"I can do it all by myself!" is a quote made famous by many toddlers, teenagers, twentysomethings...and probably those who are a bit older, too.
Many of us have an instinct to be independent. In many cases, that's a good thing--it's good to want to pay your own bills, take responsibility for your actions or have a willingness to stand up(even alone) for something that's right.
But an independent spirit can also separate us from God. How many people think, "I'm a good person--of course I'll go to heaven" or "I haven't done anything seriously wrong. I live a good life. I'm not one of those people who needs God"?
In this passage, Jesus addressed a few people like this, including a young man who asked:
"Teacher, what good thing must
I do
to get eternal life?"
Jesus said,
Jesus said,
"Why do you question me
about what's good?
God is the One
who is good.
If you want to enter the life of God,
just do what he tells you."
This man was probably looking for Jesus to tell him something like, "Of course you'll have eternal life--you're a good person," but Jesus doesn't say that at all. Nor does He give the man a list of rules and regulations for living a "good enough" life. Jesus insteads points to God as "the One" (and only One) who is good--and instructs the man to follow His ways.
The man then has the nerve to basically say, "I do all of that!", but Jesus sees right through it and tells him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor--something the man is unwilling to do because the stuff of his "good" life has too much of grip on his heart. It says:
He was holding on tight
to a lot of things,
and he couldn't bear
to let go.
As he watched him go,
As he watched him go,
Jesus told his disciples,
"Do you have any idea how difficult it is
for the rich
to enter God's kingdom?
Let me tell you,
it's easier to gallop a camel through a needle's eye
than for the rich
to enter God's kingdom."
I think this passage is interesting because of how much it applies to so many people I've met today in North America. These people are good. They're nice. They live decent lives. They are incredibly rich by most of the world's standards. And because of that, many of them don't see a need for God. But there is a big difference between being good and being God's.
As independent as we are, we can't save ourselves. It's impossible to follow God with the "I can do it myself!" attitude--something the disciples recognized. Thankfully, Jesus provided a solution:
The disciples were staggered. "Then who has any chance at all?"
Jesus looked hard at them and said,
"No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself.
Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it."
Tomorrow: Matthew 20-21
No comments:
Post a Comment