Trinity Matthew 19 16-23
And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
[17] And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
[18] He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
[19] Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[20] The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
[21] Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt, be perfect, go, and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
[22] But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
[23] Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
There is one thing that money can’t buy and that is heaven. In today’s text, we have the account of a man who had everything, but didn’t have heaven. He was rich and enjoyed all the amenities of riches; popularity, position and fame. He was religious, in a sense, and morally clean. He had never killed anyone; nor was he known to steal or to cheat. Outwardly, he respected his parents and even claimed to love his neighbors. He was the kind of person to whom the world looks up, and that most every church would be happy to have as a member. Nonetheless, for all this, he wasn’t very happy. His retirement didn’t worry him; he had enough money to take care of that. He was worried about going to heaven. He had the feeling that God would be delighted to have someone like him, but he wasn’t sure and that bothered him. He reminds us a bit of the unbelieving Greeks that built an altar to the “unknown god,” to be sure they didn’t miss one.
With this in mind, he came to Jesus and asked, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” In reply, Jesus said, “Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” This man looked up to Jesus as a good master who went about doing good; a man who had the power to heal the sick; a man who defied the legalistic dogmatism of the Scribes and Pharisees by going to the root of people’s problems. He thought that, if anyone, this man, Jesus, could tell him what good thing he might still have to do to get to heaven. Without knowing it, he had come to the right person. An earthly philosopher might give him another human opinion. However, Jesus, as the Son of God and owner of heaven, was preeminently qualified to tell him how to get there.
Jesus felt sorry for this man as he does for any person that thought he could buy his way into heaven. Unlike so many people of the unbelieving world who are willing to take their chances on judgment day, this man was concerned, but his concerns were based on human experience. Just as he felt that, the riches he had earned the riches he possessed, so he felt that he could also earn heaven. Spiritual words like sin, or repentance, or forgiveness, or grace were foreign to him. He had no idea that, in spite of his wealth, he was a helpless sinner and that his only hope of heaven lay with the good Master to whom he was speaking.
Somehow, Jesus had to convince him of his sin. That man needed to know that he was a sinner, born under the wrath of God, and what better wan than by the law, for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20 That is why Jesus went on to say,”Keep the commandments.” Examine your life in the light of God’s holy commandments, and then you will know that no one can earn his way into heaven. The young man, however, wasn’t convinced. When Jesus told him to keep the commandments, he replied, “Which one?” He said,” Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Before Jesus finished speaking, we would have expected this rich man to cry out, “Stop! I don’t need to hear any more. How can a sinful man like me go to heaven”? To our surprise, however, we hear him say, “I’ve done all that. Isn’t there something else?” Self-righteousness is a cruel master; It blinds us to the real meaning of God’s law, that to hate is murder, that to lust is committing adultery, that to claim God’s gifts as your own is theft, and finally that to put your sinful pride above everything else is to hate your neighbor.
As a final loving step to break this man’s sinful will, “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” Those who have much in the world are easily tempted to love their possessions, and to set their hearts on them. So it was with this young man, “for when he heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” He had come to the good Master with the question, “what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” He left with the answer from the Son of God Himself, “You can’t do enough good to get there.” This crushed him, and so he turned his back to Jesus and went away, sorrowful. He had come an unhappy man; he left an unhappier one. He couldn’t give up his earthly possessions; yet, none of them could give real joy and peace of heart. What a sad ending to what could have been a beautiful account. You can almost hear the disappointment in our Savior’s voice when we read “when Jesus saw how sad the man was…He said: How hard it is for them that have riches to enter into the kingdom of God.”
Why are riches such a tremendous temptation? Isn’t it because of the greed and selfishness of the human heart? The media constantly tempts us to be dissatisfied with the way we look or with the clothes we wear or the cars we drive. The state dangles the lottery before us as a way to get rich without having to work for it. The world measures success, not by faith in Jesus Christ, but by the amount of money men or women make. It is easy to understand how even children of God fall prey to the attraction of riches.
What makes the love of money so dangerous is that it completely takes over our hearts. Love of money makes us selfish. Disputes over money are a leading cause for divorce and disrupt many a household. We begin to look at our possessions as things we have earned by our hard work, instead of gifts over which God has made us caretakers. We begin to feel that riches will put us beyond all future need, we look to financial advisors to lay out our future, forgetting that sickness or health, poverty or wealth are in the hands of the Lord. We begin to work, not to please our employer, “as unto Christ,” Ephesians 6:5, but for the pay check. Employers take advantage of their workers for personal gain, forgetting that God “does not respect persons”; Ephesians 6:9. Worker and master are both alike to God.
What is Christ’s advice? He does not say to us as he did to the young man, “Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,” for heaven is ours without doing any of those things. Our greatest treasure, a treasure that no one can take away, a treasure that we enjoy every day of our lives, is the unmerited grace of God. Trust in Jesus makes us the happiest people in the world, for we have treasures that no amount of money can buy. Who can buy the forgiveness of our sins? Who can pay Jesus to take care of him? Who can buy a passport to heaven? The marvellous truth is that God never lets us down. Those who, by the grace of God, are led to abandon their love affair with the world will find their lives blessed beyond measure. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33. O Lord, grant us the grace to keep our hearts humbly focused on the treasures from above! For where our treasure is, that’s where our souls are going to spend eternity!