Episode Transcript
CONSECRATE
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
HEAR
Matthew 19:16–18 NIV
Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“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.”
“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, . . .”
CONSIDER
Okay, clean sheet of paper. Bible closed. Pop quiz! Write down the Ten Commandments to the best of your ability.
Now, let's go Gospelling.
Who is in? Who is out? How do you get in? What would keep you out? Now that Jesus has proclaimed the kingdom, everybody wants to know the terms. That's the story today as the man known to history and eternity as the "Rich Young Ruler" steps onto the Gospel stage.
“Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
It's the wrong question, isn't it? We somehow want to believe we are in control of the variables, when in fact there are no variables—only verities. The kingdom will come down to accepting the truth of the eternal verities and realigning one's life according to them (a.k.a. repentance)—or not. Something deep within us tells us we must measure up in order to be included. That's because something deeper in us tells us we don't measure up. We are born sinners. Jesus tells us the hard truth that we will, in fact, never measure up.
That's what's going on here when he tells this man who was trying to earn eternal life that he needed to sell everything he had and give the money to the poor. Jesus was telling him that in his way of going about salvation, it would never happen. And he went away sad. That's another thing to love about Jesus: he let him go away sad.
Sometimes in life that's just what we need: for Jesus to let us get to the top of the mountain of our own kingdom only to realize it was the wrong mountain. It turns out the up and outers are just as destitute as the down and outers. Sometimes it takes going away sad to come back ready. Sometimes it takes decades of trying to measure up only to finally realize Jesus measured down.
All this reminded me of a conversation I had with an old friend upon returning to my homeland. It went like this:
“I don’t want you to think I’m not a good person.”
That’s what my old friend said to me
upon meeting again after decades apart
and a long confession of her broken story.
I assured her with the hard and beautiful truth:
“You are not a good person.
And I’m not either.
We are broken sinners.”
Something deep in me (and maybe you too)
wants to believe we are good; or worse that we are bad—
that we just need to lose twenty pounds,
drop a few bad habits, and try harder to be better.
Then I assure myself with the hard and beautiful truth:
Good people and bad people is a lie
from the pit of hell,
and the way from good to great (or bad to worse)
paves the way there.
Jesus only goes from
Death to Life
Lost to Found
Slave to Free
Broken to Beautiful
Then she asked me, “If you are not good, what are you?”
“LOVED,” I said.
“I am loved,
and you are too.”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26)
PRAY
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a son/daughter. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a saint. Tis mercy all, immense and free, for oh my God it found out me. I'm past tired of trying to measure up. I'm ready to measure down, Jesus. Just as I am, Jesus, I come. Praying, Jesus. Amen.
