The Rich Young Ruler

Our hope throughout these ten weeks in Matthew isn’t only that we preach good messages. It’s that you’d meet Jesus in your own daily devotions as you read along. That’s our prayer, and I’m continuing that journey today.

First, a quick plug for the business meeting, or as Jared calls it, the visioning session. Proverbs 29:18 says that without vision the people perish. Vision unites people, and as a church we want to be united under a common vision, and we want you to be part of shaping it. It won’t look like a normal business meeting. There may be a few elements of that, but the bulk will be big-picture vision for our church. Young people especially, we’d love you there. We want your voice heard, because you’re a valuable part of this church. It’s two Mondays from now.

Today’s passage is about the rich young ruler. I love this story. I don’t love what he does, but I resonate with him a lot. I’m not rich or anything, but his mindset and attitude are something I personally struggle with. I come back to this passage often, and it convicts me every time.

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

“Which ones?” he inquired.

Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honour your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’”

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

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.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, 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.”

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And 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. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

— Matthew 19:16–30

Lord Jesus, thank you for the call you’ve placed on our lives and for inviting us into relationship with you. May this not be a pat-on-the-back time. May it be a time when you convict us, because where there’s conviction there’s deeper devotion. Make us more committed and devoted to you as we leave here today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Meeting “Ryan”

A few weeks ago I mentioned in passing a mutual friend I’d met who was very successful and made me feel very small. Let me expand on that. We’ll call him Ryan.

At 22, Ryan has done more than many people do in a lifetime. Growing up in Asian culture, there’s an underlying message: succeed, do well, make your family proud. My family was very supportive of whatever I wanted to do. Obviously I ended up a pastor, so the finances might not be the thing I get! But the expectation is still there, and I thought I was doing pretty well.

Then I met Ryan. He got a 99.95 ATAR, a perfect score. So did both his brothers. Imagine being the third brother: “Can’t get a single thing wrong.”

He’s in his final years of medicine, and he told me he’s only studying medicine because it’s the one field where you need the degree to get the job. In business, he said, you don’t need to study business. He’s also an intern AI consultant at a firm, and he runs a tutoring business called 50 Coach, which only hires people who got raw study scores of 50.

When I met him I wasn’t in pastoral ministry yet. My brother and I were running a business called Bridge Tutoring. Our friend Ashley introduced us: “Jeremy has a tutoring company too!” Ryan chatted with me about it and said, “Yeah, your business model is pretty terrible.” That made me feel great.

He’s also a member of exclusive private clubs where celebrities go to escape the public and the photos. And I think he wants to be the next prime minister.

You can probably see where I’m going. By the world’s standards, this is someone who has it all figured out. But what if the things God is after aren’t the things the world is after? What if the success God wants for you looks drastically different from the success the world sells you?

The comparison game

That’s what the rich young ruler had to wrestle with. He’d achieved everything in this world: wealth, reputation, probably good looks. Yet he still felt something was missing.

Here’s what I’ve realised. We’re not really proud of having money. We’re proud of having more money than the person next to us. We’re not proud of fame. We’re proud of having more fame than the person next to us. It’s all a comparison game, and it feels good because we’re above someone.

But the comparison game will never satisfy you, because there’ll always be someone further up the ladder. Even if you reach the top of one ladder, there’ll be another area where you want to achieve and someone else who’s better than you. You can keep climbing, but you’ll never be satisfied.

The rich young man realises this. He’s achieved everything and something is still lacking, so he comes to Jesus. What he’s really asking is, “Jesus, how do I win not just in this life but in the next one too? Maybe the satisfaction of my soul isn’t in this life. Maybe it’s in the life to come.” So he turns to religion, hoping it might satisfy him where the world couldn’t.

Religion is the same game

Jesus’ response is fascinating. We talked about it in Sabbath School. Jesus says, “If you want to enter life, keep the commandments. Honour your father and mother. Don’t steal. Don’t lie.”

That seems out of character for Jesus. We know salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone, not by our good deeds. Is Jesus contradicting himself and the rest of Scripture?

I think Jesus gives the standard Jewish answer of the day because he knows the young man knows it, and the young man knows that Jesus knows he’s kept it. Both understand the conversation has to move to deeper ground. Jesus is probing the man’s heart.

The man says, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” There’s a longing in him that keeping the commandments can’t meet. You can keep every command and still feel something’s missing, because success in religion works the same way as success in the world. It’s performance-driven. You can keep all the rules and be admired by all the religious people, and it’s still the same game: trying to be better, good enough, better than the person next to you.

That’s what Jesus is showing him. There’s nothing you can do to inherit eternal life. That’s why Jesus ends with, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Your heart’s satisfaction won’t come from anything you achieve, in the world or in religion. The only thing that will do is what Jesus offers: a life devoted to him, fully surrendered, following him with complete abandon. That’s the life that satisfies, and its worth lasts forever.

What lasts

What’s worthwhile? “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). The things that are worthwhile are the things that last.

Remember when AirPods first came out? I really wanted a pair, but I’m a bit frugal and always hunting for a deal, so I bought something called “Blackpods” instead. They were amazing at first. They even popped up on my phone as “Jeremy’s AirPods,” just like the real thing. They must have pinched the chip from the factory. Then they died within a month. I’d only spent fifty bucks instead of two hundred, which is probably why.

You’d think I’d have learned. No. Next I bought Kogan Pods, these huge futuristic things bigger than my ears that looked really weird. I stopped using them because they looked so strange, and then they died too. I think I even bought another knock-off after that.

Eventually I swallowed my pride and thought, “Maybe these keep failing because I’m cutting corners.” I bought proper AirPods, and they still work today. The worthwhile things are the things that last.

According to this verse, the eternal things are the unseen things, the ones nobody notices. Not money, fame or reputation. Often it’s the hidden things that echo into eternity. Look at the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. They’re unseen and tucked away. They’re not put on a platform, but they last forever, and they’re what Jesus invites us to focus on.

Obsessed with image

Like the rich young ruler, we care a lot about our image. He clearly did. He’d stored up fame, wealth and success so people would see him a certain way.

This might be hard-hitting, but I think we protect our image in two main ways: arrogant narcissism and subtle people-pleasing. We think of people-pleasing as minor, nothing serious. But they come from the same root. People-pleasing can be just as self-obsessed as narcissism. Narcissism is the offensive form of self-obsession, and people-pleasing is the defensive form. Narcissism is obvious and aggressive. People-pleasing is subtle and quietly manipulative: you don’t want to ruffle feathers because you’re afraid of being abandoned or seen a certain way. They look very different, but they come from the same dysfunction: obsession with image.

God is inviting us to lay down our need to be seen a certain way, to surrender it at the foot of the cross. As long as you hold on to it, you’ll be limited in what God can call you to do.

Empty to be filled

I love how Jesus gets to this man’s heart. Instead of more rules, Jesus gives one simple command. He sees the idol the man is clinging to, the biggest obstacle in his life, and says, “If you want to be perfect, complete, give it all up. Sell your possessions, follow me, and you’ll have treasure in heaven.”

To be complete, you have to be empty. To have everything, you have to have nothing. To be fully signed up to God’s service, you have to sign off from everything else.

The rich young ruler couldn’t do it. It was too precious. He couldn’t let go of the empire of image and self he’d built. Imagine if he had. He was talented and gifted in so many ways, and he could have done amazing things for the kingdom. But his obsession with image and possessions limited him. His faith couldn’t rest in Jesus because it rested in his wealth.

It’s only by losing your life that you find it, and only by giving up that you gain everything. For this man it wasn’t just about giving money to the poor. It meant stepping into a new kingdom reality alongside people who weren’t like him, the poor among them. He’d have learned the heart of Jesus from people who looked nothing like him, and it would have changed everything about him. But he couldn’t step into it.

I believe that when you genuinely pour yourself out for others, Jesus pours into you. We make ourselves empty to be filled, and the Holy Spirit keeps pouring in more and more.

Other Gospel accounts tell us something Matthew doesn’t: “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21). Maybe this is you. Maybe you see yourself in this rich young ruler, preoccupied with your image, yourself and your possessions. Jesus looks at you, loves you, and wants more for your life. Will you accept his call? If you give it up, you’ll receive so much more in return.

When possessions possess you

There’s nothing wrong with having possessions. The problem is when your possessions possess you: when you stop being a steward of what God has given you and become protective of it, unwilling to release it, forgetting it was all God’s to begin with.

Most of us go through life like someone with a hand stuck in a jar. We grab hold of the things of this world in a tight fist, and because we’re holding on so tightly, we can’t pull our hand out. It might be our image, our money, our fame or recognition, even our family and loved ones. If we’d just let go, we’d be free to step into what God is calling us to. We’d realise the life Jesus offers is far better than anything we could build ourselves.

Winning looks like losing

The beautiful thing is that Jesus doesn’t only tell us to do this. He showed us. The one who had every treasure of heaven was willing to give it all up, for us. Jesus showed that winning looks like losing.

If Jesus could leave all the riches of heaven for the sake of this world, surely we can leave the possessions of this world for the sake of a greater one. Treasure in heaven is far more beautiful and precious. Or will we stay stuck with our hand in the jar?

It’s a beautiful exchange: Jesus gave up his world to be part of ours, so that we could have his. He wants you to give your life to him because he gave himself completely for you. He held nothing back. He poured himself out completely because he loved you and wanted you to see there’s a better life ahead.

God’s maths is inverted. When you give up everything, that’s when you gain everything. Because Jesus gave up everything, Philippians says God exalted him to the highest place (Philippians 2:9). That passage begins by saying he “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:6–7). He gave it all up for us, and he invites you to do the same with your life.

It’s a hard challenge, but he promises that when you do, there’ll be treasure in heaven beyond anything you can fathom. He invites you to trust him with that. That’s where you’ll find everything you’ve been looking for, what your soul has longed for all your life.

Prayer

Father in heaven, thank you for sending Jesus and showing us what radical humility looks like. You weren’t content to hold on to your power, riches and authority. You let it all go because you saw a better world for us. The least we can do is give ourselves up for you. You promise that when we do, we gain everything our souls have been looking for.

There are people here who have been chasing fame, recognition and status in the wrong places, temporary places that fade. God, you’re inviting us into something more: a new kingdom reality where the greatest are the least and the poor in spirit are blessed. That’s where we truly find ourselves. In Jesus’ name, amen.