18 Then a certain ruler asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

19 “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’ ”

21 “All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.

22 On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

23 But when the ruler heard this, he became very sad, because he was extremely wealthy.

24 Seeing the man’s sadness, Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

REFLECTIONS

Written by Alan Vongsavanh

Today we come to the well-known parable of the rich young ruler. On the surface we think that it is all about money and the fact that, for those who have money, it is very hard to enter the kingdom of heaven. As I reflected and read through the passage carefully, I started to notice a few things that made me think: Maybe it isn't only about money in the end. Maybe it’s about what we value – and also about how we think we can inherit eternal life.

The rich ruler starts off by getting something right, when he addresses Jesus as “good teacher”. Only God is good – which means Jesus is good (since he is God’s Son). But you get the sense that the rich young ruler also thought he was good, because he thought he was able to keep all God’s commandments. It only took one challenge from Jesus to show how wrong he was: “Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” But for this man, money had become an idol, and it was too much to give this up to follow Jesus.

It makes me think about what things in our lives could become idols. What might you find difficult to give up to follow Jesus? At the same time, do we feel that the good things we do are what will make us inherit the kingdom of God? That is impossible. And yet Jesus says, “What is impossible with man is possible with God” – because it is God who saves and not through our own works. Pray that God show us any idols in our lives that are preventing us from wholeheartedly following Jesus, and that as we do follow him, we would trust him as the one who give us the gift of eternal life, not because of our merit or good works.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan is a member of our Bossley Park Morning congregation.