We’ve been talking about the cost of following Jesus. The thing about that is that sometimes, the cost is not what we think it is. In fact, sometimes the cost may be something totally different from what we think it is.
In our reading for tonight from Matthew, a man comes up to Jesus and asks what he has to do to inherit eternal life. Now, to the people around Jesus, that may have seemed like an odd question. The Jewish teachers told everyone what they had to do to get eternal life. Everyone, at least everyone who claimed to be a faithful Jew, knew what the requirements were. You were supposed to follow the rules. Follow all the Jewish law to the letter and you’d get to heaven. Jesus knew that. The people around Jesus knew that. They would not have understood why this man did not know that, too.
Jesus knows there has to be something behind his question, but he’s not going to say what it is. Instead, he’s going to let the man tell him. So, he gives the answer that any good and faithful Jew would give: follow the commandments.
The man gives another odd response. He asks “Which ones?”
That’s an odd response because the Jewish teachers would’ve said, “All of them.” Again, everyone who claimed to be a faithful Jew would’ve known that. You were not allowed to pick and choose which parts of the law you were going to follow. You were supposed to follow all of the law.
Jesus responds with a list of them. Now, Jesus was not saying these were the only ones people were supposed to follow, or that the ones he did not list were not important. He was using these as examples. He was saying, in effect, “You know which ones. Everyone knows them.” He was still trying to get the man to tell him what his real question was.
Finally, the man tells him. He says, in effect, “I’ve kept all the commandments. I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do, but I still don’t feel like I’m going to go to heaven. What am I missing here?”
Now we get to the heart of it. The man knows that what he’s been told all his life is not enough. He knows there has to be more to it than just keeping the rules. He knows he’s missing something. But what?
Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like you’re living your life the way your supposed to, following all the rules, doing all the things your supposed to do, and it just does not feel like it’s enough? I’ll bet you have. I’ll bet most of us have, at one time or another.
It’s not that we feel bad, exactly. It’s just that we don’t feel good, either. In fact, a lot of times, it’s like we don’t really feel anything. It’s like we’re just kind of going through life on cruise control. We’re not really doing anything that bad, we’re just not doing anything all that good. We’re living good, quiet, safe lives, but we feel like nothing about our lives is really making an impact on anything or anyone. We feel like we’re kind of in a rut, like we’re just going through the motions of life.
That’s what this man was telling Jesus he felt like. He wanted Jesus to tell him something he could do to get out of that rut. We have no idea what he expected Jesus to say. Maybe he thought Jesus would tell him to go on some sort of a long fast. Maybe he thought Jesus would tell him to make a major pilgrimage or something. Maybe he did not have any particular expectation. One thing I think we can be confident of is that he did not expect Jesus to say what he said. Jesus told the man to go and sell all of his possessions, give the money to the poor, and then come back and follow him.
That’s a big thing Jesus was asking this man to do. I don’t know that I could do it. I know I certainly have not done it. Neither has anyone else I know. I know people who give very generously, but I don’t know anyone who has sold absolutely all of their possessions to follow Jesus.
I don’t know that Jesus requires us to. This is the only time the gospels record Jesus ever saying anything like this. There were lots of other people Jesus met, including his own disciples, who did not sell off all their possessions, and Jesus does not seem to have told them they should. This seems to have been something specifically required of this one man, rather than something that we’re all supposed to do.
Why would Jesus have required this one man to sell all his possessions, when he did not require that of anyone else? We’re told that this man had great wealth. Because of that, some people have inferred that the reason Jesus said this is that, despite following the rules, this man loved money more than he loved God. That could be part of it, but I don’t know that this is the main reason. I think there’s more to it than that.
I think what Jesus was telling this man, and what Jesus tells each of us, is that it’s not good enough to go through life on cruise control. The goal of a Christian is not and should not be to live a good, safe, quiet life. A life dedicated to Christ should never be one that’s in a rut. The goal of a Christian should be to live a life that’s dedicated to God. A life that’s dedicated to God cannot help but have an impact on others.. A life that’s dedicated to God will have an impact on others even when we don’t specifically intend it to. A life that’s dedicated to God will have an impact on others even when we don’t realize it. There’s no way we can avoid having that impact when our lives are dedicated to God.
Jesus could’ve told this man to tithe, but if he was following the rules as he says, then he was already tithing. Jesus could’ve told him to just increase his giving, and he probably would’ve done so gladly. The thing is that something like that would not have gotten this man out of his rut. It’s a good thing to do, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not something that would’ve gotten him out of his good, safe, quiet life. There’s nothing about increasing his giving that would’ve changed this man’s life.
If we really want to follow Christ, if we really want to make an impact on others for Christ, it’s not enough to just take safe, quiet, small steps. If we really want to follow Christ, we need to make major changes in our lives. We cannot just do a little more of the things we’re doing now. We need to do something that will shake us up, something that will take us out of our comfort zones, something that will show ourselves and everyone else that we’re really dedicating our lives to Jesus.
What that means is different for each of us. It does not necessarily mean that each of us has to sell all our possessions. What it does mean that each of us needs to do something, and it needs to be something significant. If we truly want to follow Jesus all the way to the cross, that’s what it takes.
That’s quite a challenge. And so, we get back to what Jesus said about counting the cost. There’s quite a cost involved in totally dedicating our lives to Jesus. For the man Jesus was talking to, it was more of a cost than he was willing to pay.
How about for you? How about for me? Is it more of a cost than we’re willing to pay? We know what the payoff is. It’s eternal life. But we know what the cost is, too. The cost is giving up our safe, quiet, comfortable lives to be willing to follow Jesus. Will we go away sad, like the man Jesus was talking to? Or will we follow Jesus with joy, knowing that he’s leading us to eternal life?
That’s the question. What’s the answer?
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