enough?

Click here to watch the 2 minute video of the Rich Young Ruler

The story of the rich young man is really about idolatry at its core. In the story in Luke 18 the rich young ruler asked a really good question, “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” The way he even asks the question reveals a false god. He says, “what must I DO to inherit eternal life?” The Greek word for inherit could also be translated “acquire” or “earn”. He sees eternal life as a measure of personal success. We are often drawn to the gods of success because these gods allow us to sit on the throne of our own lives. It’s about what WE accomplish and what WE achieve. He thought of salvation as something to be earned, another goal for him to accomplish. He was expanding his portfolio, so to speak.

In verses 19-21 Jesus says to this rich young ruler “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. Jesus gives the man the answer he expected. He tells the man to keep the commandments. If you want to know how to successfully earn eternal life, that’s it: keep the commandments. But other than Jesus, no one has successfully pulled that off. Jesus tries to help the man with his response by first pointing out that no one is good but God alone. But the man isn’t connecting the dots. He says in verse 21 “All these I have kept since I was boy.” Ironically he was putting his hope in his religion. His religious rule keeping had become his god.

In verse 22 Jesus drops a bombshell. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. The rich young man was successful. He had a lot of stuff. He knows how to be successful and salvation was one more trophy to be earned. The adjective used to describe this man’s wealth puts him ahead of almost everyone. And in reading this story of the rich young ruler, one might conclude that this is a story about money. This is not a story about money, however; this is a story about idolatry. This man was already successful in terms of making money. He also wanted to make sure he was successful religiously.

I don’t think there is any of us that doesn’t want to be religiously successful. None of us wants to mess our ticket to heaven up. All of us want to have an impressive resume when we stand before God. But OUR idea of being religiously successful is a little messed up. Like the rich younger, we ask ourselves, “what do I need to DO to have eternal life.”

Is obeying the ten commandments enough?

Is loving my neighbor enough?

Is giving all my money to the poor enough?

Is obeying my mom and dad enough?

Is loving my spouse enough?

None of them by themselves is enough.

Doing something is a part of following Christ – but that’s not all there is to it. Anybody can do something but not everybody is willing to step away from all their stuff, all their achievements and say, “none of this means anything to me.” Look at Abraham who was willing to give up his only son. Look at Job – who lost everything but never grew bitter towards God. Look at Mary – who lost her reputation to bring the son of God into the world. Look at the disciples – they gave their day jobs to follow Him.

Roger Powell who I talked about in my last blog entry, was having a successful professional basketball career making hundreds of thousands of dollars but in his heart he knew that wasn’t enough. He retired early and gave up his six figure salary because he wanted to invest his life in young men. He shared with me that there was only one university he was willing to give up his pro career for – it was Valpraiso. He began to pray. And sure enough within the next year the assistant coaching position at Valpo opened up. He knew what he had to do. Now – he is not only teaches young men how to play basketball, he gets to influence these young men for eternity.

I am pretty convinced that God is not concerned with how “spiritually” successful you and I are.

• Success tells me, “you have introduced a lot of people to Christ over the last 24 years”
• Success tells me, “you have influenced a lot of young men and for Christ over the last 24 years”
• Success tells me, “you have impacted a lot people’s lives for Christ over the last 24 years.”

What else is there to accomplish? What else is there to do? Isn’t that enough? Isn’t God pleased? That is not success – that’s called being obedient.

Our ideas of success even in the church world is about being on top or accomplishing a lot of stuff. Jesus points to the down-trodden, humble, and pure-hearted who refuse to play the world’s game as success. Success in God’s terms is refusing to play the world’s game. Because when you refuse to play the world’s game you will be blessed.

The word success is not even mentioned in the Bible all that much. The closest Biblical equivalent is the word “blessed”. Today in our culture we use this word as a more humble way of saying “I’m successful”.

If we have a lot of stuff – we say we are blessed.

If we have a lot of money – we say we are blessed.

If we have a new car – we say we are blessed.

If we have a new home – we say we are blessed.

No …. You are successful. Because of your success you are able to buy a lot of stuff. Do you see how the gods of success can spiritualize your accomplishments, spiritualize your stuff, and convince you that you have done enough?

Success is something you have done and accomplished.

Blessed is something God has done or provided when you were completely helpless.

I have this prayer in my office to remind me that it is not about what accomplish or do:

May all my expectations be frustrated.

May all my plans be thwarted.

May all my desires be withered into nothingness.

That I may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

Jesus points out another god of success to the rich young ruler that he is worshipping and many of us continue to worship and that is money. We need to understand that money is not a god in itself. Money becomes a god when you are dependent on it for your security, your significance, and your feeling satisfied. Jesus does to this man what he has done too many of us these last few weeks, he puts himself in direct competition with what this man loves the most, and says, “You choose. It’s either going to be A) Money, or B) me, but C) all of the above – isn’t an option.”

Jesus put it this way in Matthew 6:24, ‘No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

Why is money so often portrayed as God’s primary competition? Because we look to money to do the very things for us that God wants to do. Here are lies that the god of money has told us:

1). Money will satisfy you. If we only had enough of it, we think happiness will come. We have decided that the phrase “Money won’t make you happy” is something rich people have made up to keep the rest of us from being miserable. We can never have enough of it. We say if we only made more money we could do this or we could give more to the church. Here’s the reality, it doesn’t make a difference how much money you make or don’t make – it will never make you happy.

2). Money means that you matter. We think that money can make us significant. We often judge our worth by how much we are monetarily worth. Instead of looking to God as our source of identity, we look to money.

3). Money will make you secure. The truth is that whatever you put your security in ends up being your god. It reveals where you’ve put your hope. With enough money God doesn’t seem all that necessary. We wrongfully assume that we can have enough or save enough to take care of ourselves.

4). Money will save you. The real problem with idolatry is that we look to something other than Jesus for salvation. We’re lonely and we look to a relationship for salvation. We’re empty and we look to possessions for salvation. We’re depressed and we look to food for salvation. We’re rejected and we look to pornography for salvation. We’re angry and we look to alcohol for salvation. We’re apathetic and we look to our work for salvation. We’re proud and we look to status for salvation. We’re worried and we look to money for salvation.

Millard Fuller tells of becoming a millionaire by the age of 29. He said he had bought his wife “everything” she could possibly want. But one day he came home to a note that announced that she had left him. Millard went after her – he found her on a Saturday night at a hotel in NYC. They talked into the wee hours of the morning as she poured out her heart and made him see that the “things” that our society says are supposed to be so satisfying had left her cold. Her heart was empty and her spirit was burned out. She was dead inside and she wanted to live again. Kneeling at their bedside in that hotel room, Millard and Linda decided to sell everything they had and dedicate themselves to serving the poor.

The next day being Sunday, they found the nearest church and went there to worship and thank god for their new beginning. They shared with the minister, and told him about what had happened to them and the decision they had made. The minister told them that such a radical decision was not really necessary. Millard says, “he told us that it was not necessary to give up everything. He just didn’t understand that we weren’t giving up money and the things that money could buy. We were giving up, period.” Millard and Linda started an organization you’re probably familiar with – Habitat for Humanity.

This story points out that it is not about giving up money and things it is about giving up period. This is what Jesus was asking the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler wasn’t willing to give up. He couldn’t choose. So he walked away sad because he couldn’t choose between God and money.

Jesus says you need to choose.