Sunday Meditation: What Must I Do To Inherit Eternal Life?

Last week as Jesus was on a journey, He was stopped and asked a question by the Pharisees.  This week, again continuing His journey he is asked a question, this time by a rich, young man.  Last week the question was set as a trap.  This week the question is sincere, and I think is the most important question we could ever ask.  Now this event is told in all three synoptic Gospels, and what is interesting is that all three describe the man subtly different.  Mark identifies him as rich, Matthew as young, and Luke as a ruler.  So we combine all three and get the “rich, young ruler,” but only in the Gospel of Mark are we told that Jesus looked at him with love.

 

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,

knelt down before him, and asked him,

"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?

No one is good but God alone.

You know the commandments: You shall not kill;

you shall not commit adultery;

you shall not steal;

you shall not bear false witness;

you shall not defraud;

honor your father and your mother."

He replied and said to him,

"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,

"You are lacking in one thing.

Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor

and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

At that statement his face fell,

and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

 

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,

"How hard it is for those who have wealth

to enter the kingdom of God!"

The disciples were amazed at his words.

So Jesus again said to them in reply,

"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle

than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,

"Then who can be saved?"

Jesus looked at them and said,

"For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.

All things are possible for God."

Peter began to say to him,

"We have given up everything and followed you."

Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you,

there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters

or mother or father or children or lands

for my sake and for the sake of the gospel

who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters

and mothers and children and lands,

with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."

~Mk 10:17-30

 

First to explain the Biblical context of the passage, let’s let Dr. Brant Pitre explain it.

And so Jesus gives us the “eleventh commandment.”  If this is a commandment, then the implications of are great.  I’m going to let Bishop James Golka from the Diocese of Colorado Springs explain the moral implications of the passage.

 

We are never told what happens to the rich, young man.  I would like to think that the penetrating love of Christ worked in the man’s soul, and, though he may have missed the opportunity to follow Christ that day, he subsequently became a Christian and worked to bring about the Kingdom of God.

 

Sunday Meditation: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing.  Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

John Michael Talbot’s “Walk And Follow Jesus” is most appropriate for today.