Mark 10:17-27
You probably have never heard of Harry Binswanger. In some ways, I wish I had never heard of him. He is a former college professor and board member of the Ayn Rand Institute. He wrote a column for Forbes magazine in September of 2013 stating that “the community should give back to wealth-creators,” and that the world is indebted to the rich and powerful for “their enormous contributions to our standard of living.” He also believes that anyone who earns more than $1 million a year deserves an exemption from paying taxes. He explains that by saying it is a “symbolic gesture” because the “great achievers”, such as Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Steve Jobs, “lifted us out of the cave and gave us our standard of living.” Perhaps Binswanger’s most outrageous notion is his proposal that the highest earner of the year – someone like an investment banker, hedge fund manager, or CEO of a big corporation – should be given a Congressional Medal of Honor in return for their contribution to human life.
The extremely wealthy certainly have a different way of looking at things, don’t they? And this story from the book of Mark tells us about a wealthy man who couldn’t quite see or accept things the way Jesus proposed them because of his wealth. And perhaps because of his religious pride.
It is important to remember that this passage is speaking to us, right here, right now. In comparison to the rest of the world, we are all wealthy. We are among the rich. And so this story applies to us. Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” That’s how I feel about this passage. I know what it says, and I have a pretty good idea of what it means, and it bothers me. It bothers me because I see that I too, have a problem in my life.
What do we know about this man who ran up to Jesus that day? Not much. We don’t even know his name. But he could be any number of people we recognize and know well. He was a good man, a respectable man, a religious man. Mark Batterson describes him like this, in his book All In:
On paper, the Rich Young Ruler was the epitome of religiosity… The Rich Young Ruler may rank as one of the most religious people in the pages of Scripture. The text tells us he kept all the commandments. He did nothing wrong, but you can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right …
I haven’t met many people possessed by a demon, but I’ve met a lot of people possessed by their possessions. They don’t own things. Things own them. And that is certainly true of the Rich Young Ruler. He had everything money could buy. He had his whole life in front of him. And he called his own shots.
The Rich Young Ruler had everything we think we want. He was rich. He was young. And he was in a position of power. What more could he possibly want?
That, of course, is what brought the man to Jesus that day. It was his sense that he did want something, he needed something, something was missing in his life. What was it? And how did he get it? It was not something that money could buy, because he had the money to buy anything. It was something elusive, just beyond his awareness perhaps. Whatever it was, it brought him to Jesus.
I think we know what this man was feeling. We also have money, maybe not enough to buy everything we want, but enough to buy what we need and some of what we want. We have material possessions. We have at least a certain amount of financial security. But it’s not enough, really. We know that there is a limit to what money can buy, and yet we keep trying to make money be enough.
Did you know that Jesus talked more about money than any other topic? There are more sayings of Jesus recorded in the gospels about money than any other subject. Jesus talked more about money than he did about love; more about money than he did about salvation; more about money than he did about forgiveness. Why? Probably because Jesus knew that it is such a hard thing to deal with, our love of money, and it so easily lures our hearts away from the things of God. Jesus knew that if we depend only on money, it will kill us in the end.
I read about an expedition in 1845 to explore the Arctic. It was highly publicized, and it turned out to be a terrible failure. The brave adventurers who joined the party set out by steamship for the Arctic region. On the ship they had a large library, a hand organ, china place settings, cut-glass wine goblets, and sterling silver flatware engraved with the men’s initials and family crests. In order to make room for these “necessities,” the ship was not able to hold sufficient coal for running the steam engines. The ship came to rest in the frozen waters and the men all died. Search parties later found the bodies of men who had apparently gone on foot to look for help. One had on a dress coat decorated with silk braid. Another was carrying a backpack holding his set of silver flatware. For all that they had, they didn’t have what they needed to survive. They were hanging on to things that were absolutely useless.
This rich young man was kind of like that. For all he had, he didn’t have what he really needed. And so Jesus looked at him carefully, and he loved him, and he said, “You are missing one thing.” Hey, that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? He was just missing one thing. But it was a big thing. Jesus went on, “Go and sell what you own. Give the money to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.”
Why did Jesus say that? Why did Jesus demand such a high price? Because, for this man, it was his wealth that stood in the way of discipleship. Yes, he wanted eternal life, he wanted to be a good and faithful man. But he didn’t want it enough. He didn’t want that alone. He also wanted to hold on to his possessions and wealth. That was more important to him than following Jesus. And so he turned and walked away.
Mark Batterson writes,
The story of the Rich Young Ruler is one of the saddest stories in the Bible because he had so much upside potential. He could have leveraged his resources, his network, and his energy for kingdom causes, but he spent it all on himself. He thought that was what would make him happy … [The moment Jesus said, “Follow me,”] was the opportunity of a lifetime, but he didn’t have the guts to go for it …
Be honest, have you ever felt bad for the Rich Young Ruler? Part of me feels like Jesus was asking for too much. Are you sure you want to ask for everything? Why don’t you start with the tithe? But Jesus goes for the jugular. He asks the Rich Young Ruler to ante up everything. Why? Because he loved the Rich Young Ruler too much to ask for anything less! We focus on what Jesus asked him to give up but fail to consider what he offered up in exchange. Jesus invited the Rich Young Ruler to follow him. And that’s the point in the story where we should gasp … No one in the history of humankind has ever been offered a better internship opportunity than the Rich Young Ruler. An internship with the Creator of the heavens and the earth? Come on … And the Rich Young Ruler said no. So if you feel bad for the Rich Young Ruler, it should not be because of what Jesus asked him to give up. It should be because of the opportunity he passed up. What Jesus asked him to give up was nothing compared to what Jesus would have given him in return.”
What is the one thing you need to give up in order to follow Jesus? Why are you holding back? Why are you turning away saddened and dismayed? Have you really thought about what you are losing by holding on to that one thing? Mark Batterson’s book All In talks about how we are called to go all in with Jesus. We can’t hold back. We can’t make a partial commitment or follow halfway. It’s all or nothing. It’s surrendering all of us to all of him. He states, “If Jesus is not Lord of all, then Jesus is not Lord at all.” He goes on to say,
The gospel costs nothing. We cannot buy it or earn it. It can only be received as a free gift, compliments of God’s grace. So it costs nothing, but it demands every-thing. And that is where most of us get stuck … We’ve got just enough of Jesus to be informed, but not enough to be transformed. We want everything God has to offer without giving anything up. We want to buy in without selling out. We’re afraid that if we don’t hold out on God, we’ll miss out on what this life has to offer. [But] God is not holding out on you … It’s not until we go all in with God that we discover … true joy …
Batterson tells the story of a group of brave souls who became known as one-way missionaries. It took place about a hundred years ago. These men and women bought one-way tickets to the mission field. Instead of suitcases, they packed their earthly belongings in coffins. As they boarded ships and set sail, they waved goodbye to friends and family, knowing that they would never see them again.
One of those missionaries was a man named A. W. Milne. He landed in the New Hebrides in the South Pacific. The headhunters who lived there had already killed every missionary who had gone before him. But Milne was not afraid. He had already died to himself; his coffin was packed. And for 35 years, he lived among the headhunters and loved them. When he died, the tribe members buried him in the middle of their village in the coffin he had brought with him. On his tombstone they wrote, “When he came there was no light. When he left there was no darkness.”
Batterson concludes,
When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things? That faithfulness is holding the fort? That playing it safe is safe? That there is any greater privilege than sacrifice? That radical is anything but normal? Jesus didn’t die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous. Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It’s storming the gates of hell. The will of God is not an insurance plan. It’s a daring plan. The complete surrender of your life to the cause of Christ isn’t radical. It’s normal. It’s time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. It’s time to go all in … Pack your coffin!
Perhaps the one thing that is missing in all our lives is a sense of adventure about our faith. Perhaps we have spent so much time trying to get Jesus to follow us, that we have forgotten what it means to follow him. Perhaps we’re afraid that if we give up control, we will never enjoy life again. But let me tell you, the opposite is true. It is when I am most closely following Jesus that I find the most joy in life. It is when I find the most meaning, the greatest sense of fulfilling my purpose. It is in following Jesus that I find adventure, and excitement, and the feeling that somehow I just might be making a difference in the world. Yes, following Jesus means giving up some things, but the return on the investment is phenomenal. So I challenge you, go all in with Jesus. Whatever that one thing is that is keeping you from following him, give it up. Let it go. It is not worth missing out on the greatest opportunity you will ever have.
