Dr. Rick Mandl - September 15, 2020
The Wrong Question
Devotional Manuscript: The Wrong Question
By Dr. Rick Mandl, Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Hey church family. I was thinking this week about some of the encounters that Jesus had with different people during his three-year ministry. Without a doubt, one of the saddest meetings he had was with a man whose name we don’t know. We only know him by the description that was given of him, by the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Today we most often refer to him as the ‘rich, young, ruler.’ He is a man, we are told, that Jesus looked at, and felt genuine love toward. This man approached Jesus with a question. The question He asked was, “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
Through that simple question we can see that this rich young ruler has brought the issue of eternal life and salvation down to a kind of works righteousness. For him, Salvation is like any other transaction, and he thinks that once he knows what the price is, he can pay it and work his way into eternal life. Jesus begins his answer to the question by correcting this man’s concept of who is good, which is no one, except God. This young man is not good and no amount of doing good will make him good.
Jesus then gives him the summary of the Law in the form of some of the Ten Commandments and the young man has the nerve to tell Jesus that he has kept them all. With that statement he breaks a law Jesus didn’t mention which was lying. What’s unfortunate is that this young man completely misses the point of Jesus’ definition of righteousness. When Jesus starts rattling off commandments, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ The young man starts checking off the boxes. And he says, "yep, yep, yep." “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus replies – one thing… “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
And upon hearing that, this rich young man walked away sad. You reflect on this story and you wonder... Is this a lesson in generosity? It could be, but I don’t believe, that the one thing he lacked was not being generous or not, not having possessions. I believe the one thing he lacked was Jesus. Because when you have Him, you have an awareness that nothing else is necessary. I pray that that is a lesson that, the Lord, would be impressing on you and me – Amen.
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