The rich young ruler Q&A
Luke 18:18-30
How does God secure/stabilise my life? Does he intervene on earth?
It’s clear that, judging from a worldly point of view, to follow Jesus is to not at all to pursue a secure and stable life! It involves self-denial, humility, hardship, opposition, persecution, suffering, waiting for Jesus’ return, and trusting perseverance.
And yet from the perspective of eternity, to follow Jesus is to come to the only place of security and stability!
Fundamentally, this is because Jesus is the only one who can restore our relationship with God which is broken by our sin and restored by his sin-bearing death in our place. It is this certain confidence, arising from the fact of our reconciliation to God through the blood of Christ shed on the cross, that over-rules all of the insecurity and instability, from a worldly point of view, of following Jesus!
What does it mean to give to the poor?
In the New Testament’s teaching on giving to the poor, the overwhelming emphasis is on giving to the poor among fellow believers. To give just three examples:
at the end Acts 2 & 4 - all the believers shared everything in common; there were no needy persons among them
in Acts 6 - the widows who receive a daily distribution of food are within the Christian fellowship; this is similar to the teaching about caring for widows in 1 Tim 5
the collection that is mentioned in Acts and that Paul writes about in 1 & 2 Corinthians, and Galatians - it’s for the poor Jewish believers in Jerusalem from the (largely) Gentile believers across Asia Minor and Greece
The background to this is the Old Testament’s teaching on this topic, where the focus was on the poor among Israel. This did include the alien and foreigner living among them, but it was the alien and foreigner living among them.
The logic of this teaching is that it expresses the achievement of the gospel: since believers share Christ in common, they can now share all things in common.
Our setting today is obviously very different. We don’t live in an agrarian economy. Economically, our lives are typically much more structurally stable. Yet even within our fellowship, there will be opportunities to care for one another, not only in word but also in deed, based on genuine physical needs.
e.g., one unmarried friend who has bought a second car, which she can share with others when they have need; she did this particularly to provide for missionaries who are back on home deputation
e.g., some who have welcomed needy Christian brothers or sisters into their homes for short-term stays
e.g., a senior business leader who has often gone to great lengths to help organise appropriate employment opportunities for Christians who are struggling financially
Worldwide, the needs in this area are as great as the opportunities are endless. Many Christians, and Christian families, have a sponsor child, or several sponsor children, through an organisation like Compassion. There are many options to choose from. It’s almost embarrassing how much even a little for many of us us, say something like $50, can achieve a lot for them! This should only produce in us an even greater generosity with the abundance we have.
Do we need to sell everything in order to be a disciple of Jesus?
This conversation was specific to this man - spiritual open-heart surgery. That means that the command to sell all should not be regarded as a general requirement for all disciples. (When we meet Zacchaeus in Luke 19, this is confirmed absolutely!)
But the principle of giving away is still a good test to identify our attachment to worldly wealth. How tightly do we hold on to our wealth? How freely do we give it up if it would help someone else in need? How quickly do we share everything in common so there are no needy persons among us?
Or think of that trilogy of words that Brian Rosner came up with: our love and devotion; our trust and confidence; our service and obedience. How much do we rely on our wealth for these things? For us, perhaps a particularly sharp question is how much do we hold our jobs, and the incomes that come from them, as the source of these things? 1 Tim 6 teaches us not to put our trust in wealth which is so uncertain.
Do we have to leave our families to be disciples of Jesus?
We need to hold together a couple of different bits of data here; not everything is explained to us. In Luke 5, we’re told the the disciples left everything and followed, and that’s what they say to Jesus in Luke 18.
In 1 Corinthians 9, the apostle Paul is talking about his rights as an apostle, and at one stage he asks: 5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?
Now, there’s stuff we don’t know. Was Peter still unmarried or already married in Luke 5? Not sure. Did the leaving everything include his wife? Perhaps for a time, but from 1 Corinthians 9, not permanently.
We know that for some, to be a disciple of Jesus does mean leaving family. Jesus’ assurance is that whatever the cost - and there will be cost for each of us; but whatever the cost, the gain is much, much more, both in this life and eternally.
Putting all our trust in God is an ongoing struggle - not a once-off action. Is this story about the rich ruler showing his heart is not willing at that stage but it is not enough to do so as a one-off?
Yes, absolutely, trusting and serving God not our wealth is an ongoing struggle rather than a once-off action. But the ongoing struggle is also made up of many ‘once-off actions.’ In this way, it is part of our ongoing repentance. So it’s definitely something that all Christians, and especially those who are rich, need to keep humbly testing themselves over. Martin Luther talked of three conversions: the heat, the mind, and the wallet (the purse). Safe to say that naturally, not many of us find this an easy area!
What would be good indicators if the piece of our heart that beongs to God isn’t currently being given? How do we not self-deceive as to whether we are trusting in God and not money?
With wealth, our willingness (or not) to give things up and share with those in need seems to be a very good indicator. If we find ourselves holding on to ‘what is ours’ rather than sharing as we have opportunity to meet need, it’s likely that this is a struggle for us.
Another might be if we start to consider that our wealth, our importance, our value, our credibility …, is tied to our material wealth and possessions. Jesus teaches that a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15). Very often, we can act as if we think it does.
Can a Christian be wealthy? Should we actively avoid increasing our wealth?
Of course, a wealthy person can be a Christian - what is impossible with man is possible with God.
But don’t rush away from Jesus’ warning too quickly. The Christian who is wealthy must be nothing at all like a non-Christian who is wealthy, because their treasures are in completely different places, their trust and confidence are based on different realities, and their whole orientation around what wealth and possessions are given to us for is completely unalike!
If, in our hearts, we want to try and walk in two worlds - thinking that we can follow Jesus earnestly and yet be wealthy in a way that is very similar to the wealthy people of the world, we must take urgent warning: we may be starting to look and sound a lot like a camel! Jesus doesn’t just say it’s difficult to serve both God and Money. He doesn’t just say that there are some people who can’t serve both God and Money. He says we can’t. It would be the greatest folly in all the world to try and prove him wrong, and we will shipwreck our faith in the trying of it.
As to the question of whether we should actively avoid increasing our wealth, how would we answer the question in this form: should we actively avoid putting ourselves in a more dangerous position with respect to the kingdom of God? We must be so careful on this topic - our hearts can be so easily self-deceived. We must remember that the gospel will open us up to entirely new ways of thinking that, from a worldly point of view, may look utterly foolish. Contentment in the world depends on material circumstances. (Or at least people think that it does; studies have shown that at a certain level of wealth, improved material circumstances produce no corresponding growth in contentment!) Contentment as Christians depends entirely on Christ!
Why is it that the disciples always seem slow to respond to Jesus’ teaching? He always seems to have to re-explain things to them!
One of the wonders of the gospel accounts is that those who wrote them didn’t air-brush themselves to appear better than they were! What wonderful humility! We could also ask the question: are we really any better? I wonder if, in part, the things that Jesus was doing and teaching were so radically different that they just took time to comprehend.
Also, in terms of his climactic work of salvation - dying on the cross for the sins of the world - this was so unexpected for a ‘messiah’ (a saving, rescuing king), that it needed a lot of explanation. Yet Paul’s letters to the church in Corinth show that seeing the saving wisdom of God in the outward foolishness of the cross continues to be a struggle to those who think as the world does (which is most of us!).
In Luke 18:28, does the exclamation point mean that Peter and the disciples were afraid?
The punctuation is a product of modern printed editions of the Bible trying to capture the sense that the modern translators think was probably there. In fact, there was no punctuation in the koinē (coin-air) Greek in which the New Testament was first written.
At first, perhaps it seems a similar kind of ‘boast’ to the ruler’s (18:21). But given that Jesus reassures them (18:29-30), whereas he challenged the ruler (18:22), I take it that the sense of their words was actually very different to his. He was boasting in himself; they are anxious about whether they have done the right thing.
What are the disciples receiving more of in the last four verses? If it is wealth, is that not we are warned against? Or is it the fellowship of these people?
Following Jesus will always be costly. The realities is that sometimes, it will cost some of our most important relationships. A friend of mine at theological college had not been spoken to by her family for over 8 years because of her decision to trust in Jesus and all of the consequent changes that followed, including leaving opthalmology and going into Christian ministry. Yet, whatever the cost, the gain is more. For the time being, my friend has lost some (blood) family members; she has gained (spiritually) many, many more.
Could not the same be true of even of physical wealth and possessions, inasmuch as Christians freely share everything in common so that there might be no needy persons among us? Whatever I forsake in order to follow Christ, even more becomes mine in him. And that is speaking simply of this age! It says nothing of the eternal life that will be given in the age to come.
