Mark 10:17-22
The Rich Young Ruler
Mark 10:17-22 Radical Commitment: Possessions
Discussion Questions in Blue.
Questions to consider:
What am I willing to give up in order to have Jesus?
What am I not willing to give up in order to have Jesus?
Mark 10:17–31 (ESV):
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
On the surface, this seems like a pretty great way to approach Jesus.
He literally runs up to him.
He kneels before him—signaling his humbleness
He addresses Jesus as ‘Good Teacher’.
Rabbi’s in those days refused to call anyone ‘good’ except God, for fear of committing blasphemy. So this man is probably onto something in how he views Jesus.
Even the subject matter of his question is on point: he’s asking about eternal life—the most important subject any person could ever inquire about!
But if we look more closely, we see that there’s a major flaw in this man’s thinking.
It’s those four English words (just two words in Greek): what must I do?
Humans have been asking that question for thousands of years, and they continue to ask that question today.
Every world religion is basically designed to answer that question in some way, shape or form.
This man is assuming, as many people do, that salvation is something that can be earned.
Now, the irony is that Jesus just got done giving a compelling illustration of the fact that salvation cannot be earned… only received.
With your group, or with your family, recount the story from Mark 10:13-16.
What was the meaning of that incident?
18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
Why do you think Jesus would ask this rhetorical question? What was he wanting the man to consider?
19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ”
So Jesus is leading this man along by referencing things that would have been common knowledge to a Jew.
Every Jew would have known these commandments (and many more) as the pathway to being “right” with God.
Jesus knew what was in this man’s heart. He knew where his self-righteousness was buried. So He’s digging it up and bringing it to the surface.
20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”
What a proud moment for this young man! His chest must have swelled a little when he said that.
See, Jews believed that it was possible to keep the Law perfectly.
Think of Paul’s words about how he viewed himself as a Pharisee: “in regard to the Law, I was blameless” (Phil. 3:6).
The only way that was possible was because they had re-defined the law to be much more attainable.
Jesus restores the heart of the law in the Sermon on the Mount when he says, for example, “if anyone even looks at his brother with hatred in his heart, he is guilty of breaking the command, “do not murder””.
In reality, no human could ever keep God’s law perfectly with their whole heart. That’s why we need a Savior.
But nevertheless, in his own mind, this man was able to affirm his perfect record.
It was a proud moment.
And yet, what a sad moment.
See, here’s a guy who has wealth, success, even has religion… and yet is still empty. If he was fulfilled, he wouldn’t be coming to Jesus. If all of the things of the world could satisfy his soul, he wouldn’t be standing here.
Here is a man who would resonate with the words of the great poet Bono: “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”
How would you expect Jesus to respond to this self-righteous, self-deceived, arrogant individual?
21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him,
On the surface, this statement is a bit shocking. Why shouldn’t it surprise us that Jesus loved this man?
and said to him, “You lack one thing:
Jesus wasn’t afraid to tell this guy what he was missing.
This is very instructive for us.
Some of us have people in our lives who are so well put-together. They are successful. They are moral. They are good people. They have good families.
And we might be tempted to assume they’re fine because of these things.
But they don’t have Jesus.
We need to have the bravery and the love to speak up and tell them what they lack.
Who do you have in YOUR life who needs to hear the loving news that they lack “one thing”?
go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
What did the man lack? He lacked the only thing that really matters: following Jesus.
The law can’t save. It never could.
According to Hebrews 10, the entire law and sacrificial system was only a shadow pointing towards the spiritual reality that would be ours in Christ.
Gaining eternal life has always, only been about faith in the Messiah.
So this man’s morality and his religious effort, as good as it was… as sincere as it was… was no substitute for following Jesus with his whole life.
So Jesus puts the offer on the table.
He says, “if you really want this, you can have it… but it’s going to cost you everything.”
How does this guy respond?
22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And that’s the last we hear of the guy.
Let the gravity of his choice sink in:
He had eternal life literally staring him in the face…
Jesus said in John 17:3 (ESV): 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
…and he walked away from it so that he could keep his stuff. He chose his stuff over eternal life with Jesus.
We hear Jesus’ words from Mark 8 echoing to us: For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
All throughout Mark, we’ve watched Jesus call people to leave all kinds of things behind in order to follow Him.
Fishermen are called to leave their boats and their livelihood (1:16-20)
A tax collector is called to leave his table and his career (2:14)
Peter is called to leave behind his false conceptions about the Messiah (8:33)
In a while we’ll see another man leave his place as a bystander and literally carry the cross of Jesus (15:21)
Whatever you hold in highest esteem… whatever sits on the throne of your life… that is your Lord. And it needs to be de-throned so that Jesus can sit there. Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and…. (And you can fill in that blank with whatever you like). For this man it was his wealth. For you it might be something else.
What might that be for you?
Notice that it says, “he went away sorrowful”.
What was it about this interaction that left this man sorrowful?
Many people are blindsided and shocked by the true gospel.
We assume that getting to heaven is based on religious performance, and at the end of our lives God sort of averages out our good and our bad and sends us either to heaven or hell accordingly.
What shocked this man, and might shock some of us today, is that Jesus is after our hearts. He’s after our affections. It’s one of the reasons our church mission statement talks about helping people “treasure” Jesus.
Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.
The question for all of us is, what do we treasure?
Jesus told a story in Matthew 13 about a man who uncovered a buried treasure. It was buried in a field. So he frantically gathered everything he had and sold it off in order to purchase the field and get the treasure.
Do you think it was easy or difficult for the man to sell off all his stuff? According to Jesus he did it with “joy”! Why? Because the treasure was so overwhelmingly worth it to him.
That’s the heart posture Jesus is looking for. When we see Jesus as the great Treasure that He IS, we joyfully loosen our grip on everything else.
We’ve said that this principle applies to anything, not just wealth.
However, based on where Jesus goes next, it is clear that this man’s struggle to let go of his wealth is somewhat universal. In other words, for many, many people, wealth and possessions present a very real hindrance to following Jesus.
Next time, we’re going to look more specifically at how a Christian is to relate to wealth, and how you and I can actually leverage our wealth towards heavenly riches.
Closing thought:
If it wasn’t for the love of Jesus and the power of the gospel, we’d all be hopeless, because all of us are heart-level idolaters just like this man.
Yet the beautiful truth is that Christ already did for us what He calls us to do: He gave up everything, and “for the joy set before Him, endure the cross” (Heb. 12).
The reason you and I can be free from the penalty of our choices is because Jesus Himself offered up His own life in our place. His death on the cross has accomplished the impossible for us.
As we’ll see next time, the disciples will ask, “how can anyone be saved?!” To which Jesus will reply, “with man it is impossible. But with God all things are possible.”
Our salvation is possible only because of what Jesus has done.
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