EPISODE 151 GOSPEL OF MARK CHAPTER 10 Part 2 "An astonishing answer"

Welcome or welcome back to Share the Word. This chapter has so much packed in it, I can see why Paul did a part one and part two. And in this episode, the focus had me go back to do more digging, and I took a closer look at the real meaning of the law. You'll see what I'm talking about in just a second. Paul. Mark 10, Part 2.

An Astonishing Answer. If you could ask Jesus one question, what would it be? Your ultimate question. In Mark chapter 10, we meet a young man who wasn't going to miss out on an opportunity when he got his chance. But it was deeply saddened at how that exchange with Jesus went. Let's back up to where we left our last episode off, because it's related to where we're going.

Remember, we drifted into a discussion of the impact of divorce on kids whose families have come apart. We won't go back to that sad topic today. I've explained the biblical view to the best of my ability. But wherever that whole discussion took place, apparently in someone's home, people in that neighborhood who heard that Jesus was there began bringing their children, hoping he would bless them. But some of the disciples apparently felt it was their duty to protect Jesus from such intrusions. And you see some of them standing at the doorway, standing watch as if they were his bodyguards when these parents, children in arms or at their sides, came asking to see Jesus.

And imagine Peter or Andrew or whoever it was telling them to go away, that blessing children was not on the day's agenda. They rebuked them is how Mark described it, indicating they did this with an attitude. They believed Jesus had more important things on his mind than to be bothered with that. When Jesus noticed or overheard something going on, he inquired what it was about and was told, There are people outside with their little kids who want to see you. But don't worry, we're sending them away. Verse 14 and following says Jesus was indignant and said to them, Let the little children come to me.

Don't stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Then he added, Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. And taking them in his arms, he laid his hands on them and blessed them. Jesus was realizing what the disciples were doing, and this is a pretty strong term, indignant. He was deeply displeased with them. It was not long before this, before they had left Capernaum for the south, that they were at the house, it says in chapter 9, verse 33 and following, probably Peter's house, who lived in that seaside town.

And I'm quoting now, Sitting down, he called the twelve and said to them, If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all. Then he took a child in his arms and said to them, Whoever welcomes one little child such as this in my name welcomes me. It was likely one of Peter's children. He was married, you know. In a teaching moment with his disciples, who had just been arguing over who would be the most important player in what they presumed was Jesus' coming kingdom, he motioned this young child to him and picked him up and said, Accepting a little child like this in my name is the same as accepting me. Unfortunately, they obviously forgot that lesson very quickly, because here we are again a short time later, and they're turning children away from seeing Jesus, wrongly assuming he had no time for them.

This is not the big idea I want to focus on today, but it's an important idea. This section right here in Mark 10 is one place we can see how the teachings of Jesus elevated the rights and value of women and children. In his teaching on divorce, he was very clear that Christian men must not treat women as disposable items, that women should be honored by their husbands, seen as important as they are to themselves. Now again, for a second time, in a culture where children were to be seen and not heard, we'd say, where children were not treated as very important, Jesus demonstrated and taught just the opposite. At Peter's house only a short time before, he told the disciples to value and treat children as if they were receiving him. Now in today's chapter, he's angry that his disciples didn't take that to heart and were shooing little kids and their parents away.

Jesus stopped them and, contradicting their actions and attitudes, says, Let the little children come to me, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. And then he said, I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it at all. Whenever Jesus uses the formula, I tell you the truth, he's about to say something extra noteworthy. I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. Hold on to that thought because we will get back to it. As Jesus was leaving the place where he had made this point about welcoming little children, leaving to continue their journey southward, a man came running after them.

He's a young man who has heard that Jesus was in his town and is afraid he's going to miss his one big chance to ask him a very important question. A question that was obviously plaguing him. He caught up to Jesus and the disciples, slightly out of breath, and knelt down before Jesus, demonstrating how badly he wanted a moment of his time, and then said—and by the way, it's not customary to kneel before rabbis—but this fellow sensed that Jesus was more than just an ordinary rabbi, someone with a deep connection to God. So he asked, kneeling down before him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus stopped at that. And as the man got up to his feet, Jesus asked him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. But then he responded to the young man's question, You know the commandments: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother. And the man answered him, probably with some relief in his voice, Teacher, I have kept all of these from my youth. Looking at him, Mark continues, Jesus 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. Then come, follow me.

And Mark tells us he was dismayed by that demand and went away sorrowful because he had many possessions. Watching and hearing this exchange twice in the next couple of verses, it says that the disciples were astonished. Peter, Mark's eyewitness source, often had that reaction. I've lost count of how many times Mark has written that after Jesus has done something amazing, the disciples were astonished. Or like here, after Jesus had said something so unconventional they couldn't believe he actually said that. So again it says they were astonished.

Twice they were astonished. They had just seen this sincere young man run Jesus down, bow low before him, entreating him to answer what for him was the ultimate question, What must I do to inherit eternal life? So what did the disciples find so astonishing about that exchange? Well, for one thing, this young man apparently was sincerely trying to please God. He could say, I've been keeping the commandments since I was a child. And we also learn he was a ruler, and he was well-to-do, a blessed man, we might say.

The general belief in that society was that if you were rich, that somehow God's blessing was on you, that God was pleased with you. Yet Jesus put his finger on that very thing. He instructed the young man to sell all his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor, and then come follow him. He could have been the thirteenth disciple. He must have, at least for a moment, considered that and the implications of that, but then his countenance fell. And Peter told Mark he turned away sorrowful because he had many possessions.

As they watched this despondent young man walking down the road from where he came, Jesus looked around to his disciples and said, How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. Peter and the rest of them were astonished at that exchange again. Their reaction was, If this man cannot be saved, who possibly can be? We might put it, If this fine, upstanding, sincere young man is not going to heaven, who in the world would be? And Jesus replied to them, With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Roll the tape back for a moment.

Jesus was using this encounter with this fellow, forever after known as the rich young ruler, as an opportunity to again teach his disciples. When the fellow reached Jesus, anxious to get his take on this important question, he said, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus' first response to him was, Why do you call me good? Only God is good. Why would he say that? The fellow was just making a deferential greeting to a rabbi he'd heard so much about.

It's certainly not because Jesus was denying his deity that he said that. Everything Mark has shown us so far demonstrates and underscores who Jesus really was. If anything, he was subtly affirming it. But more, I think, it was because the man had a wrong view of his own goodness. If he was thinking anyone could be truly good in God's eyes, that's why Jesus pointed him back to the standards in God's law. Most people, then and now, wrongly would agree with the statement, People are basically good.

And most people, certainly this young man, would judge themselves as better than most others. We readily see the splinters in others' eyes and are comfortable with our own faults. Jesus felt the need to get at the starting point to understanding and embracing the true gospel, and that is that, no, we are not good. He wanted this young man to think harder about God and real righteousness. When he asked him, What does the law of God say? meaning the Old Testament commandments, and then rattled off for him several from the second tablet of the Ten Commandments, you know, the ethical rules: do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness, and so on.

I'm sure the fellow was pretty comfortable with that answer. He felt relieved at that answer. That's why he said, I've been carefully doing those things since I was old enough to know those were God's expectations. But Jesus, seeing into that man's heart, realized his sin lay more in the commandments found in the first tablet of the Ten Commandments, the ones that say, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. You shall have no other gods before me. Jesus put his finger right on this young man's cherished sin, and it was that he loved his stuff too much.

He had greed in his heart. That was his de facto idol, his stuff. The young ruler had asked, What can I do, meaning more than I'm already doing? And Jesus said to him, If you really want to be righteous enough to inherit the kingdom of God by what you can do, sell all your stuff, give the proceeds to the poor, and then come follow me. But that he was not willing to do, because truth was, he loved his stuff too much. Yes, he was pretty good on our sliding scale of goodness.

If the truth is that being better rule keeper than others will save you, he was in good shape, most would judge. But even he knew something was missing, and Jesus put his finger on it. He was not good enough because he had heart problems, sin problems, just like the rest of us. Maybe not as obvious as most, but it's easy for Jesus to see them. And Jesus' point was, if you want to approach a holy and righteous God in your own goodness, in your own worthiness, you'll need absolute righteousness to do that. And that astonished the disciples, who asked, If this man is not getting saved, who possibly can be?

Jesus' reply was, It's impossible for men, but with God all things are possible. The first thing one must understand to embrace the gospel is that you cannot save yourself, that you are a sinner in need of what only God can offer you. Most theologians consider verse 45 in this chapter the best theme verse from Mark's gospel, when Jesus told his disciples after this, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. To give his life as a ransom for many. So tell me, why would the second person of the Godhead leave heaven's glories, enter our messed up world 2,000 years ago, only to be rejected, suffer, and die on a cross as a ransom for us, if we could inherit the kingdom of God by being good, by keeping the rules better than other people?

And remember, Jesus has told them by this time over and over that his rejection, suffering, and death must happen, that this is why he came. Here's the truth: only Christ was perfectly good. Only he, among the billions who have been on this planet, lived up to the absolute righteous standards of God. That is why he, and only he, could lay down his life as a ransom payment for all of us. The rich young ruler needed the righteousness of Christ. Nothing he could do would make him fit for the kingdom of God.

But, and this is astonishing, what is impossible for all of us, Jesus said, God has made possible. How? By Christ's death for our sins, when he paid the ransom price for them. The good news is when we believe into Jesus and trust Him as our Savior, God will forgive our sins and apply the righteousness of Christ to our account. Isn't this what we learned in Romans? The righteous One suffered and died for all of us unrighteous ones to bring us to God.

He made a way for us to inherit eternal life apart from keeping laws, apart from any meritorious system. Every time I go to the doctor these days, he's apparently required by some kind of law, probably because I've had so many birthdays, to give me a memory test. How's it work? Well, he shows me a series of numbers and asks me to try and remember them. Then he directs my mind somewhere else with other questions, pictures he shows me, and so on. But after a couple of minutes, he comes back and asks me, What was that set of numbers I showed you a moment ago?

I'm on to this now, and I have little memory devices I use to be sure I pass this test, because I think if I don't, they'll probably yank my driver's license or something. So, do you remember when I said several minutes ago, Hold that thought, we'll get back to it? What was the thought? Don't tell me you forgot already. If so, let me read it back for you. I said, whenever Jesus uses the formula, I tell you the truth, He was about to say something extra noteworthy, like here: I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child. What's the connection, do you think, between our being told about Jesus welcoming the little children here in this chapter earlier, and then a few verses later watching the rich young ruler turning away from Him sorrowfully? Here's my best guess. The rich young ruler believed that there must be something he could do, something more than he was already doing in order to please God enough to deserve eternal life. But the truth is, as I was saying, this is what the New Testament teaches over and over again. There's nothing we can do from the outside of us that's going to change the real problem inside of us, our sin problem.

None of us are good enough or could be good enough. That fellow's biggest area where he fell short was related to greed. Mine is something else. Yours, probably something else. But that's why Jesus came, to make the impossible possible for us. He suffered and died as the ransom for all us sinners.

And as astounding as that sounds, God now extends to us the forgiveness and eternal life that He made possible as a free gift, if we will repent of our sins and accept and follow the Savior that He sent. So think about this. This may be the connection. When presented with a gift, no matter how valuable, a little child will gladly receive it. I've never had my five-year-old grandson even hesitate. But often adults are too proud, especially when it's something valuable.

No, no, no, I can't take that from you. Or, I can't allow you to give me something so valuable like that. A little child, in humility and trust, will reach out and receive the gift. He accepts that you love him and you want to give him this, and he trusts you. That's what Jesus meant, I believe, when He said, I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child. Have you humbled yourself before God like a little child, trusting little child, and received the amazing gift of salvation Jesus made possible for you?

He paid the ransom price for your sins and is now offering forgiveness and eternal life to you. But you must be humble enough to accept it, trusting enough to believe in and follow Him. I hope and pray that you have made that decision because what's impossible for us to do, Jesus made possible through His cross. And as we'll see next time, that is just where this story is heading, after the encounter with the rich young ruler. This is Paul for Share the Word. Thanks, Paul.

What a great episode that brings out a lot of questions. To me, the rich man wasn't looking for Jesus to be his Savior. He wanted Jesus just to show him what he had to do to be his own Savior. And we have a great advantage that the rich man did not, because those of us who believe into Christ know who Jesus is and that He comes first. And even knowing that, we still struggle. Sometimes I wonder if our prayers sound like that rich man's question.

And boy, was I intrigued about Paul's opening statement in this episode. If I could ask Jesus one question, what would it be? I'm still thinking about it, but I'm curious what your question would be. Have you thought about it? Please, we'd love to hear from you. Send it to us at info at sharetheword.org.

That's info at sharetheword.org. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.