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Is Good Enough,
Good Enough?
What you may not realize is that Jesus
really liked toying
with people’s heads sometimes. He never did
it in a mean way, but with the intent to challenge their thinking. Some of
those who approached Jesus needed to have their "paradigms" shaken up a
bit.
For example,
there was one who sought an encounter with Jesus, who remains nameless but
is usually referred to as "The Rich Young Ruler." We’ll call him Y.R.
You’ll find his story in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18.
Y.R. was a
"good" man and his question to Jesus was, "what good thing must I do to
gain eternal life?"
This is a
question that many are still asking today.
Following the
tragic events of September 11, 2001, nearly everyone wanted to do
something to help. Good will abounded. Blood donation centers were jammed.
Volunteers surged into New York City. The patriotism and the mood of
helping was and is all a good thing.
However, what
many fail to realize, just like our friend, Y.R., good deeds are great,
but they won’t get you to heaven.
Jesus told Y.R.
straight up, "There’s only One who is good. If you want to enter life,
obey his commandments."
Who is this One?
God. The God of the Bible and the Father of Jesus. No one else.
Y.R’s response
to Jesus was, "Which commandments do you mean, exactly?"
Well, Y.R.
apparently knew about God and was very familiar with the commandments. But
the answer Jesus gave him wasn’t good enough. Y.R. wanted to have things
boiled down to the essence. In other words, “What’s the least that I need
to do without giving up too much that will get me into heaven?”
That’s exactly
the same scenario that’s played out day after day. People want to give,
and they want to help, and they want to get credit for their efforts --
but they also don’t want it to cost them too much. They want to give, on
their terms, and not "until it hurts."
Like Y.R., we
approach Jesus eager for His attention, feeling pretty good about
ourselves and our accomplishments, and check in to see what else there
might be that needs to be done. And since, after all, we’ve already done
so much, there’s probably not a lot that’s left! Right?
Wrong. Let’s get
to the rest of the interaction between Jesus and Y.R.
Jesus responded
to Y.R. with a list of the essential commandments. Y.R. says that he’s
kept all of those since his youth, but obviously he somehow senses this
isn’t enough, and he asks, "What else is there?"
What we know
about Y.R. is that he is rich, young, and a ruler. That is his identity.
Who he is is grounded in what he has and what he values -- his wealth and
his position. So, Jesus goes for the spiritual jugular and tells Y.R.,
"You need to give up your riches and your position. Give all you own to
the poor, and then come join my disciples, and follow me."
Whoa! Wait a
minute! That seems to be asking for a heck of a lot! Which is exactly the
point. Christ knew that Y.R. was really playing both ends against the
middle. He was trying to be good enough to be good enough! Y.R. was trying
to achieve salvation through his own means and own efforts. And that is
something that just can’t be done.
No amount of
human effort will make an individual righteous. No number of good deeds
will bring a person salvation. No amount of money given away will buy a
ticket to heaven.
There is only
one way. And that Way is Jesus. Only by letting go of all we are by our
own efforts and following the One True Lord can we discover the path to
heaven. Good intentions and good deeds won’t lead us there.
Want eternal
life? It’s yours in Christ. And that’s the only way. He came to earth as a
human being just like you and me, so that He could buy the way to heaven
for us through His death on the cross.
"For God so
loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
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