Focal Passage: Luke 18:18-30
“We’re going to need to operate,” the doctor said. “So, what does that mean? We’ll schedule an appointment and I’ll come back later?”
I replied. “No, we’re admitting you now and the procedure will be tomorrow.”
Not the news I wanted to hear. You see, I had been dealing with a dull pain in my lower left leg that would frequently go numb. It turns out I had a spontaneous blockage in an artery behind my knee that was blocking blood flow.
The surgeon would go on to say I was weeks, if not days, away from losing my leg. I’m thankful that he spoke truth to me, even if it was hard for me to hear. Of course, not everyone always receives hard truth.
It Luke 18 we meet a ruler who is wealthy and influential, a man commonly known as the rich young ruler, who asks Jesus, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” If you are familiar with the text, we are tempted to gloss over the introduction Dr. Luke gives us.
We mustn’t do that. You see, what we quickly pass over is that this man (seemingly) had everything. To the watching crowds he had everything necessary.
First, he was rich. To be rich in that day was often viewed as evidence of God’s special favor and blessing. Nobody ever said it, but it was believed.
I’m not convinced we don’t have a little bit in our day as well.
Luke also says he was a “ruler.” Presumably he had some importance over a synagogue or something of that sort.
He was a man of influence. And while Luke doesn’t call him young here, Matthew describes him that way in his depiction of this same event. He was vibrant, full of energy, having his whole life in front of him.
Here’s the point, on the surface this man had everything. By every outward measure this man appeared successful. Yet Jesus saw what nobody else could see.
You know the interaction, this man proclaims to have kept all the commandments, and then Jesus hits him where it hurts: his stuff. Give it all away!
Of course, the point Jesus is making is not that we have to be outrageously generous to be saved, or that we must live a life of volunteer poverty. That, after all, would be a work and we are saved by grace!
No, Jesus’ point was to speak the truth this man needed to hear: you haven’t kept all the commandments, you haven’t even kept the first, “have no other gods before me.”
Jesus spoke the truth that this man needed to hear. I would point out that our Lord was not ugly about it, He was not mean about it.
He simply stated the truth, much like my surgeon, “we need to operate.”
Unfortunately for our rich young ruler he did not receive it.
And here is where the rubber meets the road for you and I, the rejection of others to the truth we share does not alleviate our responsibility to speak it. Even if others do not say “yes” to Jesus, we must invite them to follow Him. B&R