Title: The Rich Youth and Eternal Life
17 As Jesus was going out on the road, a man ran up to him and knelt down and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? ? Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not deceive, do not be deceived, honor your father and mother. For there is something you lack; go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me." 22The man went away sorrowful and troubled at these words, because he had great wealth.
1. Words that begin
No one wants a career and success. People live in pursuit of money, status and fame. Religious people are not an exception in this regard. However, there is a serious problem in that even if you do achieve all these things, you will not feel truly rewarding and satisfied. King Solomon, who is synonymous with wealth and honor and wisdom, said in Ecclesiastes 5:10, “He who loves silver is not satisfied with silver, and he who loves abundance is not satisfied with income. This is also vanity.” Also, in 12:1, it says, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, before the year draws near, when you will say that I have no pleasure in you.”
As long as death is unavoidable, the end result of everyone's pursuits and achievements, whether successful or unsuccessful, will be futile. Therefore, for all people, the problem of gaining eternal life that leads to a new life must be solved urgently.
2. A rich young man who came to Jesus for eternal life
A man who came to Jesus on the way was called a young man in Matthew 20:22, a ruler in Luke 18:18, and Matthew, Mark, and Luke all said to be very rich. If so, then the person must be a wonderful person who achieved wealth, status and honor at a young age. The young man, who was successful and successful, also had religious fervor. But those worldly achievements and religious zeal did not satisfy his own inner emptiness and spiritual longing. This fact can be seen from the fact that the young man saw Jesus on the road and ran to him, knelt down and asked a serious question. Running shows his zeal, kneeling down shows his humility, respect, and earnest pleading.
There are many successful people who need to seek the Lord of eternal life.
In 1959, when he was in his third year of high school, painter Oh OO received the highest prize for ‘Drawing’ at the National Student Practical Competition, and started attending art classes at Hongik University. From 1974, he served as a professor at Chonnam National University, founded the College of Art to nurture the younger generation. After taking a leave of absence during the May 18 Democratization Movement in 1980, he left for Paris to study abroad the following year. Returning to Korea in 1982, as a full-time artist, he published a series of “Feng Shui” one after another, attracting great attention from domestic and foreign art circles, and was selected as one of the “60 Worldwide Artists”. Since the 1990s, he has been active in European art circles in Korea and Paris, France, and has shown various works of art through the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the UNESCO Headquarters Invitational Exhibition. Painter Oh, who has established himself as a master of Korean figurative art, has pursued a unique painting world called 'Five Directions of Color' based on Korean sentiments such as feng shui and shamanism.
People admired and envy Oh as the price of great success, but in reality, Oh himself suffered from depression and received treatment, and in 2006 at the age of 66, he committed suicide by jumping from his apartment. I can't help but regret how good it would have been for the country if painter Oh had found and met the Lord Jesus through someone.
The rich and ruler young man saw Jesus and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He asked what he had to do in order to receive eternal life in heaven. The form of the young man's question signifies a piety of fulfillment, in contrast to Jesus' teaching that man must accept God's gift of eternal life in a helpless state. It is a reflection of the doctrine of the legalistic religion, which claims to be saved by the works of the law. But Jesus taught that God's saving grace consists in receiving by faith eternal life. Ephesians 2:8 and below say, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast.”
3. Jesus speaking to the rich and ruler young man
First, Jesus rejected the titles given to him. “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God.” These words were meant to remind the young man that he thought of Jesus only as a simple human being and used the word “good” without thinking while calling him “teacher”. No, but if the young man recognized that Jesus was the source of the supreme virtue, he kept the commandment not to commit murder, adultery, theft, false witness, deceit, etc., and the commandment to honor his parents. could not have given a vulgar answer.
The young man, who had no vision to see the divinity of Jesus, regarded Jesus as a prophet or a saint, and proudly replied, “Teacher, I have kept these things since I was a child.” His answer was that he kept it from his own point of view and legalistic point of view, not from the point of view of the Lord Jesus. He did not keep the law properly because he kept only the literal meaning without knowing the original spirit of the law. One example is that, from the young man's point of view, he kept the commandment not to kill, even if he hated him to death. But Jesus' point of view is that hating is the same as murder. The lesson of Jesus is to love even your enemies. Love is the essence of the law.
From the point of view of Jesus and the true spirit of the law, the fact that the young man failed to keep the law properly from an early age can also be seen from the fact that he withdrew because he loved wealth more than eternal life. For him, wealth was an idol, so he did not live out of love, the true spirit of the law.
There are many non-members who see Jesus only as a great teacher, prophet, or saint, and go to church for personal cultivation, moral action, or intellectual curiosity. They come out if they want to go to church according to their own egotism or convenience, and they don't come out if they don't like it, but they have no hesitation. Actually, they have nothing to do with the Lord Jesus. Those who do not believe in Jesus as their Savior have nothing to do with eternal life.
Also, they are making the mistake of promoting conscientious good deeds, lawful works, or religious works that pursue the truth, just like the rich young man who advocated the works of the law as a way of gaining salvation, that is, eternal life.
Jesus watched and loved the young man who said he had kept the commandments. The reason was not because of the young man's acknowledgment of the law, but because of his sincere attitude and his invitation to gain eternal life. The invitation was, “You lack one thing; go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
There are those who interpret “one shortcoming” as something that should be added to the preceding commandments: good deeds by selling all of one's goods to the poor, sacrificial devotion, compassion, or an act of love. However, such interpretations are incorrect. “One thing lacking” means one crucial thing necessary to gain eternal life. It is believing in Jesus as the Lord of eternal life. It is faith that believes in Jesus as the only Lord of eternal life, realizing that we cannot obtain eternal life even through the law, conscience, or religious works, and we cannot obtain eternal life even with a heart that loves and trusts riches more than God.
Jesus told him to give up his possessions because he knew that the riches of the young man who said he had kept the commandments from an early age had become idols to him. If knowledge had been his idol, he would have told him to give up knowledge. Jesus reminded us that all human possessions, whether riches or knowledge, must be given up for the sake of love.
After all, the purpose of Jesus is to say that the way to eternal life is not by any kind of action, but by believing and following Jesus. What really matters is not whether you sell all your possessions and give to the poor, but whether you believe in and follow Jesus as the Lord of eternal life or not. However, instead of believing and following Jesus, the young man left with a sad look and worried, but chose riches and left. He came to Jesus, the Lord of eternal life, but failed to gain eternal life.
4. Conclusion
In any age, there are not a few people who are rich and ruler-like. They trust and depend on their possessions more like an idol than the Lord of eternal life. In real life, there are many church members who are more concerned about their interests than the words of the Lord. Like that young man, there are not a few church members who are not perishing when they obey the word of the Lord, but rather do not care about the treasures of heaven.
(Poongseong Methodist Church. Book: Complete New Testament Commentary Series/ Interpretation of difficult scriptures/ Prayer of Prosperity/ Salvation Before Jesus Came/ Sermonbook 18. 426-3051)