth you’d probably done it by exploiting other people. (They’d seen this happen under the Roman occupation and under the rule of Herod and his cronies - the tax collectors.)

However this young man was a Jew.

2. That a person's wealth was a reward from God for living a strong moral life.

The Jewish community had grown up with that view of wealth all their lives.  Live a good life and God will reward you with prosperity. Remember Job? Remember Job’s friends who assumed that the loss of his wealth was due to him sinning.

For Jesus, he often found a third way and here was no different.  He didn't hold such a simplistic view about wealth and money.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?’

Strange question that for a Jew, especially a devout one like this man. Every rabbi had that question at the top of their list and every one had the same answer, “Obey the commandments of God and avoid all sin.”

He’d probably gone to many rabbi’s, but every time he’d have received the same answer and each time he’d gone away knowing that he’d done all that but still there’s something missing.

By the way he’s not asking, ‘How do I get into heaven?’ Eternal life was a way of expressing God’s life now and forever. This is not just about reassurance that when he does he’s passing through the pearly gates. This is about stepping into ‘Zoe’ - life in all it’s fullness that Jesus talked about in John 10:10

He must have been stunned when he heard Jesus say, “One thing you lack.”

Finally someone had said what he’d been sensing all this time...despite the wealth, the social standing, the moral uprightness...he knew he lacked something and this rabbi has seen it and is about to tell him.

I can imagine how his heart must have been beating through his rib-cage. I mean the young man was the only one who knew, deep down that he lacked something.

The world looked at the rich young ruler, the religious leaders looked at him and saw someone who was flawless, had all the right credentials, ticked every box and did all the right things.  I wonder what was going through his mind at that moment, whether he was expecting Jesus to create a new bespoke spiritual practice for him or devise a new sacrifice he had to make at the temple or a dangerous pilgrimage even.

Picture the moment.  Fix your gaze on the young man anticipating the next words of Jesus.   “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.”

If I was doing the soundtrack at that moment of the story - a needle being scratched along vinyl - would nail it!

The bubble burst, the excitement in the young man’s heart dies.  Not for one moment did he nor anyone else, including the disciples saw that coming?

What was so shocking about what Jesus said?

It wasn’t the bad things that stopped him from encountering the King and his Kingdom life - it was the way he had used the good things.

Repenting of BAD things alone just turns you into a religious person.

If it’s life your after, if it’s fullness or a piece of the eternal-now  life then Jesus seems to suggest that you've also  also got to change how you relate to the good things, the gifts, the successes we have in our lives.

I know you won't be surprised that I'm mentioning Luke 15...again.  But in the story of the loving father in Luke 15 there are two sons who are lost.

The younger son was lost outside of the house in all his badness, squandering wealth, wild living, sleeping with prostitutes.   But there was also an older brother who was equally lost in the house, equally estranged and alienated from his father, lost in all his goodness, his duty.

He saw his father as his boss to ‘slave’ for rather than a ‘father’ to delight in.

Neither son loved the father for who he was, rather they loved him for what they could get.

Remember the disciples’ comment, “If he can’t be saved then who can?’

This is what Jesus is driving at.

Living a full-life is not just about what we repent of it’s also about what we put our trust in.

The rich young ruler didn’t need to obey another commandment, he was already doing it. There were no issues of repentance to deal with from evil practices.  He like the elder brother was lost in the house and alienated from God seeing him as a boss rather than a saviour.

So when Jesus said to the rich young ruler, I want you to imagine life without money, all of it gone. No inheritance, no business portfolio, no servants, no mansions - all gone except me and then asked the question, “Can you live like that?” 

The NIV said that the young man, “Went away sad.”

The word ‘sad’ is better translated ‘grieved’ - it’s the same word that is used to describe that moment in Matthew’s gospel where Jesus started to sweat blood in Gethsemane because he was ‘grieved and in deep distress.’

Why did Jesus grieve? Because he was about to experience something he’d never encountered in his whole life -and the thought of it disorientated him and distressed him - he was about to become sin for us - something opposed to the core of his nature.

When Jesus called this young man to live solely dependent on God's grace - he was grieved - disorientated, deeply distressed.  something else was standing in the lace of grace acting as his saviour.  

That’s why the story of the rich young ruler is about all of us, because we’ve all got something or someone standing in the place where grace should.

The problem with the rich young ruler was he didn’t need the grace of God, and if you don’t need the grace of God you can’t see the cross and if you can’t see the cross you can’t encounter the power and eternal life that flows from it.

What’s your saviour? What or who do you allow to step in and take the place of the grace of God?

By the way, though this may be true of many of us.  Does the Father get angry with us for this? No!

Does Jesus get angry with us about this? No.  Look at how Jesus viewed the rich young ruler, “He looked at him and loved him.”

Why did Jesus look with such compassion on this young man?   Because he can identify with him. Jesus too is a rich young man, far richer than this man can imagine.

Jesus from all eternity had lived in a realm of incomprehensible love, joy, wealth and glory.

He had left much in being incarnated into a human being already- he then gave up everything on the cross.

“Though Jesus Christ was rich, for our sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich” 2 Cor 8:9

The depths of poverty that he had to encounter for us was incredible.  Grace leads us to the cross.  The cross leads us to life...in all it's fullness and richness.  

The younger son was lost in all his badness.  The elder son was lost in all his goodness.  Both were looked on with compassion by their father.  Let's keep checking that what we are trusting in to bring us the fullness of life is the richness of God's grace.