Have You Ever Thought About What Jesus Thinks of Us?

Does Jesus Think That We’re “Good to Go”? How About Yourselves? Are We OK With Ourselves?

(Matthew chapter 19, verses 16-26) By Rev. Paul J. Bern

For this week’s commentary, I’m going to talk about greed, the accumulation of excess wealth, capitalism, and how they are interwoven together, using the Bible to get a proper frame of reference. First, let’s go to the verses in question, which I’ll be taking from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 19, verses 16-26. Let’s read the first 6 verses together: “16) Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” 17) “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.” 18) “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, 19) honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ 20) “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” 21) 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.”

Here we have a well-meaning individual not unlike ourselves who was asking Jesus to show him the correct way to eternal life. Today the mainstream churches call people like the young man in this story “seekers”. But to me, that is a gross understatement. They’re ‘seekers’ all right, but there’s so much more to it than meets the eye. Those ‘seekers’ are people who know they need to enrich their Spiritual life, but for the most part they don’t know how to go about it. They’re hungry and thirsty for knowledge, comprehension and balance. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that any Spiritual person, be they Christian or any other faith, lacks any basic intelligence. Not for one stinking little minute. But these ‘seekers’ are already actively trying to find the right path to take and the means to get there. They’re past the stage of needing to be told because they already know.

But to get back to the story, the rich young man knew that he was lacking something, and he also knew that he couldn’t define what that ‘something’ was. Yet he got the first part of the answer to his question immediately when Christ said, “16) Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” 17) “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.” See that? Jesus was, genuinely and most definitely, a humble man. But Jesus bypassed all the religious stuff when he instructed the rich young man to “keep my commandments”. The rich young man asked Jesus in the colloquial, ‘So this means I’m all good to go?’ The closing verses are as follows:

“21) 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.” 22) When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24) Again I tell you, 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.” 25) When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” 26) Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Never assume that you’re ‘good to go’. The only people who are truly ‘good to go’ are the ones who have placed their complete faith in Jesus Christ, the risen Savior of the world. If you’re already among that number, if you have placed your utmost faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, then all you have to do is to maintain that and to bring on board anyone you can along the way. One of the ways we can keep ourselves pure – according to Jesus – is to get rid of our riches, our excess baggage and all the other stuff that goes with it. Sometimes this can be in the form of material goods, other times it can be a career. You know, all the climbers of the corporate ladder are very similar to the rich young man in Jesus’ parable. So are all the people who are moving around from one big house to still a bigger one, for the latest model of motor vehicle, phone or computer, and they who wear the latest fashions and so on.

Yet so many do these very things, not because they mean to be evil, but because they don’t know how to be good, how to be ‘good to go’. The key is to not try to do all of it ourselves. Let go and let God. Whenever and whenever possible, sell all your possessions and give the money away to the poor. Then, come and follow Him. Better yet, let’s follow Him together.