Sermon for the week of Trinity 6
Ephesians 2:4-10 + Matthew 19:16-30
The Gospel you heard a moment ago ties in perfectly with the Gospel from this past Sunday, where Jesus revealed just how much God’s commandments require. The Law requires, first and foremost, hearts that are truly and thoroughly good, aligned with God in everything, which then produce only good words and good works.
The rich young man who came to Jesus in the Lesson you heard this evening thought he had done everything the Law required. And yet, still, he suspected that he was not yet right with God. So he approached Jesus to seek, not salvation, but advice.
The man said to Jesus, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” Jesus gives him an almost shocking reply. Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. No one is good? No human being is good? Yes, that’s exactly what the Scriptures say. For example, Psalm 14 says it plainly: There is none who does good, no, not one. Because all have sinned. If the rich man had believed his own Scriptures, he wouldn’t have called Jesus “good,” unless he believed Jesus to be God, which he didn’t. He also would have sought a different way of gaining eternal life than by doing enough good things.
But the rich young man was determined to gain eternal life by doing something, and so Jesus plays along with him, to show him that he isn’t actually as devoted to God as he thinks he is. Jesus explains for the young man what “good thing” he should do. He tells him to “keep the commandments.” That is the good thing you should do. Keep them. But remember what James says: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
Which commandments shall I keep?, asked the young man. So Jesus lists a few of the Ten Commandments: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and then the summary of the Law: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Notice, Jesus chose to list only commandments from what we call the Second Table of the Law, the commandments that focus on how you are to love your neighbor. There’s a reason for that: Those are the easy ones. Don’t even worry for the moment about the first and greatest commandment—loving God above all things. Here, just love your neighbor. That’s all. See if you can do that. Unselfishly, sacrificially, from the heart, all the time. Love your neighbor—including your neighbor who’s a jerk, including your neighbor whom you barely know. Live to serve your neighbor.
“I’ve done that!”, replied the young man. “I have kept all these, since my youth”
Jesus doesn’t even argue with him or dig deeper into the man’s history. He doesn’t have to. He points out one glaring flaw in the man: If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. Here’s how you can become good, Jesus tells the man. Give up all your wealth and possessions for the sake of your neighbor, whom you claim to love as yourself. Give up your earthly comfort. Give up your livelihood, your home, your safety. Give up your life. In its place, take up the cross. And follow Me.
Theologians in the Roman Church have taken these words of Jesus as their justification for the monastic life. They call Jesus’ advice to this rich man an “evangelical counsel,” and those who follow this advice are said to be doing works that go above and beyond even what the Law requires of everyone. If you really want to have God’s favor and extra blessings, you have to not only keep the Ten Commandments, but also do extra works like selling all your possessions.
Is that what Jesus is saying here to the rich man? Yes, you’ve kept the Law. Agreed! Now here’s an extra good work for you to do so that you’ll have eternal life? Hardly! God’s favor and eternal life are not gained by keeping the Law, because no one actually keeps the Law! So why does Jesus give the man this extra work to do? He does it to expose the rich man’s biggest failure of all at keeping the Law: his idolatry. What matters most to you in your life? Is it your house? Your family? Your reputation? Your comfort? Your health? Your riches? The person you love? What won’t you give up, if the Son of God says to you, “Leave it behind and come follow Me”? Whatever that thing is is your idol. That thing is truly your god. And so you prove that you haven’t kept even the First Commandment. And if you haven’t kept the first, how can you claim to have kept the rest?
The more you have, the more you want, the more your heart becomes attached to it, and the harder it is to leave it all behind, to give it up, to give it away, if God calls on you to give it away. That’s usually how it is, isn’t it? That’s why Jesus said that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
That, of course, sounds like an impossible thing, as if no rich person could ever be saved. And for man, it is impossible. But for God, nothing is impossible. Let’s remember Abraham for a moment. He was a rich man. God never called on him to sell all his possessions and give it to the poor. Instead, God called on him to give up something even dearer to him: his beloved son, Isaac. And not just to give him up, but to kill him with his own hand. And Abraham was prepared to do it. Not because he was so good. But because God had worked that faith in Abraham’s heart, which then produced in Abraham a love for God that was greater than his love for his own son.
Or consider Job. Another rich man. God never called on him to sell all his possessions. Instead, God allowed Satan to destroy all his possessions, and even to kill all his children. And what did Job say? Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD. Again, Job’s faith in God was counted for righteousness in God’s sight, and it produced in Job a contentment with God that seems impossible. But with God nothing is impossible.
Or consider Jesus’ disciples. Most of them weren’t rich, but they had possessions. Some of them had fishing boats and a fishing business. When Jesus called them to “Come, follow Me,” what did they do? They left all and followed Him, even leaving their fishing boats and fishing nets and the large catch of fish they had taken. That willingness to follow Jesus, no matter the cost, comes only from Spirit-worked faith. Faith by which they were counted righteous before God, counted as “good,” even though, according to the Law, they weren’t, which then enabled them to start doing good.
Faith led Jesus’ disciples to give up everything, when Jesus called on them to do it, to leave behind an existence where getting ahead in this world is the first priority. So, “What about us, Jesus?” they asked. We have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?” The answer? Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. You aren’t welcomed into eternal life because you’re good. You’re welcomed in because Jesus is good, and you have been brought to trust in Him for your goodness before God. Trusting in Jesus does require being prepared to leave behind everything on earth. But then there is the promise and the sure hope of far greater rewards in heaven. Not many people are willing to give up what they have on earth in the hope of future glory. Most people are like the rich young man; they’re willing to follow Jesus up to a point, but they walk away sad when they realize that their earthly life matters more to them than Jesus. They walk away sad, because they don’t think Jesus is a Savior worth giving up everything for.
But we know better, don’t we? Because we know that what Paul wrote in tonight’s lesson from Ephesians 2 is true: God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Amen.
