Recapitulation
We have just examined a string of pericopes designed to
teach the high value Jesus places on humility and priority of service to others
especially in those who wish to be great in the kingdom of heaven. Such upside-down ideas continue to shock us
two thousand years later. Now we will move
on to looking at how we enter in. There
are three successive pericopes in Matthew 19 and 20 that illustrate the enigma
of trying to calculate the entrance fee to get into the kingdom of heaven.
Pericope 1: Jesus Blesses the Children
This account serves as a bridge between Jesus’ teaching
concerning the attainment of greatness and His teaching concerning the
attainment of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Just as He began His teaching concerning
greatness by using a child as a prop and an illustration of humility, He now
ends this series and begins another by once again using children. Some parents wished for Jesus to bless their
children but the disciples rebuked them for wasting Jesus’ time. These ‘great men of God’ still did not understand
even after nearly three years of ‘seminary with Jesus’ that He always had time
for the marginalized: the sick, the
poor, women, children, and those who were looked down upon because of their
unacceptable(!) sins. “Permit them to
come to me. Don’t hinder them. The kingdom of heaven belongs to persons like
these children.” However, it was not
their marginalized status that granted children greatness in the
kingdom. It was their humility. They presumed nothing. They just wanted Jesus’ blessing. (By the way, not everyone who is marginalized
exhibits humility.)
Notice that these children also illustrated entrance into
the kingdom. They were like members of
the royal family in Jesus’ eyes. In a
“children should be seen and not heard” society, this was quite startling. Don’t we need to let them live their lives a
few years and make sure they bear good fruit?
Well, Jesus isn’t granting entrance based on their status as children.
(He is not automatically granting heaven to all those who are ten and under,
say!) But, He IS saying there is a characteristic that these children have that
we who would enter the kingdom must also have.
He is moving from the topic of greatness in the kingdom to the topic of
entrance to the kingdom. Fortunately, Matthew relates the following pericope
which further explains this shocking idea.
Pericope 2: Jesus Questions the Rich Young Ruler
This is not a parable but is an oft repeated account of
Jesus interview with a wealthy, young religious leader. We have all heard different interpretations
of this account—some of which contradict other scriptures. So, let’s be careful. The children have been blessed and prayed
over and then a member of the crowd darted out. (Mark says he ran out as Jesus
started to walk on down the road).
Apparently, the urgency of his question was weighing on him. He is identified as young, wealthy, and as a
“ruler.” The word “ruler” refers to a
religious position either in a synagogue or perhaps even in the Sanhedrin—the
national religious body that had jurisdiction over Jewish religious matters. He addressed Jesus in a respectful manner. (Mark
also notes that the man knelt). Jesus has
just briefly mentioned entrance into the kingdom and the necessity of
possessing a characteristic that was shared by children. Perhaps this young man thought his own
relative youthfulness and religious fervor might be helpful in gaining entrance
into the kingdom.
Notice his question. “Teacher,”
(Mark and Luke say “good teacher”) “What good deed must I do to have eternal
life?” Jesus, immediately pounced on his
use of the word, “good.” There are two
words in Greek that we usually just translate as “good.” One word refers to relative goodness—like
good coffee. The other word refers to
intrinsic goodness—a goodness that is an inherent moral quality—the opposite of
evil. In this case, we have intrinsic
goodness. So, Jesus points out something
about this kind of goodness. There is
only one source of intrinsic goodness in the universe. This was not a radical revelation even to
this religious leader. This was
discussed by the rabbis who taught that only God had intrinsic goodness. So, this “rich young ruler” had used this
category word reserved for things in connection with God whether consciously or
unconsciously. We do this sort of thing,
too, when we say, “Have a blessed day” or something similar. We mean well, but
this should really be offered as a prayer for God to bless someone. But, why
does Jesus point this out? Is He just
nitpicking because His questioner is a religious leader or is there a
point? We shall return to this point in
a moment.
How Good Must I Be to Enter the Kingdom?
Jesus goes on to answer the young man in the way it was
phrased. “What good deed must I do to
“have eternal life?” “Eternal life” or
“entering life” was first century shorthand for saying “enter the kingdom of
heaven.” Jesus does not offer some new
method of pleasing God. In fact, nowhere
does He offer anything contradicting Scripture. In all His teaching, He always
goes back to the Book. So, He says,
“Keep the commandments.” And the young
man rightly starts thinking about the 613 commandments found in the Law and
asks, “Which ones?” Half of them apply to the priests in the Temple, for
example. Jesus pointed to the second half of the ten commandments which speak
to our external relations with each other and are summed up in the second half
of the great commandment to “Love our neighbor as ourselves.” He quoted these five commandments one after
another: “You shall not murder. You
shall not commit adultery. You shall not
steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother.”
Obeying the Commandments Perfectly
Now some feel that this man was being very audacious in
claiming he had successfully kept all of these.
What about Jesus’ condemnation of lust, hatred, and covetousness which
are internal disobedience of adultery, murder and theft? And this may well have been a problem but
Jesus chose not to argue the point.
Instead He answered according to the young man’s line of reasoning. “Well,
if you want to be perfect, go sell what you possess and give to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” It is at this point that I must part company
with a great many commentators who now conclude, “See. If you want to get into heaven, you have to
make giving to the poor your priority in life.”
But does that not contradict Ephesians 2:8-9? “For by grace are you saved through
faith. It is a gift of God—not of works
lest anyone should boast.” You cannot
earn your salvation. It is a free gift.
The Impossible Meets the Possible
So, what is Jesus getting at? “When he heard this, the young man went away
sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”
Jesus discussed this with his disciples.
“It is with great difficulty that a rich person can enter the kingdom of
heaven. In fact, it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a surgeon’s needle.” In other words, it is impossible. This really shook up the disciples. Everyone in their society believed that
wealth was a sign of God’s blessing. Maybe it was Judas who asked (but they all
wanted to know): “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus answered, “With man this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.” There is the key that everyone keeps
missing. There is nothing we can do to
earn entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
We do not have the intrinsic goodness that the rich young ruler
presumably understood to be found only in God Himself (as Mark and Luke report).
And did the young man really recognize
the Son of God Who stood before Him as Perfect Good? God is the one who can
make entrance into the kingdom of heaven possible—even for one who is not
perfect.
Why then did Jesus seem to lead this young man on and tell
him that if he only sold everything and gave the money to the poor and followed
Jesus, he could have eternal life?
First, it was Jesus answering according to his line of thinking to jar
him into understanding. The rich young
ruler was actually ruled by his wealth.
It was his idol. It was more important
to Him than God or the kingdom of heaven.
So, he had already broken the law.
Paul tell us that if we attempt to keep the law as a means of attaining
eternal life we must keep the entire law perfectly. Only Christ has ever done this. But He did this on our behalf so that our
sins might be laid on Him if we place our trust in Him. If only the rich young ruler had understood
that Jesus really was the intrinsically “Good One” Who could grant eternal
life.
Coming to Jesus or Leaving?
Now, what was the characteristic that the children had that
Jesus commended to His disciples for entrance into the kingdom? They came to Jesus—the only source of
‘good.’ The rich young ruler left Jesus,
sorrowfully.
Next week we will look at a third pericope that dives even
deeper into this same theme of calculating the entrance fee into the kingdom of
heaven.
© 2018 Eric Thimell
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