Riches in God

In Mark 10 we read a fascinating event of a man who "had it all" and had "done it all", this is a popular story of a rich man who came to Jesus.

17 As he went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him
with great reverence, and asked,
“Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?”
18-19 Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God.
You know the commandments: Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal,
don’t lie, don’t cheat, honor your father and mother.”
20 He said, “Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!”
21 Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said,
“There’s one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor.
All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me.”
22 The man’s face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear,
and he walked off with a heavy heart.
He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.
23-25 Looking at his disciples, Jesus said,
“Do you have any idea how difficult it is for
people who ‘have it all’ to enter God’s kingdom?”
The disciples couldn’t believe what they were hearing,
but Jesus kept on: “You can’t imagine how difficult.
I’d say it’s easier for a camel to go through a needle’s
eye than for the rich to get into God’s kingdom.”
26 That set the disciples back on their heels.
“Then who has any chance at all?” they asked.
27 Jesus was blunt: “No chance at all if you think
you can pull it off by yourself.
Every chance in the world if you let God do it.”

This incident has a lot of depth and meaning, specially in our modern society where wealth and riches are highly sought after. What does this mean, does it mean that rich people cannot enter God's kingdom or heaven? Well, that answer is given by Jesus Himself - it is extremely difficult.

But the most important question is why, why cannot a rich person enter the kingdom of God. Or why did this particular rich person fail the test. There are two aspects to it -

Firstly, this rich person thought that he could do it all by himself, he focused on the I rather than on the great I am who was right in front of him. He said two sentences in this incident, both of which focused on himself (or I) -

“Good Teacher, what must __I__ do to get eternal life?”
“Teacher, __I__ have—from my youth—kept them all!”

He thought that by himself he could do it all. He did not acknowledge the fact that we as humans are broken vessels, we cannot be perfect, we cannot claim heaven by our own selves. None of us can say, I was so good in my life that I deserve the full citizenship of heaven.

It is only by God's immense grace in Jesus that we can even say with fear and trembling that Jesus I put my faith in you, I will commit to you and follow you, please accept me in your kingdom.

Secondly, this man had a golden chance when Jesus said - "Come follow me". In all of history, imagine living in the time when you could see Jesus face-to-face and then He invites you to follow him. Would that not be worth giving up everything?

But this man even though loved by Jesus, chose to go back to his old life. He did not want to let go of this world's comfort and position. Herein, lies the problem with riches, when we have a lot of "this world" it is hard to let go of it and commit to Jesus completely. Imagine a person who has a thousand dollars in their account and another who has a million. For whom will it be easier to drop everything and follow Jesus? Or who will trust God more in their difficult time?

The kingdom of God can be inherited by those who are willing to sacrifice everything, give Jesus the number one priority in their life, trust in Him and follow Him. But the most important thing to remember is that we cannot pull this off on our own, only by trusting in Jesus and by surrendering to Him it is possible to follow Jesus.

27 Jesus was blunt: “No chance at all if you think
you can pull it off by yourself.
Every chance in the world if you let God do it.”

One cannot serve money (or this world) and God at the same time. So let us submit and surrender our lives to Christ, give Him the number one priority and let Him do the work in us for our salvation and eternal life.