The Rich Young Man’s Rejection

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.

23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you,  only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Some days ago I visited the city of Tarapoto and  the areas around in the highlands of the jungle in Peru, where I was invited to a wedding of a dear friend, and also to preach the word in a church in that place, I really had a wonderful time there, in the middle of my visit I held very good conversations with some brothers in the church, one of the topics I remember the most is when they telling me about a pastor who had been investing time  visiting  a person who used to attend a church but eventually gave up and did not want to continue attending to church nor the gospel, so the pastor decided to stop spending his time with this man,  that situation caused many questions between the Christian community and also curiosity within the brotherhood of that church, their main  thing  was, as a pastor he shouldn’t  have stopped investing time with that man, if Christ does not give up on us why should we?, they were thinking the pastor was wrong for not trying to continue dealing with that man who was in apparent need for Christ, I did not get to know the whole details in that situation so I could not give a very deep advice in the matter, but  I could only share the  story of the rich young man written  in the book of Matthew chapter 19 of the Bible, a story that happened to Jesus, and I'd like to share this story to you  and also some thoughts about the matter.

It really strikes me the way how the rich young man approached Jesus, -what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”- he asked,  At first  this kind of question it is not bad isn’t it?, it is a kind question that every good Christian at some point did ask, in fact you would think that the motivation behind, it is good; Jesus knowing the heart of this young man replied:   - keep the commandments-, the young man said to him -that he had kept it all from his youth- (meaning I’m a good person who fulfills the law, I deserve eternal life), Jesus who understood his heart from the beginning, added this, -that he should sell all he had and give to the poor-, but Jesus did not just stop there because helping the poor is not but an act of philanthropy, generosity that we all should do but that’s  not what will change our lives, the key is what Jesus said next: "Come, follow me", while the rich young man heard this the Bible tells us that the rich young man was sorrowful because he had great possessions, then Jesus added a sentence talking about how difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Some things here that call my attention:

Ø  Something  that strikes me in general about the story is how Jesus the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, the one who is able to leave the 99 sheep in order to go find the one that is lost of 100 , seeing the reaction and the deep sadness of this rich young man, and seeing him to leave, Jesus did not say a word to him, not at all, he did not call him, or said try again. I personally  in a similar situation I had walked up to him and had said : Wait do not go, be still, well maybe this way is very difficult  for you why don’t  you try this different way, or perhaps you will gradually get there and will reach the goal, do not go, be still, but Jesus, Jesus did not flinch, just let him go, and actually he began to teach about this, the question then is why? What was it, that made Jesus to let the rich young man go? And if so will be there any situations in our lives where the Lord would let us go? And these are my possible explanations to those questions:

1.    When the young man approached Jesus the first thing he asked is: what good deed must I do to have eternal life? I think his motivation was, how can I continue having the kind of life I have here, in eternity? I have many things I need a guarantee that I will have it in eternity too, his central subject was the eternal life, he wanted the eternal life and that was it, the issue of being with Jesus was not important to him at all. It was not necessary if he could have eternal life; then you wonder,  what is wrong with thinking about eternal life? we all have to wonder about that eventually, and that's true, all Christians should ask for eternal life, but our main focus is Jesus and not only eternal life, we have to be with Jesus having a relationship with him, what we will do in eternity is to continue our relationship with Jesus adore and praise him for eternity, but meanwhile, this time is our preparation and let us call it "practice" here on earth, today and now, but if the grounds of your heart are not focus on Jesus, it is kinda useless for you to think or yearn about eternity, because at the end what will we face there in eternity will be  a complete picture of what we do today,  to be with Jesus, worship Jesus, and to live for him.  For the rich young man (like many people today), his concerns was to live well in eternity, have good insurance that guarantees comfort, wealthy live, the guarantee that all he had in this life will be given to him in eternity too, that’s why he had to do works, “keeping the commandments”, for him the sanctification process did not matter, that’s what was important for him: to ensure eternal redemption. Christians have been redeemed, so there is no condemnation and we are destined to live in eternity, but yet we still live in this world and we must live as worthy representatives of Christ on earth in this process  of daily dependence on God, His word and power of Holy Spirit; that is what is called sanctification, we do not based on our works but it is very important to have a look in our deeds, our actions, our ways of living, the rich young man all he cared about was getting there, eternity and he would do what he would consider necessary, fulfill the commandments. I’m not trying to say here that we shall live by works, but what i am trying to say is that as believers we do live by faith and our faith will produce works, we don’t live by works, our faith will produce works. For us is not only important our goal(heaven, eternity), for us is also important the process to get there(sanctification), living a life being a witness of Christ on earth.

2.         Jesus who knew his heart, tried to explain: yeah  that's good(it is a good thing to keep the commandments), it is necessary to fulfill the word of God and be worthy ambassadors of Christ here on earth, but Jesus added: something else you need to do: -go and sell what you have and give it to the poor-, in this matter I would say I believe that the issue here is not about money and possessions, but what it does represent, for this rich young man,  possessions were his idol, and what he had inside his heart instead of Jesus, and that was enthroned in his heart, that was the thing he would care about,  he was not  interested in Jesus at all, that's why he approached Jesus asking what good deed must I do to have eternal life?, he never approached him and asked: what can I do to be with you? seeing this Jesus tries to help, he opened his heart and gave him the secret saying; -come and follow me-, (He had  said the same thing to his disciples and they followed him, and even though they often turned away from him, and they failed many times but Jesus  never let them alone, and never gave up on them) the young man listening to this, became sorrowful, and he walked away sad, He never cared of being with Jesus, he was careless about Jesus,  for him his main subject was the eternity and how he could keep his possessions in eternity. He was not interested in Jesus at all.

3.         Jesus who knew his heart, He simply let him go; regardless of which church or ministry you are involved in or attend, if your motivation is not to be with Jesus, He will simply let you go, the Bible states that who finds the son has found life, it was to be with Jesus that had changed  the disciples, Jesus once said, "Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you." it was the presence of Jesus, being with Jesus, what had changed sinners, publicans and bad people lives, it is the presence of Jesus in your life what will change you. It is necessary along with the story of the rich young man to analyze our motivation about why  we do approach the gospel, the essence of the gospel is Jesus. We are called to live lives for him, in the process of  daily sanctification in total dependence on God, the Holy Spirit and His word, with the Lordship of Jesus in our lives.

4.         We must do what the rich young man didn’t, to follow Jesus. Today, so many people come to the gospel with many misconceptions; we must return to the roots and get close to Jesus, he is the one who will provide whatever else you need, he is the good shepherd who cares for his sheep. The young man rejected Jesus and did not want to be with him, He did not contemplate the idea of being with Jesus, so Jesus let him go without hesitation, he did not persuade him to stay, just let him go, that situation might also happen to us if our motives are different to what it should.

In conclusion to finish with this story about this pastor I was talking about in the beginning of this lecture when he decided to stop investing time and visiting this man who used to be  a frequent visitor to  church, I could say if the motivations of this man  were the same as the rich young man, and like Jesus the pastor saw the same pattern, I believe what the pastor did  It was the best he could do, the Bible says whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Because we have free will, God in His everlasting love has given us the power to choose to seek for him, then let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time.