Good morning, Friends! I hope you all had a great week!
Today we’ve got a story I’m sure you’ve heard before. It’s about someone who came to Jesus with a burning question – the most important question of his entire life.
Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
“Which ones?” he inquired.Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Matthew 19:16-22
The question today is an important one. Maybe the most important question of all. What do we need to do?
So many people ask that. They want a sense of purpose in their life. They feel they need to do something more. They may not be sure about what it is, but they know they’re missing something.
Sometimes people want to know how to get to heaven. They’re anxious. They don’t feel they’re doing enough, or they feel that they’re not doing the right things. Or people want to know what their career should be. It’s not enough just to make a living. It isn’t even enough to have a job. They feel they want to have a life.
That’s why the person in today’s story came to Jesus. “What am I missing? What do I need to do?”
It was urgent. He desperately needed to know. When Mark tells the story, Mark says the person came running to Jesus. He was out of breath. He was afraid that Jesus wasn’t going to wait there for him to speak to. This was his one and only chance to ask Jesus the most important question of all.
“What good thing do I need to do, to get eternal life?”
Another person might have said, “What do I need to do, to get into Heaven?”
Another person might have asked, “What do I need to do, in order to be saved?”
Those aren’t small questions. These may be the most important questions that any of us can ever ask.
What’s interesting is the way Jesus answered. He said, “Why are you asking me what’s good? There’s only one who is good, and that’s God! Just keep the Ten Commandments. You already know what they are: don’t kill, don’t cheat on your spouse, don’t steal, don’t lie about another person, honor your parents, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
It’s a good answer, an honest answer. It’s the answer most people would get in church or in Sunday School. And for most people, it’s a big challenge, just to be an honest, decent person.
But there comes a point, in most of our lives, when we realize that isn’t enough. “I’ve done all these things since I was a child,” he said. “What do I still lack? What’s missing?”
And here’s where it gets really interesting. We usually feel that Jesus was criticizing the person with his answer. But in another version of this story in the gospel of Mark, it says that Jesus looked at them, and loved them.
Here was someone who really, really wanted to reach out for eternal life. Here was someone who really wanted to get to Heaven. Who knew there was something missing, and knew they needed to be saved.
How could Jesus not love this person? I mean, sure, Jesus loves everybody. But here was somebody who knew there’s an extra mile to run. They wanted to do more. They knew Jesus had the answer. They came running to Jesus to find out. It was the most important question of their entire life.
“Just one thing,” Jesus said. “Go, sell everything you have, and give to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. . .”
OOMPH. Talk about a way to stop the conversation.
Maybe people in the crowd who knew this person laughed, because they knew he was rich, and they knew he was never going to do it. It’s easy to laugh at other people’s discomfort. But I think this story made it into the gospel, because it made everybody uncomfortable. Give everything away? That’s impossible! Who could do that?
Now, we could dance around this one. We could ask whether Jesus really meant it, or whether we can, you know, keep a few things back, and it would still be all right.
I think Jesus really meant it for this person, and it hit him like a brick right in the forehead. And for some people, this is the right answer to what they need to do. But it isn’t what Jesus told everybody.
My big point this morning – this is the point I want you all to hear, and take home with you, is that Jesus gave different answers to different people.
“What do I need to do? How do I get into Heaven? What must I do to be saved?”
That’s the question. But Jesus answered that question, in different ways, to different people.
For example, when Jesus met Peter and his fellow fishermen down on the beach, Jesus told them, “Follow me, and you’ll be fishing for people!”
And they did. They left everything – their boats, their nets, their homes, their jobs – and they followed Jesus. They gave up their safety – everything they knew – to walk with Jesus, and learn from him.
That wasn’t the only time like that, either. When Jesus met Levi, the tax collector for the Romans, Levi left his entire way of life. He left his job. But even more – he got his soul back. Levi turned from traitor to his nation, to follower of the Messiah.
But Jesus didn’t tell everybody to do this. He didn’t tell everybody sell everything they owned, or leave it all behind.
When Jesus met a man who felt he had thousands of demons in his head, Jesus healed him and set him free. And do you remember what Jesus said? He said, “Go home, and tell everyone what God has done for you. . .”
Or when people brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in adultery, they were ready to stone her to death. But Jesus bent down and scribbled a list of their sins in the dust. And they were all ashamed, and went away. And all Jesus told her was, “Go, and don’t sin any more. . .”
Do you see what I’m saying? Different people were given different answers.
When people were hungry, Jesus fed them. When Jesus was at a wedding, he turned water into wine. When people brought their children to Jesus, he didn’t give them a long sermon – he blessed the children, and held them in his lap.
Different people – different things.
Now, here’s another important thing to notice. If you asked all these people what happened, what would they tell you?
The guy with thousands of demons, he would say, “I was saved!”
When Peter got out of the boat and tried to follow Jesus and walk on water, Peter was drowning and Jesus reached out to him, what do you think Peter would say? “Jesus saved me!”
The blind person on the road, who was crying out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and touched him, and he could see again. Don’t you think he would have said, “Jesus saved me”?
Lazarus, who was dead and in his tomb, and Jesus said, “Lazarus, COME OUT!” – what do you think Lazarus said? He said, “Jesus gave me my life back!”
My point is, everybody’s different. And Jesus understands that. Not everybody takes the same road – but all our roads lead us home again.
Many Christians don’t understand this. People think that their way is the only way. If you want to get to Heaven, you have to be baptized in their church, or you have to say their prayer.
One time, a guy named Nicodemus came to see Jesus. He didn’t want anybody to see him, so he came to Jesus in the middle of the night. He said to Jesus, “We know that you’re a teacher who comes from God, because nobody could do all the things that you do unless God was with them.”
And Jesus said, “Nobody can enter the kingdom of God, unless they’re born again.”
Wow, did that set off a bunch of fireworks! What does “born again” mean? How can anybody be “born again”? People have been arguing about that one for two thousand years.
I’ve heard people say that unless you’re born again, their way – maybe by speaking in tongues, or something strange – then you’re not really a Christian.
I guarantee that you will run into people with that attitude. Even though Jesus never spoke in tongues, and even though Paul said that he’d rather hear one sensible word in ordinary language, than hours of speaking in tongues, some people say that’s the only acceptable proof that you’ve been born again – their way.
I don’t buy it. And I encourage you not to buy it, either.
Jesus had plenty of things to say about how we all get into Heaven. For one thing, he said that we don’t decide. God decides. And Jesus said that when we get to Heaven, there will be a lot of surprises waiting. People who think they’re going to be first in line may be left out. And people who made a lot of mistakes may be welcomed in. Because even though they made mistakes in life, they loved much.
Jesus said you can always tell if a tree is good, by the fruits if bears. Good trees never grow bad fruit; bad trees never grow good fruit.
If you want to know whether you’re heading in the right direction, if a leader is a good leader, if a church is a healthy church, look at the fruit.
If the Holy Spirit is NOT present, the fruits are going to be obvious. You’re going to see destructive sex, idolizing, hatred, fighting, jealousy, anger, constant quarreling, splitting into factions, envy, addiction, and things like that.
If the Holy Spirit IS present, the fruits are also going to be obvious. You’re going to see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
This isn’t rocket science! “You will know them by their fruits” – those are Jesus’ own words. Not everything that calls itself Christian, really belongs to Christ. If you have any doubt about whether an idea, or a leader, or a group is good to hang around with, you know how to tell. Don’t be fooled.
Being saved is important! But how one person is saved, may be different from how another person is saved.
Not everybody who goes to a 12-step meeting is religious. But most people who stay in meetings have to earn to be really honest.
They admit their lives have become unmanageable. They realize that they need help to regain their sanity. They learn to become truthful about their lives, and they know that they have to change. Because if they don’t change, they know they’re going to die.
We all need to be saved, from something. But what you need to be saved from is probably different from me, or from the person sitting next to you.
Some people need to be saved from addiction. Some people need to be saved from fear, or paralysis, or from just having lost their way.
Some people need to be saved from their past, or from the mistakes they’ve made. Some people need to be saved from the society they live in, or from their so-called friends, or from the burden of family history.
I don’t try to tell people what their problems are, and I don’t have a “one-size-fits-all” solution. As Christians, I think we’re called to be flexible. We need to listen and pray, more than we need to tell other people what to do. We need to remember that God is the one who judges, not us.
There are so many ways that people get to Heaven. There are so many different ways that people are saved.
Even though we all need the Lord, God is incredibly creative. God opens up doors we thought would never open. God works in our hearts, long before we find our way home.
Even if you don’t agree with someone, pray for them. They may be able to help someone that you can’t reach.
Always try to tell the truth, as best as you can. But always remember, that your truth may be a little bit different. If their door isn’t your door, if their way isn’t exactly your way, try not to let it bother you.
I’m not saying that all roads lead to God. There are wrong directions, and dead ends, and roads that lead through bad places.
But don’t be quick to judge. Heaven is bigger than we think. God has more ways to touch us than we can ever imagine. And Jesus wants all of us to be saved, and to find our way home.