Today some friends and I were discussing the parable of the rich young ruler. You know, its the one where Jesus says to the rich young ruler, "Don't steal" "Don't lie" ect. and you will find the kingdom of God.
The rich young ruler replies that he has already done all that. Then Jesus says, "Well then sell all of your posessions and give them to the poor." At this point, in my understanding the rich young ruler went away sad because in my understanding it was the one thing that he couldn't give.
But in all three versions of the story all it says is that the rich young ruler went away sad. Now somebody may comment that the Greek says this or that...I don't know...
But I realized, thanks to my friend Bernie, that maybe, just maybe the rich young ruler did give away all his possessions. Perhaps this is more a commentary on the sacrifice it takes to follow Jesus and the emotions of sadness that we may sometimes have to feel when we are holy and set apart for him.
And of course I don't think that sadness lasts always. I don't think that the rich young ruler remained sad (if he did give away all his things). I think that eventually he became a content middle aged pauper or something...full of joy, living in the kingdom.
Kind of gets me thinking about living in the kingdom myself.
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i'm still reeling from this discussion - I don't even know where I stand now, especially looking at the surrounding verses in each of the accounts (Matthew, Mark & John)
For instance, after the rich young man went away, Jesus says the famous rich-man-kingdom-camel-needle quote, to which the disciples replied, "Who then can be saved?"
To me, this doesn't make sense. Jesus seemed to be "knocking" on rich people. The dsiciples weren't rich, so whey were they asking this question?
THEN, Jesus answers them by, what seems to me, a statement which takes all the air out of his previous quote about how hard it is to enter the kingdom, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
I need to go back to Bible college cause I don't understand.
Someone just preached an awesome sermon on the whole "camel through the eye of a needle" passage and pointed out that in Luke 18, The encounter with the rich young ruler is outlined and Jesus says " How hard is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of God." Then he says,(vs27) "what is impossible for human beings is possible for God" Next the preacher pointed out Luke chapter 19 where Zacchaeus a wealth man accepts Christ...confirming that it may be hard for a camel to go through the eye of a needle but with God all things are possible! Nothing is too hard for God. It was an awesome sermon! I never put those passages together before...I love when that happens.
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