Luke 18:18-30

Transcript

00:00:00:23 – 00:00:29:09
Clint Loveall
Glad you’re with us today. Move into a Luke story. Vintage Luke story. I think a great story, one that has had a lot of attention. A lot of it’s been preached. It’s been written about an important text in Luke. It’s a challenging text, a Particularly for those of us who live in the good fortune of being in the first world and relatively stable income, those kind of things.

00:00:29:09 – 00:00:51:09
Clint Loveall
So let’s, let’s get into it here. Verse 18 of chapter 18 and then we’ll come back over and talk about it. A certain ruler asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said, Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments. You shall not commit adultery, shall not murder.

00:00:51:14 – 00:01:18:16
Clint Loveall
You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. The man said, I’ve kept all of these since I was young. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

00:01:18:21 – 00:01:41:21
Clint Loveall
But when he heard this, he became sad, for he was very rich. Jesus looked at him and said How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom. Those who heard it said then who could be saved.

00:01:41:25 – 00:02:06:11
Clint Loveall
And he replied, What is impossible for mortals is possible for God. Then Peter said, Look, we’ve left our homes and followed you. And he said to them, Truly, I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not get back very much more in this age and in the age to come.

00:02:06:16 – 00:02:32:58
Clint Loveall
Eternal life. So a kind of drama in two parts here. The first is, I think, the best known part of the story in which Jesus is approached by a man. And interestingly enough, Michael, this man has borne, though he’s unnamed, he’s born various titles. Sometimes he’s called the rich ruler, ruler, sometimes the rich young ruler, sometimes the rich young man.

00:02:33:03 – 00:03:06:50
Clint Loveall
The word here means some sort of aristocrat, probably some sort of prestige attached, perhaps, to his family. He calls Jesus good teacher. What must I do to eternal life? It could be that almost the way this is written here, we have very similar stories in which Jesus is asked, similar questions, and they are tests. But when Jesus here responds with kind of what may be ferreting that out, why do you call me Good.

00:03:06:59 – 00:03:33:06
Clint Loveall
God is the one who is good. You know, the commandments. Keep the commandments. This young man then doesn’t go to argue. He turns the attention back to himself. I’ve kept all of these since my youth, in one of the versions of the story says, What do I still lack? That’s not here. But there is that sense of, I’ve done that and I’m still asking the question.

00:03:33:10 – 00:04:05:47
Clint Loveall
And at this moment, then Jesus changes approach. And Mike, where to be? You know, we have to be careful reading into this story. We also have to be careful of letting Luke be Luke while we let another gospel be its own unique voice as well. But this is a this is a very interesting moment where a man seems to genuinely have an interest in what he perceives to be a hole or a gap or a lack in his life to some extent.

00:04:05:47 – 00:04:12:29
Clint Loveall
And I want to be careful because maybe that’s not as clear in Luke, but it does seem to be under the text.

00:04:12:34 – 00:04:45:14
Michael Gewecke
Well, I think one clue to that leads us that way is actually in the initial address here, Clint, the way that this young man comes to Jesus or this ruler comes to Jesus, he addresses him as good teacher. Those details matter. If you’ve been with us through the whole study of Luke, you know that people’s introduction to Jesus often does give us a foreshadowing of the encounter and whether that, you know, Luke tells us it’s the Pharisees are questioning him or there was grumbling or however that introduction happens often tips us off.

00:04:45:14 – 00:05:08:40
Michael Gewecke
And here this idea Good teacher, what must I do to hear it? Eternal life. It gives us right from the start this impression that there may be something to this question. This may be honest and authentic and a real question. And what I think is fascinating is about this turn that you’re talking about, Clint, because when Jesus gives these instructions, a reminder to the commandments, Right.

00:05:08:42 – 00:05:39:42
Michael Gewecke
You know, adultery, murder, stealing, bear, false witness, honor, father and mother. It all hinges here on verse 21. I have kept all these since my youth. This response, I think, is the the either or situation in which this conversation changes. On one hand, this young man argues with Jesus over what the greatest commandment is and tries to catch him in some kind of rhetorical religious argument, which we’ve seen in Luke countless times up to this point.

00:05:39:46 – 00:06:11:54
Michael Gewecke
Instead, he does internalize it to use your word. He does take it back in and say self reflectively, Man, I think that I have done this and that is the turn that when Jesus now goes there with him, it’s going to become even more intense with just the snap of a finger. And I think what’s remarkable about this is Jesus has identified the exact inflection point in this ruler’s life.

00:06:11:56 – 00:06:50:14
Michael Gewecke
It the of all of the sacrifices made to keep the commandments of which Jesus. By the way, doesn’t argue with him that we might be surprised Jesus doesn’t put back and say that’s not true. You’ve dishonored your father or mother at some point, or we know that you’ve not kept the whole spirit of the commandment still here. Jesus gives him that and then goes directly to the point of this particular man’s weakness, which was to say that your money, your possession, your power, that that that ruler authority that you have, that is the place of your weakness.

00:06:50:15 – 00:06:59:47
Michael Gewecke
And when Jesus calls this ruler to do something about that, the ruler finds that to be unpalatable, undoable.

00:07:00:00 – 00:07:28:48
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I think that the hinges verse 22 here it it rather than just saying then Jesus said. Luke inserts this phrase when Jesus heard this, which connects in a in a not typical way what Jesus has heard with what Jesus says next. And so when Jesus heard this, implying that He He is now moved by what the man had said, or at least he’s directed by what the man said.

00:07:28:53 – 00:07:52:03
Clint Loveall
And he says to him, You you still lack one thing. There is something missing. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. And then come follow me. Michael, that phrase, then come follow me, has really piqued the curiosity of of Bible readers and scholars through the years, because it is possible, right?

00:07:52:04 – 00:08:19:03
Clint Loveall
If you read that at face value that Jesus is inviting this man to travel with him to sort of join his circle, whether that be one of the disciples or that larger group that sort of is in addition to the disciples. But but read on its surface here, it seems like an invitation to join up. And that is rather unusual in the Gospels.

00:08:19:03 – 00:08:34:30
Clint Loveall
Once we get past the call of the disciples, there are only a couple of instances where this kind of language is used and implies it. At least it apparently applies that Jesus is inviting someone to become part of his traveling band.

00:08:34:35 – 00:09:02:36
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, especially for the ground that we’ve traveled. Clint, This is a different tone than what we’ve had recently in the Book of Luke, because just recently Jesus was engaged in some significant conflict with the Pharisees, and so that now we’re coming into this text. I think there’s a noticeably different aspect as Jesus deals with this man, because when he looks at him, he says, How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

00:09:02:38 – 00:09:24:59
Michael Gewecke
These you can you can almost hear the tone in Jesus’s voice. I mean, it is both a teaching moment. Luke definitely is teaching us something through what Jesus is saying here, but you can almost see the pain in Jesus’s face as he says this. This is a this is a person who has really lived out their faith in real ways.

00:09:24:59 – 00:09:48:03
Michael Gewecke
It’s not just been a faith of the head. It’s not been all rhetoric and arguing. It’s been really sincerely trying to live it out. And now when Jesus calls this person to that last act of humility, that last act of obedience, the rich rulers unable to do it, they’re not able to conjure that thing that they need for the next step.

00:09:48:03 – 00:10:13:37
Michael Gewecke
And so I think this this call that you mentioned, this idea that Jesus says, come follow me in verse 22, I think that makes this story and maybe in some ways even more haunting because it lets our imagination run a little bit and ask, well, what would have happened if this man was able to do that? What if he was able to let go of this thing?

00:10:13:42 – 00:10:53:06
Michael Gewecke
What would he have been? One who could have went with Jesus and seen Jesus as miracles and then one of his followers and whatever capacity that would have been? I think it takes a story that that teaches and it really lands it deeply in our own hearts, especially as people who can relate to this rich ruler. I think there’s a kind of pang of sadness for this character, and I think Luke lets us, as the reader, live there a little bit because of what Jesus has to say, you know, follow me and the man’s unable to do it.

00:10:53:11 – 00:11:19:03
Michael Gewecke
It’s we’re told exactly why, by the way, the young man heard this. He became sad. Why? Because he was very rich. I mean, Luke in Luke in style is going to directly connected to the stuff. He’s just going to say the wealth is the problem. And and namely, his attachment to the wealth, right? It’s the fact that he he does not have the capacity to let it go.

00:11:19:08 – 00:11:26:44
Michael Gewecke
And that unto itself is going to be this man’s undoing and keep him from the following that Jesus invites him into.

00:11:26:49 – 00:11:51:07
Clint Loveall
Luke sets it up really well. In other versions of this story, it says something like The man went away sorrowful because he had many possessions or he had much wealth. Luke doesn’t actually tell us he went away. It implies it, but it simply says he became sad when faced with this choice rather than the joy of the invitation.

00:11:51:12 – 00:12:23:04
Clint Loveall
This man focuses on the sadness of what he would lose, and perhaps even the realization that he’s already made the choice wishing he could choose something else. Whatever it is that causes the sadness here, there is this internal struggle and this in many ways is a money passage. It’s in Luke, so that’s not surprising. But this has become a rich text.

00:12:23:09 – 00:12:48:18
Clint Loveall
Forgive the language for anything that gets between us and Jesus and anything that we are not willing to give up in order to follow Jesus. And we see that clearly with the connection of the last verse, we’ll come back up to this other stuff. But we see Peter here saying, Look, we’ve left everything, we’ve left homes and jobs.

00:12:48:23 – 00:13:27:05
Clint Loveall
And then Jesus says, Yes, and whatever you’ve given up, for my sake, you will get back and more, even in the age to come, eternal life. And so we have the contrast here of the one who is invited to be the disciple, a disciple, but finds the price too high. And on the other hand, the celebration of those who have given various things to follow Jesus, they have walked away from other things to follow Jesus in a way that this rich ruler cannot.

00:13:27:05 – 00:13:38:17
Clint Loveall
And that contrast is very intentional. It’s very poignant, it’s very poetic, and it’s at the heart of what Luke is telling us.

00:13:38:22 – 00:14:05:17
Michael Gewecke
One of the key components, I think one of the turning points of this text comes right here. When the the people there I get this image in reading the texts that that there’s this rich ruler, but then there’s this crowd or this group of people present in verse 26, those who heard it, or namely this idea, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

00:14:05:22 – 00:14:33:39
Michael Gewecke
Those who hear this than they ask this potent question, this powerful question, then who can be saved? And just from advantage of teaching, you know that what you’ve been teaching lands when people can come to a question like this, when they are processing for themself. Whoa. So then what’s the implication of if that’s true, then how is someone going to be saved?

00:14:33:39 – 00:15:16:07
Michael Gewecke
And Jesus’s answer here is unbelievably powerful. What is impossible for mortals is possible all for God. And I think that this clan is this can’t be underestimated. What Jesus is making the claim here, I think, is very clearly that God is the one who does what we cannot do for ourselves. That whether that be our riches as this is the case for this ruler, or whether that be other privileges that we’ve come to experience or expect, the things that we would rather hold on to than the saving grace of God.

00:15:16:12 – 00:15:38:35
Michael Gewecke
The only power great enough for us to overcome these is God’s power alone. And I think it’s a sheer reliance and trust and faith in God that is the path by which we make that step forward. And that’s not to discount. I don’t want to push past a Peter saying, you know, look, we’ve left our homes, we’ve left our families.

00:15:38:40 – 00:16:05:02
Michael Gewecke
You know, Jesus says that these choices that you’ve made, the things that you’re willing to give up in this life, they’ll be paid back to you, whether in this life or in the next. The reality is that that we are called to give. And as we give of ourselves, we realize that we’re not giving unto ourselves, but we’re giving rather in hope, trust and faith in the one who’s going to and has ultimately given to us.

00:16:05:02 – 00:16:17:54
Michael Gewecke
And that’s this beautiful kind of reciprocal relationship of that. The question that lives in this text is how can we be saved if the cost is this great? The answer only God is powerful enough to do that work.

00:16:18:09 – 00:16:45:43
Clint Loveall
Yeah, just a quick correction and and then maybe a connection. Some of you, if you if you’ve been in church for a while, at some point it was fashionable. The idea was fashionable that there was a gate in Jerusalem that was called the Eye of the needle and you had to strip down the camel to to take the bags and things off for it to go through from the best that modern scholarship can tell.

00:16:45:48 – 00:17:14:29
Clint Loveall
That was completely fabricated at some point, and it worked its way into church tradition. And you’ve maybe have heard that. And while it might be a semi helpful image, it’s it it appears that it has no accuracy and it certainly appears that that’s not what Jesus has in mind. Jesus is making a ridiculous analogy for a reason, to bring people to the question who can be saved?

00:17:14:31 – 00:17:41:10
Clint Loveall
And this is where I think, again, we see the wisdom and the genius of Luke. Notice that the crowds question is the man’s question. The man starts, What must I do to inherit eternal life? And he is then unwilling to do it. So the follow up question of the people who watch this happen is, well, then who can be who it?

00:17:41:15 – 00:18:09:33
Clint Loveall
If it is so difficult to walk away from the things that we treasure, who can be saved. And the response is what is impossible for mortals is possible for God. And I’d like to make a case that in large measure that’s where the teaching ends. Then we get this affirmation of Peter and the disciples. But I would argue again, this is not Jesus telling people, Leave your spouse and leave your family and leave your children.

00:18:09:34 – 00:18:46:21
Clint Loveall
Leave your job. There may be moments where we leave things behind, but that is not the point here. This is a recognition that there are those who have put Jesus first and all of us are called to seek to do that. It doesn’t mean that Jesus is calling us to leave our family behind. It means that Jesus is calling us to follow him above all else and to let go of those other things that hold us back like this rich ruler’s wealth.

00:18:46:26 – 00:19:12:15
Clint Loveall
And then and only then do we understand the promise that we receive more than we give up. Because you have to come to Jesus empty handed. You have to come to Jesus without ties and restrictions. And and this the sadness of this man hangs heavily on this text. It’s really, really well-written.

00:19:12:19 – 00:19:45:36
Michael Gewecke
I’ll be brief, but I do think there can be a very, very powerful connection to our lives practice here. I don’t think that the teaching of this text is that all wealth and and earthly goods are are incompatible with salvation, that it’s been read in those extreme ways before you give up everything. Just in a few verses, we’re going to have Zacchaeus, the tax collector who gives much of all that he has.

00:19:45:36 – 00:20:11:20
Michael Gewecke
And he’s an example of how one is actually able to enter into the Kingdom of God. That said, we shouldn’t contextualize texts like this that sort of gets us off the hook. Luke clearly intends for us to understand in the teaching that not only does Jesus expect from us to be willing to give, Jesus expects us to give, we should be giving people we should build that into our lives.

00:20:11:20 – 00:20:28:21
Michael Gewecke
So we should give up all that we have. We should practice actually giving our stuff down. Does that mean that you give away the keys to your house? No, but that’s not an excuse not to give. I think sometimes we get into these kind of slippery slope arguments, as people say, Well, how much do I need to give for it to count?

00:20:28:26 – 00:20:49:06
Michael Gewecke
That’s not the question. The question is, are you willing to give and do you practice doing that so you’re ever more willing to give in? It’s it’s not a question of like, what’s the line that Jesus expects you to get to? It’s are we people who are willing to let go of the stuff in our lives when that stuff stands in between us and the Lordship of Jesus Christ?

00:20:49:06 – 00:21:10:19
Michael Gewecke
And the only way we get there is by practicing it. So I think one very practical encouragement from a text like this is instead of feeling the same kind of guilt and shame about what would it feel like if I wasn’t willing to give up that stuff and follow Jesus out all the way to read the text. Very helpfully in today’s devotional sense would be, What can I give today?

00:21:10:19 – 00:21:22:41
Michael Gewecke
And what should I give? What might be a one uncomfortable step of something I could give That’s worth doing, that’s worth giving, that’s a practice worth doing. And you might find in that something freeing.

00:21:22:46 – 00:21:54:54
Clint Loveall
Yeah, well in the challenge that the thing you hold on to most tightly, it’s probably the thing that holds you back the most. The the thing that you would find the hardest to sacrifice is likely an indication of where your own struggles, where our own struggles, where our own idols live. And you know, for Luke, that’s always going to come down to pride, fear or materialism.

00:21:54:55 – 00:21:58:25
Clint Loveall
And so a good snapshot of that today.

00:21:58:30 – 00:22:04:48
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for being with us, friends. If you find it helpful, give it a liking. Subscribe for more content just like this and we will see you all tomorrow.