The Rich Young Ruler

Are you a Rich Young Ruler?

Oct. 9.      The rich young ruler.

“As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ ” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

Mark 10:17-22 NIV

As I thought about this I was like no, not me.  Then I had a second look and I found more similarities then I would like to admit.  Maybe you have some. You may say, “but Philip I’m not rich or a ruler.”  Ok, but what about this? Each of us is indeed a ruler, you see God has aloud us to be the ruler of our own life.  But lets get back to the rich young man.  

We see that he ran and fell on his knees.  It would seem that he was excited to see Jesus.  Falling on his knees was a sign of humbling oneself.  Next he addressed Jesus as, “Good Teacher.”  He was most likely a ruler in the synagogue, perhaps even a Pharisee.  So, addressing Jesus as good, simply said you are good, I am good and the other teachers in the synagogue are good.  When he compared himself and his friends with the riff raff of humanity all around he was doing pretty good.  How often do we compare ourselves to those around us.  We can always find someone worse off then we are.  Jesus answers with a question, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God,”. Jesus cuts right to the point.  Yes Jesus is good because He is God, but that’s not the point.  The young man is not good and neither are the group of people he hangs out with.  Good, unlike bad is absolute, not relative.  God is the absolutely perfect standard by which goodness is to be judged.  The young mans works just don’t cut it. (Romans 3:20, 28). Jesus was making a point that we can not judge our selves against other people but we must judge our selves against God’s perfection.  As humans we often like to make systems of worship. (we call them religions) This is what the Jews had done, they had twisted the law into a system of deeds and rules to keep.  By doing these things they felt that they would be good enough and declared righteous.  It’s the same thing going on today.  The difference between the Gospel and all other religions is boiled down to one thing.  The Gospel says that God did it all for us. All other world systems have a list of things that you must do to make the grade. (Eph. 2:8-9). We can never make the grade. Jesus alone is the answer.