There have been lots of epic failures throughout history. Some are more familiar, like the Portland Trailblazers picking Sam Bowie and passing on Michael Jordan in the 1984 NBA Draft. Or when Blockbuster Video failed to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000. And then there are ones you’ve probably never heard of like Pepsi A.M. (think normal Pepsi with a little more caffeine) or flooz.com (Think a weird combination between an internet bank and a frequent flyer program). A world of ambition and curiosity will always breed failure. Of all the failures we could mention, none are more consequential than the man who doesn’t even have a name. He had a name, but since the days of Jesus he’s only known by two adjectives and a noun. The Rich, Young, Ruler. He was the guy who walked away from Jesus.
The Story
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions”—Matthew 19:16-22 (ESV).
The Praise
Before we look at the Rich Young Ruler’s problem, let’s first look at how we can praise him. There are many commendable acts from the Rich, young ruler that we can admire and seek to imitate. First, the rich young ruler was pondering eternity. He asked the right person mostlythe right question. He sought after the wisdom of God himself and asked how he could inherit eternal life…well sort of. He asked what good deedhe had to do to inherit eternal life. That’s vastly different from asking how he could be saved. But we can’t fault him for that, he was asking about salvation. Jesus could have corrected him and said, “Repent and believe” like he did throughout all of Scripture…but he didn’t. He gave him a list of laws to keep. This is confusing at best and contradictory to the rest of Scripture at worst…at least on the surface. But Jesus is using the law to point to the man’s lostness, which he will soon reveal. Before the Rich Young Ruler could be saved, he needed to recognize he was lost…more than that, he needed to recognize his “good enough” wasn’t good enough and his false idols had to be slaughtered.
Secondly, we can commend the Rich young ruler on his goodness. In verse twenty, he declares that he’s kept the law. He hasn’t murdered anyone, hasn’t committed adultery, hasn’t stolen or lied and has honored his parents. Not only does he declare he’s kept the law, but Jesus doesn’t argue the point. The rich young ruler was apparently a good, moral and decent human. One you would love to have as a neighbor.
Thirdly, he recognized the deeply spiritual truth that keeping the law doesn’t save him. He recognized that he had kept the law, but that he was still lost (see verse 20)
Lastly, he didn’t get caught up in the emotional hype of the moment. Jesus wasn’t an evangelist creating an emotional moment that the lost was manipulated into following. He gave the direct command. And with the crowd watching, the emotions running high and eternity in the balance, the rich young ruler who was a moral guy, kept his morals by not lying in the moment. He didn’t get caught up in the hype. He chose intellectual and emotional honesty…he simply walked away.
The Problem
The problem is simple—he walked away. We know who we walked away from (Jesus), but what was he walking towards? In short, he walked away from the only God, towards an incredibly false god. Three very false gods. The god of money, the god of security and ultimately the god of self.
He was willing to do a good deed to be saved. He was willing to follow the law and be a good person to be saved. I would bet he would have been willing to sacrifice a little to be saved…but sacrifice everything? No way! Sell ALL of his possessions and give them to poor people? Not a chance! That was his livelihood, that was his nest egg, that was his security. He would have been happy to part with something else to follow Jesus…but Jesus isn’t interested in something else. He’s interested in you dying to yourself. He knows you can’t love both God and Money (Matthew 6:24), you have to choose one. And he revealed the problem of the nameless man…he was rich, and his “richness” was his god.
So you see, Jesus isn’t saying that we need to sell everything we have to earn our salvation….but he is saying we have to kill all of our idols, all of our false gods and even die to ourselves if we wish to have eternal life. Personal security is no longer our priority. We no longer direct our lives. We follow Jesus, as both Lord and Savior.
Or…we walk away, into the future annals of history as the no-named fool who clung to his stuff and rejected salvation. And the most shocking part of the whole story…it’s one word, found in verse 22. It’s word “sorrowful.” The rich, young ruler walked away from joy and traded it for sorrow. He walked away from security and traded it for uncertainty. He walked away from the Life-Giving Savior, and traded him for the empty god of self. Knowing that, he still walked away.
We’re More Like Him Than We Think.
Before we condemn him too much, we first have to step back and ask ourselves how much different we are from this nameless man. We may not consider ourselves wealthy, but we would give up all of our financial security to follow Jesus? We would be willing to part with our homes, our 401k, our cars and our bank accounts if Jesus asked us to? What about our comfort? What about our families? What about that “thing” that you are desperately clinging to? Are you willing to give that up to follow Jesus? If not, look at verse 22 again. That’s your future. That’s your lot in life. A nameless, sorrowful, broken person…walking away from eternal security and trading it for temporary “safeness.” When Jesus asks you to follow Him, choose wisely.