Jesus’ Greatest Challenge

I’m going to start today by reading a story in Mark 10. It’s probably one of the saddest stories in the Gospels. Aren’t you glad you came today?

Mark 10, starting at verse 17:

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

There are several things we need to notice about the beginning of this interaction.

Mark begins by telling us this young man comes, not walking, but running up to Jesus.

Now, if someone came running up to you, why would they do that?

Usually, it means they’re in a hurry. It indicates they feel some urgency about seeing you.

And in general, important, powerful, wealthy people don’t run.

This is true in our day. Presidents and CEOs don’t go running up to people. People run to them.

This was especially true in Jesus’ day.

This man was wealthy. And Middle Eastern wealthy patriarchs with long, flowing robes, didn’t go running around. It wasn’t dignified.

In Luke’s account of this story, this man is called a ruler — possibly a member of the Sanhedrin — a person of power and influence.

But Mark tells us he ran. He wanted badly to see Jesus.

And when he gets to Jesus, he doesn’t just shake his hand and start talking. He falls at his feet and kneels before him.

Now, how often does that happen to you?

You come home from a long day at the office. Your spouse hears you, comes running through the house to greet you and throws himself or herself at your feet.

They might throw something else at your feet… like a child or something, but they usually don’t throw themselves at your feet.

Well, this rich, young ruler is paying respect and honor to Jesus.

He runs to him, kneels, falls at his feet, and addresses him, “Good teacher.”

Now this is quite unusual. Occasionally, people might be described as “good” in that day, but there is no record of a rabbi ever being addressed with that phrase — good teacher.

So in very dramatic action and language, this man is expressing his spiritual urgency and commitment.

And he would expect Jesus to be pretty flattered by this.

The custom of the day would be for Jesus to respond in kind — “honored and diligent seeker,” or something like that.

But Jesus doesn’t. He doesn’t address the man with any title, but he asks him a question that looks pretty abrupt to us.

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.

I think what Jesus is saying here is, “I want you to pause for a moment, and think about what you’re saying, because only God is good. And when you come running to me, throwing yourself at my feet, kneeling before me, and applying that title to me, you are claiming to commit yourself to me in a way that has a real high price tag. So before you get all worked up emotionally, I want to ask if you’ve counted the cost?”

This is kind of a reality check for him.

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Jesus goes on to give some of the Ten Commandments.

Almost all of the commandments he gives involve things you should not do. Verse 19:

You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

And the man stands there kind of checking them off in his head as Jesus recites them. “Got that one. Check. Check. Check. Check.”

“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

Notice he doesn’t say, “good teacher” this time. He’s a quick learner. “Teacher, you just described me. I haven’t done any of those things. It’s like you know me.”

That seems a little arrogant, doesn’t it?

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Have you told anyone that you’re perfect lately? Imagine telling Jesus you’re perfect.

I would expect nothing less than for Jesus to challenge him.

“Oh really? Never deceived anyone? Never spoken one untrue word? Never given one false impression? Never cheated on a test, not even a Hebrew test when you were a little kid? I’ve got a pretty famous saying about committing adultery in your heart. You’re telling me you’ve never done that one?”

But Jesus doesn’t challenge him. Jesus says, “I’ll give you a free pass on the commandments. Let’s just let that slide for a moment.”

And this is a very moving moment. The text says Jesus looked at this man and loved him.

I think he loved this man’s energy. I think he loves how this man approaches him with so much life. I think he loves the potential in this man. I think he loves the possibility of what this man might do for others. Jesus thinks of what might happen with all those resources, all that energy, all that potential if it gets poured out for God.

I think Jesus thinks something like what God thinks when so many of you – so many people come through the doors of this place with so much potential to do something great for him in this community.

Jesus looks at this highly energetic, somewhat deceived and arrogant man. Verse 21:

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said.

“Just one thing you lack. You’ve got the whole list, but just one thing you lack.” Now, imagine the guy’s excitement to hear what Jesus is going to say next.

“One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Imagine hearing those words from Jesus.

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Now, why does Jesus give him this command?

A lot of people get hung up at this point in the story, because it sounds so radical.

Sometimes people think — if this is what Jesus is saying we really have to do to follow him, there’s no way.

And they set this story aside. And maybe they think they can never be completely Christ-centered followers.

But I want you to notice that while Jesus gives this command to this rich young ruler, he doesn’t give it to everyone he calls to follow him.

* Mary, Martha and Lazarus get to keep their house.
* Zacchaeus retains a large portion of his wealth and Jesus’ salvation has come to him.

So why does he lay such a heavy demand on this guy?

I’ll tell you what I think.

I think this guy has control issues. He wanted everything in his life nailed down.

Think about this. He wanted to achieve financial security, and he had accomplished that. He had achieved financial security at a young age. He wanted career success and he accomplished that too. He was a member of the powerful elite. He had achieved greatness in his career at a remarkably young age.

He looked around and he realized that he had everything nailed down for this life. But then one day it occurred to him, there was still the life to come.

So he was on a mission to accomplish that too.

He got information about the requirements. He became an industry leader in the commandments-keeping field.

And beyond that, he went around consulting with rabbis. He certainly would have talked with his own rabbi. Now he’s coming to Jesus for a second opinion.

And he’s really expecting Jesus to applaud him in his efforts. He knows he’s spiritually above average.

He looks around, and other people are cheating and lying. Not him. He’s an upstanding believer who has gained the respect of others.

And Jesus says, “One thing you lack.”

What’s that one thing?

You don’t have Jesus at the center of your life. You have wealth there.

Jesus looks at this man and loves him, and says, “Gaining the respect of others is not what I’m asking for. Spiritually well-above average is not what I’m asking for. Just one thing — put me at the center of your life. The way you cling to money is keeping you from that.”

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I believe this to be true. For every human being, for everyone in this room, there is one area in your life that you’re most tempted to hold back from God.

If you let it, it will enslave you and it will keep you from freely giving yourself to God.

I don’t know what it is for you.

* Maybe it’s pleasure. You just want to do what you want to do when you want to do it, whether it honors God or not.
* Maybe it’s a relationship. Maybe you’re in a relationship that’s dishonoring God, and you know it. Maybe you’re not willing to let go of that relationship.
* Maybe it’s success.
* Maybe it’s power.
* Maybe it’s your reputation. You just want to be liked.
* Maybe it’s your career.
* Maybe it’s comfort and security.

I’ll tell you this, Jesus has this ability to point out this area of life with complete clarity and he’ll call us to remove it and put him in the center.

He does that here, because, for this man — for many people, for many of us — it involves money.

Jesus looks at this man and loves him and says, “All the things you think you possess, they actually possess you. They’re choking out your generosity and your compassion. You were not made to be in control of your little life. Trust me. Go, sell it, give it all away. Bless the poor with it and come be with me. Be done playing around with perceived success and spiritual greatness, and give me the center position in your life.”

This is what we call Christ-centered living at Blue Oaks. It’s our mission as a church — to lead everyone into Christ-centered living.

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Well, there’s silence with this rich young ruler. And it dawns on him that this will not be what he thought it was going to be — one more polite conversation about how well he’s doing spiritually.

And he wonders, “Could I really do this? Could I really trust Jesus this far?”

He looks at Jesus’ followers and there’s something about them. They have a kind of freedom and intimacy and aliveness and joy that he hungers for.

* But they’re poor. They have nothing.
* They’re unknown.
* They’re not important.
* No one’s going to ask them to be part of the Sanhedrin.

For this rich young ruler, to join the disciples would be like vocational, social, and financial ruin.

And it’s the most amazing thing. He realizes he’s scared. It’s so funny. This man who has never backed down from a challenge in his life — who has seized life by the throat and overcome every obstacle — is afraid to do what Jesus asks him to do.

Verse 22:

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

He doesn’t say a word. He just turns away from Jesus and he walks away.

And now he’s safe. Now he’s back in control.

But something inside him is sad, and the reality is it will be sad until the day he dies.

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Why is he sad? He still has all of his money. He still has all of his power. He still has this rich, full, impressive, admired, respected life in front of him.

He’s sad because nothing is sadder than a spiritually-sensitive heart that says “no” to God. Nothing is sadder.

Maybe you know that sadness. Maybe you’re experiencing it now.

Well, this man walks into a life of wealthy, powerful, respectable sadness, and he’s never heard from again.

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The next verse says:

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples

The implication here is his disciples were watching. They, most likely, had been thinking this guy could, potentially, be a very significant donor for their mission, and Jesus has not done real well in the donor development department right here.

He says to his disciples, “How hard is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of God?” Look at verse 24:

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

That’s pretty hard to swallow for his followers. And it’s been hard for people to swallow ever since.

And people have come up with lots of ways to soften this saying of Jesus.

There’s an old story I heard growing up in the church that what’s behind this story is that there was actually a gate in Jerusalem called the Needle Gate.

It was a very narrow gate, and a camel could only get through it if it got down on its knees. And in that case, the point of this story would be — you could get in if you were rich if you were humble, as well.

Well , there was no such gate in Jerusalem.

That story — if you’ve ever heard it — was just made up, probably, by some rich guy somewhere along the line.

Jesus says, “It’s like trying to get an actual, literal camel through an actual, literal needle.”

How hard would that be?

That would be extremely hard.

That would take a very, very, very strong person.

And that would be one sore camel after it passed through the eye of the needle.

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Jesus didn’t say, “It’s hard.” He said, “It’s impossible.”

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

Because their theology said that riches were the blessings of God, so the rich are those who are blessed, and the richest were the most blessed. If they’re not getting in, who’s getting in?

And at this point, it’s quite interesting.

In verse 27, Jesus doesn’t say, “The poor.” The point that he’s making is not, “The poor have a leg-up on salvation.”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

He says, “Humanly speaking, it’s impossible.”

Just look at the way sin works. When does a greedy person ever say to himself, “Oh, I’ve got enough now. My whole life, I’ve wanted more, more, more and now I have enough. Now, I can be generous”?

False gods are never satisfied. False gods are insatiable.

“It’s impossible,” Jesus says.

But he didn’t intend this to be a discouraging teaching. One of the great statements in Scripture comes next.

“All things are possible with God.”

If you believe your well being is only in your hands, you will hoard and cling to your stuff and strive for control your whole life long.

You will become a generous person only if you truly believe that God is watching out for you, that God, himself, is caring for you.

And the best reason I can give you to believe in a God like that is that Jesus believed in a God like that. That’s the hand of the Father in which he lived. And he never, ever got tired of teaching about that God.

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One of his favorite illustrations involved birds. He says in Matthew 6:26.

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Or in Luke 12:6 Jesus says:

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Jesus says, “Look at the birds. Their whole existence — every time they eat — it’s not the random act of an unfeeling, unthinking, unblinking, mechanical universe. It’s a testimony that our God is a caring, generous, faithful, giving God, because giving is what God does. And he’ll take care of you. And not just that, he made you to be like him. For the law of giving is woven into this universe like the law of gravity, and if you try to live by getting instead of giving, it will break you like defying the law of gravity will break your body.”

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There’s another lesson from the birds. I love these words. This is written by Eugene Peterson. He writes about one time when he was watching adult swallows trying to get their little swallow chicks to fly.

One adult swallow got alongside the chicks and started shoving them out, towards the end of the branch, pushing, pushing, pushing. The end one fell off.

Somewhere between the branch and the water, four feet below, the wings started working and the fledgling was off on his own, then, the second one. But the third one was not to be bullied.

At the last possible moment, his grip on the branch loosened just enough, so that he swung downward, then, tightened again — with bulldog tenaciousness.

The parent was without sentiment. He pecked at the desperately clinging talons until it was more painful for the poor chick to hang on than risk the insecurities of flying.

[Some of you with older children are getting ideas right now.]

The grip was released and the inexperienced wings began pumping. The mature swallow knew what the chick did not, that it would fly — that there was no danger in making it do what it was perfectly designed to do.

You know, birds have feet and can walk. Birds have talons and can grasp a branch securely. They can walk, they can cling, but flying is their characteristic action.

And not until they fly are they living at their best, gracefully and beautifully.

Giving is what we do best. It’s the air into which we were born. It’s the action that was designed into us before our birth.

Giving is the way the world is.

God gives himself. He gives away everything he has.

And he makes no exceptions for you or me. We are given away to our families, to our neighbors, to our friends, to our enemies, to the nations. Our life is not for us. Our life is for others. That’s the way creation works.

And some of us try, desperately, to hold onto ourselves, to live for ourselves.

And we look so pathetic hanging onto the dead branch of a bank account for dear life, afraid to risk and fly by giving it away.

We don’t think we can live generously, because we’ve never tried. But the sooner we start, the better.

You know, we’re going to have to give up our lives at some point, and the reality is, the longer we wait, the less time we have to soar on wings like eagles.

Giving is what we do best. It’s what you are made to do. It’s what frightened this rich, young ruler.

And when he came face to face with Jesus, money won the day — money.

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I want to make sure that for you and me, money doesn’t win. I want to make sure that money does not win my day, that money does not win your day, that money does not win this church’s day.

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I want to mention two ways that God still comes to little birds clutching onto the branch and says, “Come on. Trust me. Let go. Fly.”

And I want to ask you, today, to make a decision, because people do not drift into generosity. People do not drift into Christ-centered living.

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I want to talk about the first way God uses to call us into a life of generosity.

It’s simply the discipline of tithing.

You honor God by giving the first ten percent to him.

Now the number ten, when you study its meaning, is a very interesting number biblically. Do you know what the number ten means in the Bible?

It means ‘a test.’

For instance:

* How many plagues were there in Egypt? Ten. Pharaoh was tested ten times.
* How many Commandments are there? Ten. So how many ways is our obedience tested? Ten.
* How many times did God test Israel while they were wandering through the wilderness?
* How many times did God test Jacob’s heart by allowing his wages to be changed when he was working for Laban?
* How many times was Daniel tested in Daniel 1?

In every case, the answer is ten.

Jesus told a parable in Matthew 25 about ten bridesmaids that were waiting for the bridegroom that had their preparedness tested.

Revelation 2:10 mentions ten days of testing.

Throughout the Bible, the number ten is associated with testing. And honoring God first represents “A Heart Test” for any follower of Christ.

Now this principle is taught in many places in the Bible, but maybe the most famous passage is the one from Malachi 3 where God himself says:

“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

God says, as a matter of discipline, you adopt a framework that considers that the whole tithe belongs to God to such an extent, that withholding it would be an act of stealing.

Now, of course, the truth is everything belongs to God — everything. But to make this real concrete, God says a starting point is to say that a tithe — ten percent of all that comes to me — I’ll literally treat as if God had a legal claim on it.

This is the discipline of tithing.

God says, “Test me in this.”

God says, “If you will ever do this, if you’ll let go of the branch, you’ll discover I really will take care of you. I really will.”

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Now, it may be that you’re feeling a little like the rich, young ruler did on this one. “Yeah, check. Got that one. I know about tithing. I’m on board.”

So let me just pause to ask you to reflect on that for a moment. Are you really?

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We’re in the month of May. We’re about five months into 2021. Think about all the financial resources that have come into your life so far this year from your job, gifts, whatever other sources, expected and unexpected.

Are you up to date? Are you current with God?

Have you brought the full tithe of all that God has blessed you with?

I mention this because the truth is that a lot of the time, even for well-intended Christians, there are subtle or not so subtle factors that can make me feel like I’m on board with this one when, in fact, I’m really not.

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Sometimes people have resources come in, in the form of a gift or outside income, and because it’s not on their regular paycheck they’re withholding the tithe from God.

Sometimes people say, “Yes, I’m a committed tither,” but the reality is when the cash flow gets a little tight, it’s the tithe that suffers. The tithe is put on the back burner.

I’ve actually heard people say something like this: “The Bible says that God wants a cheerful giver, and I need not give right now, because if I were to give, I wouldn’t be cheerful.”

Let me give you a little advice here. If you’re a follower of Christ, and you find right now you cannot give with authentic cheerfulness and joy, fake it.

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Because if I wait to give until I feel like it, I may wait as long as the rich, young ruler. I may never leave the branch at all.

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And a lot of times joy comes after obedience, not before.

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“Don’t rob God,” the writer of Scripture says. “Bring your full tithe.” Let go of the branch. “Trust me,” God says.

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So honest now, this is just between you and God, are you current with God? And if you’re not, will you make a decision right now to get current?

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Deuteronomy 14:23 teaches the reason we should tithe. The writer of Scripture says:

The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.

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Okay, so tithing is one way God teaches us to give.

The other way God comes along and pecks on his children to let go of the branch, involves what might be called promptings to give from the Holy Spirit.

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When a human being is born, just after he learns the word ‘no’ he will learn another word that will become his favorite word in the whole world. All of my children loved this word when they were little. It’s a little word—one syllable, four letters. Want to guess what it is?

“Mine.”

“My toys. My blanket. My food. My room. My BMW. Mine!”

And for some people, that word remains the dominant word in their life until the day they die. Mine.

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Now, when a human being is “Born Again,” the Holy Spirit will whisper a different word in their heart. A little word—one syllable, four letters. And it’s the word “Give.”

That’s the nature of God. This happened to such an extent in the early church that after Pentecost — after the coming of the Holy Spirit — the writer of Scripture says in Acts 4:

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

Think about that in that culture, in a day of that kind of poverty.

There actually has been, in human history, a community of men and women who ceased to be dominated by the word “mine.”

From time to time, the writer of Scripture says, those who owned houses or land sold them and brought the money from the sales and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

This is the fulfillment of what Jesus says in this text, Mark 10:30:

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age.

That actually happened in the church, because the resources of everyone in that community became available to all.

That’s God’s dream for his community — that it be a community marked by generosity. From time to time, the Spirit would whisper, “Give to somebody,” and they just would give it.

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Now, let me ask you a question — has the Spirit stopped whispering, “Give”? Or do we not always listen?

Or do we say, “You know, the truth is, I just don’t want to spend the money. I just don’t want to spend the time.”

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I’ll make this personal. I was walking on the sidewalk a couple of weeks ago, and noticed what looked like a homeless person.

So out of the corner of my eye, without even consciously thinking about this, it just occurred to me that this person is going to want something.

So I just stayed away. I just avoided eye contact. I made sure I wouldn’t get a request that might make me feel guilty.

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Now understand, I’m not saying anytime anybody asks you for anything, you have to give it to them.

But my heart was not in tune to hear the Spirit saying, “Give.”

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That’s what you were made to do. It’s what you do best. It’s the heart of God.

Are you listening to the Spirit’s whisper, “Give?”

And are you obeying it?

* Maybe it will involve giving to someone you know is in need.
* Maybe it will involve something God wants you to be involved in that will make a significant impact for his kingdom.

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Here’s what I do — sometimes I let my branch go for a moment. I let some of my stuff go for a moment. Then, I want to grab on again.

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You know, when Jesus called people, as a general rule, it cost something. We lose this in our day. Every disciple, vocationally and financially, it cost them all something.

It cost Zacchaeus something. It cost Paul something. It costs something when Jesus calls you.

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I have a friend. He’s a businessman. He’s in his sixties. He said to me, “You know, I always felt when I was a young man that I ought to go into ministry.”

And I asked him, “Why didn’t you?”

Well, when it came right down to it, it was just money. He was already into business and he was doing quite well. So he didn’t follow what he sensed was God’s calling in his life.

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I don’t know how else to say this. It’s just money.

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It’s just money and people get all twisted up in knots over it, and they stay awake at night over it, and they worry and they get anxious and they scheme and they trade away their integrity about how to get more of it.

And they end up throwing away their lives running after more of it.

It’s just money!

It’s never a reason not to follow Christ. It’s never a reason not to do the thing that God needs you to do.

It’s just money!

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I don’t know what past decisions you’ve made well or foolishly. But I know Jesus is still calling people to put him in the center of their lives.

So will you decide now? “I will obey. When the Holy Spirit whispers, ‘Give,’ I will ruthlessly obey.”

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You know, I wonder, sometimes, what this man in Mark 10 experienced when he reached the end of his life — when he was a rich, old ruler, and he looked back on a long life of respectability. He never murdered. He never stole. He never committed adultery. He knew the Scriptures. He walked the straight and narrow.

And people would point to him when he was an old man. Parents would point out to their children, “This man is an example of what you might become. This is a man who got it right,” they would say. “This is a life blessed by God. This is what it looks like.”

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No one else, of course, remembered that he had once had an experience with a young rabbi a long time ago. But he remembered.

And when he was a rich, old man, I wonder if he ever looked back on that day when he was young and strong and so full of promise, when a penniless carpenter gave him this strange, wild invitation to leave it all, to abandon everything and come follow him.

And I wonder if he ever asked himself what might have happened in his life if he would have chosen the other way.

And I wonder if he ever asked himself why he didn’t say yes.

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It’s just money, friends.

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Our world is insane about it, but it’s just money.

And even in this world that screams, “MINE!” the Spirit of God comes and whispers, “Give.”

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Let’s pray as Lauren and the team come to lead us in a closing song.

Blue Oaks Church
Pleasanton, CA