14
A Twisted Perspective
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 19:16-26
Let’s imagine for a moment that you own a beautifully restored vintage Chevy truck. You agreed to let a close friend borrow the truck for the day to carefully haul some wood. At the end of the day he pulls up in your truck, hands you the keys, and acts like he’s giving you the truck as a present. He says something like, “I just want to thank you for being such a great friend, and so I’m giving you this beautiful vintage truck as a gift.” Your reaction would probably be to think your friend had gone insane. What was he thinking? How could he be generous by giving you a truck that already belonged to you? He was only borrowing the truck and bringing it back to you. It wasn’t his to give as a gift or do anything with other than what he had permission to do.
I know this is a strange scenario, but something similar happens all the time when it comes to how we handle finances and the blessings of God. Nothing we have belongs to us. It all belongs to God. So when we tithe we aren’t really being generous because we are simply bringing back to God what is already His. We cannot be generous to God by simply bringing back to Him what is His. It already belongs to Him. All we are doing is showing honor to God by letting Him know we haven’t forgotten Him. God is still on the throne in our lives. We also shouldn’t be hesitant about what we will or will not bring back to God. It’s all His! When we hoard or withhold what the owner wants returned to him, it’s called theft, and there are consequences to theft.
Todays passage deals with someone whose perspective and worldview had been mishapen by his views about money. This young man, often referred to as the rich young ruler, had an opportunity before him that would write him into God’s story and secure great treasure in heaven. He only had to sacrifice the single obstacle preventing him from an eternal inheritance. What was the internal struggle that went on inside that young man’s mind when Jesus told him what he needed to do? On the one hand, he was obviously curious and drawn to Jesus. He was an honorable young man by what we can see, one who valued keeping the law and honoring the commandments. On the other hand, he had a great love for his wealth, status, and possessions. In a moment these two worlds went to war within him. A war of the spirit verses the flesh. Selfishness versus selflessness. Each side waged war within his heart, each putting forth their best argument. In the end, he chose himself over God. He chose worldly wealth over eternal wealth. He revealed to everyone watching that he really didn’t own possessions. It was his possessions which owned him. This was not done forcefully or under compulsion. He freely chose to place his wealth on the throne in his life; a place reserved before time for God alone. Money had become his god now, so there was no room left for following Jesus.
This is why scripture records that the young man went away sad. There was obviously shame present, and his desire to make room for two masters, Jesus and possessions, was dashed before his eyes. Jesus also could peer directly into this man’s heart and knew the weight of the internal struggle happening inside of him. It had to be grievous for Jesus to watch the young man make his decision and walk away with his head down, knowing the ramifications of the costly decision he had just made. A decision that presumably would ring out for that young man’s eternity. History has shown this principle to be true, which Jesus spoke in Matthew 6:24. You cannot serve both God and money. You cannot serve two masters. You can only follow after and pursue one. Notice that the passage doesn’t say you cannot have both God and money. It only says we cannot serve both God and money. Often, passages like these are used as examples to promote the idea that only by living in poverty can Christians live a life pleasing to God. This is not the context of this verse, and this argument is not born out of the wider scope of scripture. It is possible to have great wealth and still have God be the lord of your life. There have been many wealthy people who have lived God-honoring lives. It comes down to an issue of lordship and perspective. Once again, money itself is not the problem. It is our view and perspective of money which gets us into trouble and leads us into traps. Money is a great servant, but a terrible master!
Let’s be people who leave a legacy of seeing money as a useful tool and not allowing it to rule our hearts!
I know this is a strange scenario, but something similar happens all the time when it comes to how we handle finances and the blessings of God. Nothing we have belongs to us. It all belongs to God. So when we tithe we aren’t really being generous because we are simply bringing back to God what is already His. We cannot be generous to God by simply bringing back to Him what is His. It already belongs to Him. All we are doing is showing honor to God by letting Him know we haven’t forgotten Him. God is still on the throne in our lives. We also shouldn’t be hesitant about what we will or will not bring back to God. It’s all His! When we hoard or withhold what the owner wants returned to him, it’s called theft, and there are consequences to theft.
Todays passage deals with someone whose perspective and worldview had been mishapen by his views about money. This young man, often referred to as the rich young ruler, had an opportunity before him that would write him into God’s story and secure great treasure in heaven. He only had to sacrifice the single obstacle preventing him from an eternal inheritance. What was the internal struggle that went on inside that young man’s mind when Jesus told him what he needed to do? On the one hand, he was obviously curious and drawn to Jesus. He was an honorable young man by what we can see, one who valued keeping the law and honoring the commandments. On the other hand, he had a great love for his wealth, status, and possessions. In a moment these two worlds went to war within him. A war of the spirit verses the flesh. Selfishness versus selflessness. Each side waged war within his heart, each putting forth their best argument. In the end, he chose himself over God. He chose worldly wealth over eternal wealth. He revealed to everyone watching that he really didn’t own possessions. It was his possessions which owned him. This was not done forcefully or under compulsion. He freely chose to place his wealth on the throne in his life; a place reserved before time for God alone. Money had become his god now, so there was no room left for following Jesus.
This is why scripture records that the young man went away sad. There was obviously shame present, and his desire to make room for two masters, Jesus and possessions, was dashed before his eyes. Jesus also could peer directly into this man’s heart and knew the weight of the internal struggle happening inside of him. It had to be grievous for Jesus to watch the young man make his decision and walk away with his head down, knowing the ramifications of the costly decision he had just made. A decision that presumably would ring out for that young man’s eternity. History has shown this principle to be true, which Jesus spoke in Matthew 6:24. You cannot serve both God and money. You cannot serve two masters. You can only follow after and pursue one. Notice that the passage doesn’t say you cannot have both God and money. It only says we cannot serve both God and money. Often, passages like these are used as examples to promote the idea that only by living in poverty can Christians live a life pleasing to God. This is not the context of this verse, and this argument is not born out of the wider scope of scripture. It is possible to have great wealth and still have God be the lord of your life. There have been many wealthy people who have lived God-honoring lives. It comes down to an issue of lordship and perspective. Once again, money itself is not the problem. It is our view and perspective of money which gets us into trouble and leads us into traps. Money is a great servant, but a terrible master!
Let’s be people who leave a legacy of seeing money as a useful tool and not allowing it to rule our hearts!