"Teacher," the man replied, "I've
obeyed all these commandments since I was young." -- Mark 10: 20 (NLT)
God gave us His Word so we can be prepared
for the work He has for us to do. So that we can be aware of the pitfalls in
life and the schemes of the enemy. So that we can live the abundant life Jesus
came to gives us. There are lessons for us in every story. Behind every
seemingly innocuous verse. The story of the rich young ruler appears in all
three synoptic Gospels. Thus we can assume that it impacted the hearers greatly
since they all remembered it so clearly. Within this story are lessons about
idolatry, money worshipping, and following Jesus. Today though I want to focus
in on the pride. I think it gets overlooked sometimes because of the obvious
teaching on the evils of money. It is not that money in and of itself is evil.
The Bible teaches it is the love of money that is evil. Why? Because it becomes
more important to us than God. It becomes our idol. If we look around the world
today we see that the most common idols are money, fame, and power. Well the
rich young ruler had them all. He placed all of them before the God he claimed
to serve. We see the same thing today as many follow after the idols of mammon
or fame while claiming the mantle of Christianity. God says that you must
choose because serving both will only make you hate one of them. You can use
money but when money starts using you; that is where the trouble begins.
The lessons on money however are the "low lying
fruit" in this story. Easy to see and pick apart. But fueling the idolatry for
the rich young ruler was pride. It wasn't just your run of the mill pride; it
was unyielding even in the face of God. Sometimes we can confront our pride and
"check ourselves" but this man could not. That was how strong his pride was.
How much the pride ruled his life. Here is how the story begins:
As Jesus was starting out on his way to
Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, "Good Teacher,
what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus asked. "Only God is truly good. But
to answer your question, you know the commandments: "You must not murder. You
must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You
must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.'" -- Mark 10: 17-19
(NLT)
Pride tries to be coy. The rich young ruler did not
want to know how to inherit eternal life -- he already thought he knew and that
he fit the bill! Note the start of the story -- first, he came running up to
Jesus. Pride rushes in. Headlong and with little forethought because pride has
already assumed it is correct and infallible. We all know people like this
inside and outside of the church. Unteachable spirits. Wrapping themselves up in
the name of Jesus without any of the humility that is supposed to mark our
walk. He essentially ran to God to tell Him how good he was! Jesus told another
parable about a tax collector who was humble in prayer because he recognized he
was a sinner and a Pharisee who had a similar spirit to this rich young ruler.
Here was the prayer of that Pharisee:
The Pharisee stood by himself and
prayed this prayer: "I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone
else. For I don't cheat, I don't sin, and I don't commit adultery. I'm
certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.' --
Luke 18: 11-12 (NLT)
That is not a prayer it is someone reading their
resume! Can you imagine telling God how good you are? That is what pride does
beloved. It blinds us to our own glaring lack of humility before God. This rich
young ruler is not unlike many in the church today who rush in to tell God and
everyone else who wants to listen just how holy they are. Once you feel
compelled to discuss how humble you are, you have proven yourself wrong.
Next in the opening line we see another aspect of
unyielding pride -- it has a false sense of piety. Right after running up to
Jesus the rich young ruler makes it a point to kneel down before Him. A lot of
time in this life we see people who have no problem kneeling down in front of
people but who lead lives that refuse to kneel down before God. One is for show
and the other is for real. When Jesus tells him what he must do, he refuses to
kneel his life down to Jesus. To kneel is to bow low before God. To show
reverence to Him. God wants our lives knelt before Him in private before He
wants our genuflection in public.
If we were honest with ourselves we would admit that
it is hard fighting the flesh urges to want to be "seen" as holy or spiritual
within the church setting. This of course was not the design of God for His
church it is what we have transformed it into by being judgmental towards the
failings of others and unforgiving in our general nature. Instead of church
being the one place where we should feel the most welcomed to be ourselves and honest
it has become the one place where we hide the most. It is pride on both sides.
It is pride that makes us judgmental towards the very people we should have
outstretched arms for. It is pride that makes us hide what is really going on
in our lives. It is pride that makes the rich young ruler run to God and make a
show of kneeling before him publicly whilst his entire life refused to bow
down.
Next in the opening line we see that pride is
wrapped up in flattery to try and win people to its side. This man had never
met Jesus before yet he addresses Him as "good teacher." Jesus sees right
through the charade however and rebukes him by saying "only God is good." You
can take that flattery somewhere else. The Bible teaches about flattery:
Whoever hates
disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks
graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart;
though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in
the assembly. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back
on him who starts it rolling. A lying tongue hates its victims, and a
flattering mouth works ruin. -- Proverbs 26:
24-28 (ESV)
A flattering mouth works ruin! Sins of the tongue
run deep and have sharp consequences. Pride seeks to butter people up so that
they will more easily agree with them. It is manipulative and controlling, like
the Jezebel spirit that has so infected the church in these last days. A spirit
that seeks to control people and information. A spirit that co-opts people by
using false platitudes and flattery to lure them to their side. Ultimately, a
spirit that is not of God however.
At this point in our story, Jesus tells the rich
young ruler what he already knows. Since the New Covenant had not been poured
out yet for the sins of man, the answer for inheriting eternal life was to keep
the law. Jesus highlights some of the Ten Commandments but we should realize
the law Jesus is referring to here is the entire Mosaic Law; comprised of over
600 directives. This brings us to the key verse and what might be one of the
most prideful statements made in the entire Bible. Lost sometimes in the
teachings on the evils of money is this gem in verse 20 -- "I have kept all of
these since I was young." Really? You kept all 613 laws of Moses? Realize
beloved that no one was able to keep the Mosaic Law, which was why God sent
Jesus to earth to begin with! The rich young ruler was probably at least 30
years old. So in his mind and heart, he had kept the Mosaic Law perfectly when
no one else in history had been able to. THAT is pride out of control.
That is the pride that still infects some in the
church today; from the pew to leadership. It is the super-spiritual pride that
looks down on someone because they do not exhibit the same gifting. It is the "I
have been saved since I was five" pride that seeks to justify its own holiness
as this rich young ruler was doing in this story. We all know it. We have all
seen it in operation. Those who make a show of praying the loudest or the
longest. Those who wish to be seen for their spiritual activities. Those who
want the most public of ministries so that their deeds are seen or use the new social
networking tools as a means to broadcast their deeds. Jesus taught against
this:
"Watch out! Don't do your good
deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your
Father in heaven.
When you give to someone in need, don't
do as the hypocrites do--blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call
attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received
all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand
know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything,
will reward you. -- Matthew 6: 1-4 (NLT)
