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FROM THE HISTORY OF THE RICH
YOUNG MAN WHO CAME TO CHRIST.
"And when he was gone forth
into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him,
Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus
said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that
is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not
kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy
father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these
have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and
said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and
come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and
went away grieved: for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked round
about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God! And the disciples were astonished at
his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how
hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."—Mark x. 17-25.
When we read this passage
of Scripture along with Christ's invitation to the weary and heavy laden,
each suggests, perhaps, very different thoughts of Jesus Christ. In His
invitation to the weary, and in His promise of rest, all recognise the
voice of the loving Friend, the gentle and sympathising Teacher; while, in
His actual dealings with the rich young man, He will appear to some as if
Ho had acted with mysterious and unaccountable severity. Had that young
man, for example, heard Christ utter the peculiar words recorded by St
Matthew, and had he, anxious to avail himself of His gracious offers,
immediately gone to Him with the prayer— "Lord Jesus, weary and heavy
laden, I come to Thee, seeking rest, and I desire to take from Thee the
easy yoke and light burthen which Thou art pleased to promise: hear my
prayer!" and if, in answer to his request, our Lord had said to him, "Sell
all that thou hast, and come, take up thy cross, and follow me;"—do we not
feel how natural it would have been in that young man to have replied in
his heart, "Surely that yoke is not easy, that burthen is not light," and
to have wept, as he did, in sorrow?
These supposed feelings
probably express our own.
Now, our object in stating
these apparent differences in the spirit of our Lord's teaching is not to
reconcile them. This would be a most easy task; for we know how He was
ever the same wise and loving teacher in all He said and did. But we
desire you rather to receive the unity of the teaching, the oneness of the
truth taught in those passages, and, still more, to have impressed upon
our hearts the vast importance of the principles contained in Christ's
promise of rest to the weary, and as manifested in His actual treatment of
the rich young man, for on no other principles will our Lord give us rest;
so in no other way can He bestow eternal life than that in which He
offered it to him who sought it on his knees, yet went away mourning.
There are. few narratives in God's Word more profoundly interesting than
this one. Let us consider it. You will first notice the outward and inward
life of this seeker after life eternal. He was a young man, at that period
of life when "the world"—"the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and
the pride of life," and that sum of things which is "not of the
Father"—can afford a life to the natural man, and which is enjoyed with a
greater relish than at any other period. He was, moreover, a young man
''having great possessions," and, therefore, having the means of
nourishing this kind of life. From his wealth and from his character he
could always gain admission into what we now term the best society. His
large possessions would occupy him, so that time need not hang heavy upon
his hands; and if disposed to do so, he could be clothed in purple and
fine linen, eat, drink, and make merry, and fare sumptuously every day.
But when we come to look into this man's
inward as well as his outward life, we cannot help being struck by the
remarkable features which it presents to us. Though a young man, and a man
of fortune, he is not ashamed—so earnest was he—to kneel down on the high
road before Jesus Christ, and, in the presence of His poor disciples, to
ask, "What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" But such
earnestness was quite in keeping with the tone of his moral character. For
how excellent had this life hitherto been, which he, a young man of
fortune, had led from his boyhood! When he says, with reference to the
commandments enumerated by Jesus, "All these have I kept from my youth,"
he spoke the truth. If he even had not kept them according to their inner
spirit—if they were not to him expressions and outgoings of the great law
of supreme love to God—at all events he kept them in their outward form;
for assuredly he was no hypocrite or pretender. This we know from the fact
that "Jesus beholding him loved him," which He would not certainly have
done had the young man come to Him with a lie in his right hand, and with
the spirit of a Pharisee. So thus you see that, though young and rich, he
was pure in his outer life, honest in his dealings, truthful in his words,
a good neighbour and a good son, with earnest longings and prayer to Jesus
for life eternal. For this young man felt a want of rest in his inner
being. He possessed a life indeed; but he felt that it was not an eternal
life. He had a life in himself and in his possessions, in his pursuits, in
his family and friends; but was this an eternal life ? Is this a life that
will last as long as the person who enjoys it? Will it be as good after
death as before it?—a million years hence as now? "A man's life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth, whatsoever these
things may be." So this man, with his youth and his riches, felt and
acknowledged. Was he mistaken? Had he any real grounds for doubting the
reality of his peace and of his safety ? Could it indeed be that one so
earnest, so sincere, so moral, lacked any element essential to the
possession of true life? I fear that many in our day, who do not profess
to reject the Christian standard of what is really good in the sight of
God, would not hesitate to smile at this young man's anxieties as
unnecessary, pity his doubts as groundless, and strengthen him in
self-confidence. But such was not the judgment which Christ formed of his
condition. We know His judgment to be truth.
Let us, then, consider further, how Christ
taught him. We are
told that "Jesus beholding him loved him." Do not forget this fact; for,
otherwise, we cannot understand Christ's teaching of him, unless we read
it in the light of His love, and as the answer of love to his prayer, "
What shall I. do?" Some people are unwilling to receive these words
according to their apparent meaning, and are more anxious to harmonise
Scripture with their own theories, than their own theories with Scripture.
They begin to question, as if it were a matter of doubt, how Christ could
have loved one who had not yet entered into true life, but was only
seeking it, and one, too, who eventually went away from Him sorrowing.
But, nevertheless, Christ did love him with that love which brought Him to
seek and to save the lost, and which made Him weep bitter tears of anguish
over Jerusalem, even when the things of its peace were for ever hid from
its eyes. Deeper than we can fathom was the love with which He gazed on
this young man kneeling at His feet, and asking from Him, the Lord of
life, how true life was to be obtained. Need we say that love was in every
word uttered by Jesus to the suppliant, and that in love He would lead him
by the easiest, the shortest, because the best and only road possible for
him, into His own kingdom, and to the possession of life eternal.
The first thing which our Lord did was to
reveal to this anxious inquirer himself why it was that he was not finding
life eternal. And just as a physician might enable a patient to ascertain
the real seat of his disease by making him assume some attitude of body
which in health could be done without pain, but which he now finds cannot
be attempted without acute suffering, so would our Lord instruct this
young man as to the nature of that evil in him which was his chief
hindrance to possessing true life. For let it be understood that "eternal
life" is not merely existence, or undefined happiness, but the knowledge
and possession of God in love, as " our eternal inheritance and portion
for ever," even as our Lord himself hath said, "This is eternal life, to
know thee the only living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent." Accordingly, to prepare the young man to enter into this life, by
quickening in him a sense of his need, and of that barrier which self had
erected in his soul between him and his God, Jesus enumerates the
commandments. "These I have kept from my youth," was the reply. If so,
then not in the habitual breach of any of these lay his deadly complaint,
nor the peculiar form in which sin manifested itself in him. Jesus does
not therefore bid him lead a pure, or an honest, or a righteous life as a
neighbour, a friend, or a son; but He commands him to sell all thai he has
and to follow Him. A pang of agony shoots through his whole being, for the
Divine Physician has laid his finger upon the disease, and has revealed it
to his conscience.
What was the disease? What
was that which was his individual hindrance in finding life only in God?
It was not, certainly, the mere possession of
riches ; because riches and rank, like health or strength of body, or like
intellect or genius, are gifts bestowed by the self-same Master, who
"divides to each man severally as He will," and to be used for God's
glory, and our own increase in good and happiness. Our Lord himself tells
us, that the young man's evil was trusting in riches, for ''he saith unto
them, Children, how hard is it for them who trust in riches to enter into
the kingdom of God!"
Now let us see further what is meant by trusting in riches. It is not a
trust in mere gold and silver, though it may be in what gold and silver
can obtain for us. It is rather a trust for our life in the perishable, in
that which does not last as long as the soul, and which, from its very
nature, cannot satisfy it. It matters not, therefore, whether our
possessions are those of science or of art, belonging to the intellect or
the taste; or those of friends and kindred, belonging to our affections;
for however ''great" such possessions may be, yet if they belong to the
finite, and are not enjoyed as parts of, and subordinate to, our only true
life in the living God, then of all of them it may be said, "A man's life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Our
readers will remember our Lord's solemn comment upon these words. ''And he
said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he
spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man
brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What
shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said,
This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there
will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul,
thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall
be required of thee : then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
provided? So is he that layeth up treasures for himself, and is not rich
toward God." This young man was "rich toward himself," and therefore poor,
and needy, and blind, and naked. Our Lord desired to quicken in him a
sense of his poverty, that so He might answer his prayer by giving him the
true riches in Himself, thus making him "rich towards God."
But this leads us to remark, further, that our
Lord desired to deliver the young man from his evil when He commanded him
to sell all that he had. Some are disposed to ask whether our Lord really
meant His words to be taken literally, for if so, they are disposed to
think, ''' This is a hard saying: who can bear it?' Surely in this Jesus
was a hard master! Surely this burden was not light!" So can we imagine a
child reasoning when subjected to a severe operation by a loving father,
who, unless from the love which he bore his child, could not himself
endure the infliction of such suffering. If indeed it is more profitable
to gain the world than to save the soul; if indulgence to the flesh is
better than good to the spirit; if self in any form can be our eternal
rest, instead of the living God,— then such discipline as Jesus was
pleased to subject this rich young man to was uncalled for and cruel. On
the other hand, if he was making riches his god, and his possessions his
life, then was it most loving, because righteous, in the Divine Physician
to cut off this right hand, or to pluck out this right eye, rather than
that the whole body should be cast into hell. Oh, with what feelings of
unutterable interest did our Lord behold this kneeling suppliant! young,
earnest, moral, seeking the way to possess life eternal, yet ignorant of
the hold which things seen and temporal had upon his whole being;
beholding dimly the glittering crown which he desired to wear, yet not
beholding the path by the cross which led. to it; desiring to " find
life," but not understanding how "he who findeth his life must lose it!"
Now there is hope for him if he will only peril his all for Christ and
follow Him; but let him depart and follow self, and the eye of the Lord
sees him going further and further into darkness, confusion, and misery;
by and by storing up his goods and increasing his barns, and, in the
ignorance of unbelief, saying, "Soul, take thine ease!" yea, departing
further still, and, though "clothed in purple and fine linen," and faring
sumptuously every day, yet with a heart wholly given to covetousness, the
love of God and man driven out of it by the demon possession of unbridled
selfishness, until all at last is ended by the cry of despair, which would
beg a drop of cold water to cool the tongue! Our Lord "beholding him,
loved him !" and understanding well what a crisis this was in his life,
and desiring at once to set him free from the iron chain that held him
fast to the earth, and hindered his flight to heaven, said, "Sell all that
thou hast, and follow me!" In no other way could Ho answer his prayer for
eternal life. In this way alone could he find life, by taking up His cross
and following Him in spirit, who "though rich, yet for our sakes became
poor." And now we ask
with anxiety what effect this teaching had upon the young man! Alas! we
are not left in any doubt regarding his decision. ''He went away
sorrowful, for he had much riches!" And so this mighty crisis of his life
passed. He could not serve God and Mammon, and he preferred Mammon. He
went away sorrowful from the Prince of Life, the Son and Heir, the Lord of
all things, and returned to his much possessions. He prayed to Christ, and
asked the most precious gift that Christ could give, and the gift was
offered, but refused. He professed to come to Christ as a disciple, but
would not accept of His discipline. Jesus loved him, and would have saved
him, by saving him from himself, and bringing him to his God; but the
young man loved not Jesus in return, and would not trust Him or receive
His salvation. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! how often would I have sheltered
thee, but thou wouldest not!" O sad delusion! O blind folly of unbelief!
Where are the rich man's "great possessions" now? Where his oliveyards and
vineyards, his well-stored barns, and his earthly grandeur? All have
passed away as a dream! And the young man himself, where is he? For he has
not passed away; he yet lives somewhere, and will live for ever, on, for
ever on, throughout eternal ages; but what eternal life does he now
possess to be the happiness of his undying spirit? Ah, it is easy for us
to see and to lament his folly now; but is not this the sad tragedy which
is repeated in the history of thousands every day? Young men! will you
bear with us, while we would, on an early occasion, make a more direct and
practical application of this touching history? |
