The Rich Young Man
17As 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. 19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"
20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
21Jesus 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."
22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
28Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!"
29"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
BACKGROUND READING:
Exodus 20:1-21
Isaiah 2
Dig Deeper
Most Jews in the first-century believed that the history of the world could be split into two ages. The one they were living in was the 'present age'. This was characterized by sin, hate, violence, rebellion against God, and the fact that Israel was still in exile. They believed that Israel was in exile because, although they had returned to their homeland, God had not yet returned. The ancient promises of the prophets of old had not been fulfilled, their sin had not yet been forgiven.
So, most Jews waited anxiously for the next reality, the 'age to come'. This is when righteousness would be restored. God would set things to right. Israel would be restored as God's people and the righteous would be raised to this new life. This great event in history would bring justice, peace, ultimate freedom for Israel, and punishment for all evildoers, be they Jew or Gentile. All the lying, anger, and hatred of the present age would pass away and be gone forever once the age to come had burst forth into history.
This all meant that there was one main question on the mind of every Jew who believed in all this: "How can I know that I will be one of the righteous that will inherit the age to come?" Talking about the kingdom of God was another way of referring to the age to come in the mind of most first-century Jews.
This is the very question that the young man asks Jesus in this scene. Most people tend to think that the man is asking Jesus about how he can go to heaven. This is not the case, however. There was no thought of an existence in 'heaven' somewhere apart from one's body and the physical world. The 'age to come' would be here on a restored earth. No Jew would want to be in a disembodied heaven when God brought the new earth to fruition. The phrase that is translated eternal life here, literally means 'belonging to the age'.
Another potentially confusing situation here is Jesus' response to being called good teacher. What Jesus is not doing is somehow denying that he is divine. He has taken the man where he is at, and tried to challenge his thinking at that point. If Jesus is just a teacher, then he should not be called good. Only God is good.
The question this man asked, then, was a fairly common question at that time. If anyone asked a Pharisee or a member of one of the other sects, they most likely would have first received a detailed interpretation of the law, and second, been encouraged to join their particular group so that you could be assured of gaining life in the age to come.
Jesus' response was no doubt a bit confusing to this man. All he did was recite commandments 6 through 9, adds do not defraud, and then goes back to number 5. He makes no mention of 1 through 4 and number 10. What Jesus does masterfully is bring the rest of the conversation back around to the commandments that he has left out (with the exception of the Sabbath), which concern honoring God, not having idols, not misusing God's name, and not coveting. Jesus is not calling for a stricter observance to the law, he is calling for this man to radically rethink what putting God first, having idols, misusing his name, and coveting might really mean. He is drastically redefining what it means to be the people of God, to follow the law of Moses. Because the Messiah is here, the 'age to come' is not just some future hope. It is a present reality that is breaking through now.
The man leaves, saddened and disappointed by Jesus' response. In fact his own disciples seem shocked by his words. This is because in the Jewish mind, wealth was a sign of God's blessing in upholding the Covenant. Jesus challenged one of the very things that they held dear as a sign that they were God's people. Jesus is clear, wealth can't come into the age to come anymore than a camel can go through the eye of a needle (which is use of a typical Jewish hyperbole to make a point).
Everything will be upside down in Jesus' new kingdom. The first will be last, the last will be first. Those who have given up all the old identifiers as the people of God (family, wealth, etc.) will not only inherit the age to come, they will find that they have come into an ever-enlarging family of fellow disciples with homes that will be open to them wherever they go (and persecutions, Mark is careful to point out, lest they think that everything will be rosy in God's kingdom). The belief of the early church was that with Jesus' death and resurrection, the age to come had broken into the present age, pointing to the time when it would be fully consummated at his Second Coming.
Devotional Thought
The rich man had tightly held beliefs and traditions that were coming in direct conflict with Jesus' vision of the kingdom. What are some of the most prevalent beliefs and traditions that people in our culture have that keep them from truly seeing the kingdom for what it is? How can you tailor a message that will challenge their beliefs and show them that what we often hold so dear is actually the very thing keeping us from God's kingdom?
No comments:
Post a Comment