Wasn’t it Only for Him?

Haven’t you heard people say it? I have. It is one of the main ways preachers, evangelists, and just ordinary people deal with this uncomfortable passage in the new testament:

          “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” Mark 10:21

          Didn’t He mean that for the rich young ruler alone? Wasn’t it only for him and not for the rest of us? You know, only for those people who have a “problem” with their riches. Isn’t that what the context of Yahshua’s words tell us? You can tell that the rich young ruler had a “problem” with riches because he went away sad.
         
          But  who has riches and doesn't trust in them? When the Great depression began and the stock market crashed, people jumped out of windows and killed themselves. When their wealth was gone, they had nothing to fall back upon. They certainly trusted in their riches, and when their riches were gone, they had nothing left to trust.
         
          If you read the story carefully you can see that the rich young ruler did trust Yahshua to a remarkable extent. He might have known Him and His message better than we think. After all, he came to Him because he knew that he had the ability to grant him the one thing he lacked-eternal life. He even knew there was something that he must do  to gain eternal life. But the answer to his question, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” was not at all what he thought it would be.
         
          It was a very hard thing to do-if you love you own life in this world-but not if you hate your life in this world.
         
          Give Him a million shekels...climb up the temple steps a thousand times on his knees...build an orphanage….go to Mount Sinai in the desert and listen to the voice of God...So many things he would have done for eternal life, even “Only believe!” But to give  up all he had and come, follow him...that was too much. The good teacher and he had  different ideas about the “one thing he lacked.”
         
          The rich young ruler faced the cost of removing the guilt from his conscience, and  shuddered, forfeiting eternal life instead of his possessions. Making right the damage his wealth and careless ease had done to others, to the name of God, and to his own soul, involved losing what he would not let go of. He found his security in it.
         
          So, the cost of this “treasure in heaven” was too high, honoring God by obeying His words. This meant humbly admitting that the  Good Teacher knew  the way out of the predicament of his guilt. It also meant doing all he could to satisfy His father’s heart that, there would be no one lacking in the land. And it meant making right any wrongs he had committed as a rich man.
         
          There was another wealthy man, a tax collector, who understood this, too. It was the first thing on his conscience when confronted with the mercy of God in the person of Yahshua. Zaccheus gave half his wealth to charity and paid back what he defrauded from others four times over. Like the rich young ruler, he understood he had to do something to be  worthy of receiving the Son of God. Sounds heretical, I know, but it all depends on  where your heart is: “Where  your treasure is there will your heart be also.”
         
          It seems like the rich young ruler wished that could be the other way around: “Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also,” but the Savior didn’t say that. So the man turned away in grief and sorrow, understanding the choice before him. Since  then most people have not had his  sensitivity of conscience, for they only turn  away with a shrug. “Hard sayings,” they say, and turn away.
         
          Yahshua knew how easy it would be to focus on the particular circumstances of the “rich man” and not see that it applied to all who would  believe in him. The great astonishment of His disciples shadowed that even they did not really understand. But they had been willing to do what the rich young ruler wasn’t: “See we have left all and followed you.”
         
          They wanted to know, “What about us? Is there eternal life for us?”
         
          Remember, His disciples were “the poor” and not the rich. What about them? By saying, “There is no one…” Yahshua generalized His words to this particular rich young ruler to include all, both rich and poor.
         
          “Verily, I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s, But he shall  receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren  and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come, eternal life.” Mark 10:29-30
         
          The underlying issue of possessions is deeper than security. It is authority. Yahshua was not teaching His disciples to preach a gospel of salvation by philanthropy-the good works of the wealthy. He was not training them that eternal life was for sale with charity or alms. But he was saying something very definitive about salvation: “Are you going to do what I want you to do?”
          Knowing what was in the heart of man, the Master thus put His finger on the very nerve of human existence. He was saying to this man what he says to every man and woman: Unless I can be the highest Authority in your life there is no salvation for you. This is why He said to the multitudes in Luke 14:33, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”

When the disciples asked in their astonishment, “Who then can be be saved?” His answer comforted them, “All things are possible with God.” What almost everyone misses is that He goes on to explain how it is “possible with God” in verses 29-30-by forsaking all for His sake and the gospel’s sake, resulting in a hundredfold return in the life shared with all who believe, along with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life.
         
          Those who fail to see this must embrace the contradiction that God would deny His own word by granting eternal life to someone who would not obey His word. Isn’t that a lot to “hope” for with eternity at stake?

Wealth:The Eternal Consequence

            Yahshua said, “Woe to the rich, for they have their comfort in full.” That means in this life, not in the next. The word woe is one of finality. In the strongest terms it suggest impeding doom or judgment. If one spends the majority of his lifetime chasing after wealth and the false sense of security it gives, then when he dies his soul will eternally bear the marks of it-the eternal consequences of yielding to a sordid lust for wealth and riches. His eternal destiny is among the unjust and filthy of humanity. Throughout eternity they remain in that state-still.

          If only the “rich young ruler” had been willing to see the deep compromise of his own heart when he requested eternal life from the One he called, “Good teacher.” If he had only obeyed, his eternal soul could have been released from the prison of his guilt-riches. In response to the gospel, he would have made himself poor in order to become truly rich.

A Commonwealth
           

            `Many will justify their desire for wealth by pointing to the examples of Abraham or King David “Were they not wealthy?” But Abraham’s wealth was in his flocks and his large household of servants who were fiercely loyal to him. He obviously loved and cared for them as if they were his own children.

            Likewise, King David was a man who gathered the disadvantaged to himself, and cared for them as their Shepard and captain. His rulership united Israel and caused all to prosper. It produced the Commonwealth of Israel, a type of what would come as a spiritual Israel under the New Covenant.

                        The True living God would never desire to curse anyone with such “prosperity. His desire was for another type of prosperity, where the poor in spirit would receive the blessing as they  shared what they had for the common good. It was the true prosperity that peter and other disciples embraced. (mark 10:28-30)

            The disciples had embrace poverty for the sake of the gospel, and in return they also received the blessing of true riches. In the community of messiah, no one desires riches for themselves, but all is a commonwealth. The material wealth of those who believed is shared among the needy and poor brotherhood.. Therefore all things are held in common, so the wealth is evenly distributed according to need.    

An Adaptation of the article “Was It Only for Him” from the It Takes A Community publication)