A Case Study from the Rich Young Ruler

I get the privilege of teaching at my church this month on the topic of the Rich Young Ruler and I see a lot of overlap to financial planning conversations I get to have with our clients at Flourish FP.

As such, I wanted to share a few thoughts with the CFAN followers from this famous account in scripture.

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Mark 10:17-27

My hope in looking at this is that we see ourselves in this account and that some of the warnings given to the rich young ruler apply to us as well. I think it is easy for us to just consider this as someone else’s encounter with Jesus.

But let’s not focus as much on the status and balance sheet of the man. Let’s focus on the heart of the man, because that is really what Jesus is addressing here.

The Emptiness of Wealth

The first noteworthy thing to notice is the man's eagerness or desperation to get to Jesus. Jesus is on his way out of town and the Rich Young Ruler is likely seeing his last opportunity to come before Jesus. So he runs up to him and then kneels down before him and asks his question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The man who has it all is in a sense of desperation. He knows that there is something more to life than just having wealth, power, status, and good moral standing. This contrasts the story right before this in scripture where Pharisees are coming to trap Jesus. This seems to be asked in authenticity and reminds me of the wisdom of Solomon—having it all and realizing it’s really all about something else.

You see this in the approach of the man and you also see it in his response to Jesus’s comment of which commandments to keep. Jesus lists out the latter five of the ten commandments that have to do with others and summarizes with: Love your neighbor as yourself. And the man says that he has done all that. But he doesn’t just stop there and say: “Ok, I must be in. I keep all of those commandments.” He presses because he knows there’s something else missing still.

The Command of Jesus

So Jesus gets to the real command. And this is where it can trip us up as we read of this encounter with Jesus. It seems like Jesus is now sharing a new commandment, but that’s not it. He is really giving one command “Come, Follow Me” and the money thing is a prerequisite. If you are going to come follow Jesus, then you can’t follow anything else.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Matthew 6:24

If you are going to follow Jesus then you need to drop anything else that you were following in your life. And for the Rich Young Ruler, to drop the god of riches and possessions would naturally result in it falling to those around him in the form of generosity.

I love what Mark highlights in this text as well. He says that Jesus “looking at him, loved him, and said to him…” The rich young ruler is standing before the Great Physician, and Jesus is gently dealing with him like he is saying, “this looks like it is going to hurt, and it may, but it is actually the treatment that you need to deal with the true disease in your heart. And this is what will provide  you the eternal life you are longing for.” With the other “master” out of the way, then the man can respond by then following Jesus.

The Impact of Riches on Eternal Life

But… this story turns very sad, because that is not the response that this man has. The Bible tells us that the man goes away sad from Jesus and the disciples were left standing there dumbstruck. Almost like they were asking, “If that man is not in the kingdom, then who is?” Jesus explains to the disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! It is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”

This is something that can stick in the mind for anyone who has wealth. And as most readers of the CFAN blog are in America where most Americans would be considered wealthy compared to other areas of the world. What does this mean for us?

Jesus is saying that it is impossible for you to enter eternal life.

But…

He follows it up with the beautiful phrase, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

The True Rich Young Ruler

You are not left to deal with this feeling of lack that sent the rich young ruler to the feet of Jesus on your own. If you were, it is impossible. I think this is what Jesus was really working up to. Because the rich young ruler asked what thing he could do to enter eternal life, and on that front there is nothing. But there is still a way. Because what is impossible for man is possible for God.

I love the way that Tim Keller highlights this aspect of the rich young ruler in the book The King’s Cross:

"Jesus, too, is a rich young man, far richer than this man can imagine. Jesus has lived in the incomprehensible glory, wealth, love, and joy of the Trinity from all eternity. He has already left that wealth behind him. Paul says that though Jesus Christ was rich, for our sakes he became poor (2 Corinthians 8-9)...If you understand that Jesus is the true Rich Young Ruler, it is going to change your attitude to money.

For example, you won't be trying to figure out how much you have to give away; you'll try to figure out how much you can give away. The real standard for how generous you will be is the cross...The only way I know to counteract the power of money in your life is to see the ultimate Rich Young Ruler, who gave away everything to come after you, to rescue you, to love you.”

Our Response

How are we to respond to this? A few points:

• We should respond to the “good life” in a similar way to Jesus responding to the Rich Young Ruler. We should not idolize it. It will leave a sense of something missing for us. But Jesus addresses it for its true nature. Something that can likely lead to death.

• Generosity is not just the “over and above” thing to do in the Christian life. It is a natural symptom of following Jesus. As we release our hold on money to cling to Jesus, it should feel natural for us to part with our money and possessions in the form of generosity.

• Remember our salvation and the generosity we have received. As we see that we have been the recipients of great generosity, we will in-turn be generous as well.

As believers, we have to continually reflect on and assess what potential idols may be cropping up in our life. We need to weed them out while they are small. Because if we let those roots sink too deep we may find ourselves in a similar place to the rich young ruler, where our savior has his arm outstretched to save us, but we are clinging to another idol in our lives and we walk away sad.

Continue to connect with CFAN and our posts and biblically based advisors to do some of this reflection and assessment in your life.

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