Opportunities. Occasions. Incidents. Jesus used them all to drive home any important message he needed to communicate to those who had ears to hear.
So when a rich man knelt before him to ask about how he could inherit the Kingdom of God, the Lord used the occasion to make a strong statement about life’s most deceptive enticement—wealth.
Right on the street where the rich man approached the Lord Jesus, everything was going well.
So far, so good—until the conversation reached the climax, where the rich man’s quest for eternal inheritance was tested.
‘Come, follow me!’
He had said he was obedient to the law, but the law could not make him inherit God’s Kingdom. He knew that very well, which was why he went to Jesus.
The Lord told him the one thing he lacked: “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21).
When the rich man heard this, his mood changed, his attitude altered and he was no longer the humble person who had come kneeling before Jesus.
With a sad face, he went away.
What happened? Didn’t he want to inherit the Kingdom of God anymore?
What he failed to realise was that anyone who walks away from Jesus is walking away from eternal life and he who walks away from eternal life is walking into eternal damnation!
What was at stake here was true allegiance.
What was more important to him, God or his wealth?
Like King Solomon, this man had spent his life acquiring great wealth.
Would he give up his wealth and follow Christ?
Did he know?
Did he know that anyone who loves the world does not have the love of God in them, and that the world is passing away with everything in it, including wealth (1John 2:15–17)?
Did he also know that it doesn’t profit a person if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
By going away, the man gave up his soul to acquire more wealth.
Moreover, by turning his back on Christ, he chose wealth over the Saviour, just as King Solomon allowed his wealth, which sponsored his amorous relationships with women, to turn him away from God.
The wealthy man’s objectionable attitude towards his wealth and public rejection of Christ and the Kingdom of God made the Lord to make one of Scripture’s most fearful statements about the deception of wealth: “It is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God!”
Literature studies call such a statement “hyperbole” (exaggeration or embellishment), but a cursory observation of some rich people’s attitude to God makes the Lord’s statement a reality in many cases. An Akan proverb says, “Good living begets forgetfulness.”
Many griefs
For "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" (1Timothy 6:10).
The ruler loved his money so much that he wandered away from the faith he expressed in Jesus when he knelt before him earlier, thereby piercing himself with many griefs.
We must understand, however, that you can be wealthy and serve God, as long as you don’t let your wealth come between you and sincere love for God and service to Him.
Zacchaeus was a rich man, but he so longed to see Jesus that he climbed a tree for that purpose.
When he got to know Jesus, he didn’t walk away as the rich ruler did.
Instead, he promised to give half his possessions to the poor and pay back fourfold anyone he had defrauded.
New behaviour
That is how new life is seen in a person’s behaviour.
Between worldly wealth and treasures in heaven, true believers choose Christ, who guarantees treasures in heaven.
Just as riches can turn people away from God, so poverty and deprivation can lead people to reject Him. Hence, Christ invites all to come to Him, whether poor or rich.
“The one thing” the rich ruler lacked was total surrender and allegiance to the Lord, a commitment his wealth couldn’t give him.
He couldn’t eat his cake and still have it, could he? He couldn’t choose the world and his riches and still inherit eternal life, could he?
Hence, Jesus said, “You cannot serve two masters—materialism and God Almighty.”
One day, God told a rich man, “You fool! This very night, your life will be demanded of you.
Then who will get what you have stored for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20, 21).
The rich man chose wealth and went away sad and miserable, because wealth without God is vanity of vanities, as the rich man Solomon observed and experienced.
The writer is a publisher, author, writer-trainer and CEO of Step Publishers.
E-mail: lawrence.darmani@gmail.com
