Luke 18:18-30
The Rich Ruler
18A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’[b]“
This event also appears in Mark 10:17-31. See my post on that passage here. Mark simply calls him a young man, but Luke calls him a ruler. That was a title given to someone in charge of a synagogue or a member of the Sanhedrin. Jairus, whose daughter Jesus raised from death in Luke 8:41-42, 49-56 had the same title. This was probably a young man from a wealthy, influential family who, because of his connections and seriousness about keeping the law, was given responsibility in the synagogue. He was a respected member of the community. Mark says that he ran up to Jesus “and fell on his knees before him.” (Mark 10:17). This respected, rich, influential young man in his fine robes ran to Jesus and knelt in the dirt in front of him.
The rich young ruler made his first mistake calling Jesus “good teacher.” Rabbis were not addressed this way. The word good, in this context, implied complete sinlessness. The Amplified Bible expands the title good as “essentially and perfectly morally good”. Of course, Jesus was all of those things, but this man didn’t know that. And Jesus didn’t deny being good, he simply asked the young man why he called him that. By calling Jesus good, he was calling him God.
His question, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”, reflects the attitude of a Pharisee. The fact that this young man believed in eternal life, and wanted to know how to inherit it, also shows that he sided with the Pharisees, who believed in an afterlife, where the Sadducees did not. Also, his attitude that eternal life could be gained by doing was very much the attitude of the Pharisees. After Jesus corrects his use of the word good, he answers the young man by first referring to what scholars often call the second table of the law, the commandments that deal with how we treat each other. He knew that, as a Pharisee, this young man would have faithfully kept these commandments, at least outwardly.
21“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.
In Mark 10:21, Mark says Jesus “looked at him and loved him.” Here was a sincere young man who really wanted to know what it would take to get to the next level, spiritually. Most rich religious leaders who asked Jesus questions were trying to trip him up, but this young man was more like Nicodemus, another rich ruler who came to Jesus with sincere questions (John 3:1-21). He recognized Jesus’ spiritual authority, and understood that the rule keeping he had done all his life was not enough.
Many people read this and are disturbed to think that Jesus is teaching that we have to sell everything we have and give it all to the poor to be saved. Jesus did say things like this more than once (Luke 11:41, 12:33). But in the case of this man, I think Jesus was getting to the heart of his (and many other peoples’) problem. The young ruler had kept all of the commandments that dealt with his treatment of other people, but was violating the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3) His god was his money, position, and influence. There is a reason the commandments that talk about our relationship with God come before the ones that talk about our relationships with others. Our relationship with God must come first.
Mark says that the young man’s face fell, and he went away sad (Mark 10:22). He could not give up what was most precious to him to follow Jesus. The question Jesus asked Peter after the resurrection, “Do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15) is the question he asks all of us. Are we willing to give up that which is dearest to us in order to follow him?
24Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
27Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
Jesus didn’t say that it was impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, but he said it was hard. I’ve heard some say that the “camel through the eye of a needle” statement is a reference to a camel shuffling through a small postern gate, or by reading the Greek word kamilon, which means cable for kamelon, which is the Greek word for camel. I think this misses the point. I think Jesus is actually making a joke. Of course it’s not impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom. There are many examples in the Bible of rich people who are righteous. Abraham, David, Solomon, and Job, just to name a few. The point is, is there anything more important to us than God? Is there anything we will not give up in order to follow him?
Jesus was extending a great honor to this man by inviting him to be his disciple. He was literally asking him to join the twelve apostles! Imagine the impact he could have had in the early church if he had done as Jesus suggested. But unlike the Twelve, he could not leave what he had and live like Jesus lived. Though it is possible to be a rich disciple of Jesus, it takes a special kind of person to do that. For most of us, riches make us self satisfied and blind us to our need for God.
28Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
29“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”
The disciples had done exactly what Jesus had told the rich young ruler to do. They had left everything to follow Jesus. Most of them were not rich, though Matthew was, as a tax collector. But the amount we give up for Jesus, or what we give up in order to follow him is not the issue. Our willingness to give up whatever it takes to be his disciple is what matters.
Most of my life, especially as a young man, I believed that I was going to be famous someday. I was going to be the next Andre Crouch. (Am I dating myself with that reference?) No one could have convinced me otherwise. But I didn’t understand at the time what it would take in terms of personal and spiritual commitment to get there. And only a very, very few make it to that level in the Christian music business (or any business). Only Andre Crouch gets to be Andre Crouch. By the time I reached my early 30’s, I had reached the point where I had to give up my dream to God. I finally got to the place where I was willing to tell God that if I never got a record deal, that was OK. I just wanted to be in his will. That was a turning point in my walk with Jesus. It was almost immediately after I let go of my dreams that God provided a way for me to make a living doing what I love, which is music, and I have made a living at music ever since. That was 22 years ago. Though I still dream of my music reaching millions, and being able to be the kind of full time Christian artist that I hoped I would be, my dream no longer haunts me. I have found the promise that Jesus made in verses 29-30 to be true in my life. If we are willing to give up that which we love most in order to follow Jesus, he will not fail to give back what we gave up in ways we never expected.