This past Sunday, one of the missionaries our church supports (Rick Berry) mentioned Jesus’ conversation with the rich young ruler during Sunday School.
OK, full disclosure… I was convicted by the remembrance of Jesus’ conversation with the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-23.
[Gee thanks Rick!]
You can read the story for yourself, but the upshot is that this rich guy asked Jesus what must be done to receive eternal life. Jesus recites a partial list of the 10 commandments, to which the guy responds, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” (BTW, in my mind, I see the guy saying this with arms crossed and nodding his head in self-righteous confidence. I guess I imagine this because it’s probably what we’d all do if someone challenged us in an area of our life. GULP!) Anyway, Jesus responds – and don’t miss this part – IN LOVE and tells him to sell everything, give all the proceeds to the poor, and then he’d have eternal life. Needless to say, the guy couldn’t do it and went away sad. Christ was calling him to a sacrificial life – not just a checklist-based or costless one…and that was more than he was willing to commit to.
Certainly, one typical application of this passage is the idolatry of money or “stuff” over relationship with Jesus – the whole “camel through the eye of the needle” thing in verse 25.
The thing that convicted me was the “…all these things I have kept…” phrase. How often we simply reduce living for Christ to a 10-item-checklist mentality. Sure, we’d never admit this checklist-based-living-for-Christ belief out loud; but, in our heart (which is where God looks at us), it’s easy to have it. There is comfort and often anonymity in this type of Christ-Follower life – the “it’s between me & God” – “what is the minimum I must do” mentality.
The truth is, Jesus (while He recognized and affirmed the “checklist” items in this and other passages) calls His followers (then, now, and to come) to so much more. He knew if the ruler had kept those “things” (God knows the heart of all); but, Jesus also knew that a life that followed Him was characterized by SO MUCH MORE. A life that costs something – and that “something” is more than money.
As a Christ Follower, I have got to be more than just a list follower/checkeroffer (if that’s a word). That is what Rick is challenging the people he and Myla work with in the Philippines…and what he reminded/challenged me on last Sunday…
…So Father, stumbling forward I go!
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