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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
Did Jesus Tell the Truth to the Rich Young Ruler?
Luke 18
Introduction
Last week we talked about Luke 4, where Jesus reveals himself and says, “I’m the Messiah” and a group of people are like, “Woah, he’s the Messiah!” And then Jesus says, “Also, you guys are racist,” and they’re like, “Throw him off a cliff!” As someone who has worked in ministry for 17 years, I’m like, can’t you just keep them happy for five minutes? Come on.
Then there’s another time: in John 6, Jesus look at a crowd of followers and he’s like, “I have too many followers. I must need to preach harder messages.” Can you believe that? Don’t we always think “more” is supposed to be better? Like, we want more people in church on Sunday. We want more people in the youth group. When I was a youth pastor, I would probably not grow a youth group to 40 or 50 people and then be like, “We have too many people in the youth group, let’s run some of them off.” But that’s what Jesus did. He said, “I have too many followers; let’s run the not-serious ones off and just keep the serious followers.”
Like I said, weird.
Now many you say, “That’s not so weird. He only wants the committed people.” OK, when’s the last time you saw a pastor deliberately run off half his congregation because he thought it was too big? That is not in any of the church growth books. That is not what they are talking about at any of the pastors conferences. Nobody does these things. But Jesus did.
What if someone came to a pastor and said, “How do I go to heaven?” Should the pastor tell him how to go to heaven? What kind of pastor wouldn’t tell someone who came to him and asked how to go to heaven how to go to heaven? That’s a pastor’s dream: for people to come to him and ask him how to go to heaven. That’s why we go to Bible schools and Bible colleges and spend years interning and preparing to lead churches: so we can tell people how to go to heaven.
And yet when a man came and asked Jesus how to go to heaven, Jesus didn’t tell him how to go to heaven. In fact, Jesus told him to do something else that wouldn’t even actually get him into heaven.
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to Luke 18, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
The Encounter
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about the famous story of the Rich Young Ruler.
Luke 18:18-19
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
But Jesus is good, right? And he is God, right? So you can already see, he’s getting weird.
Anytime Jesus starts getting weird you want to really slow down and analyze what he’s talking about.
Luke 18:20-22a
20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack.
Just a note, it’s actually quite silly that this man has kept God’s laws perfectly. For example, to bear false witness is to lie. Everybody in the history of mankind has lied before. Even my dog tries to lie.
Like, he’s the loudest animal in our house other than my five-year-old. He doesn’t even breathe quietly; his breathing sounds like snoring. And half the time he lays around licking himself and it’s NOT quiet. *give an example* It’s a pug thing.
That is life for a pug owner. I am embarrassed when people come over. I feel like I have to apologize for my dog’s existence.
My wife’s uncle came over one time. Took one look at our dog. Said, “That is the ugliest dog I have ever seen. I can’t tell if he’s coming or going.”
Now, I think pugs are cute, or else I wouldn’t have one. But some people stare at him like they’re staring at someone plunging a backed-up toilet. Which, to be fair, is also what he sounds like when he breathes.
AND YET if he has something he’s not supposed to, he can become as quiet as a mouse. The other day he got under the bed and he’s not allowed to be under there and Emily couldn’t find him because he wouldn’t make a peep.
Even dogs can be deceptive. Everybody lies. And the rich young ruler says he’s never lied. I’m like, whatever. But we see that Jesus is just gonna let that slide. Instead this is what Jesus says to the man who wants to know how to go to heaven:
Luke 18:22b
Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
That’s not the right way to tell someone how to go to heaven. Did you know there’s other rich people in the Bible who got saved and they did not have to do that? Because this isn’t the way you get to heaven.
In fact, if it was, that would be salvation by works. And the Bible says that’s not salvation.
Luke 18:23-24
23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
Shouldn’t that have made him happy? “Yah, now I know how to go to heaven!” It made him sad because he loved his stuff so much.
24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!
say “and Jesus chased after him and said, ‘actually to be saved you just have to believe I’m the son of God and ask forgiveness of your sins…” Nope. Jesus just basically ignores him, shakes his head, and is like, “Man it’s hard for rich people to get saved.” And lets the guy walk away.
After not even telling him the right information!
[music]
Closing Thoughts
Next time on this podcast, I’m probably going to talk about something you’ve never studied before: head coverings in the New Testament. Because I Corinthians 11 has this passage about the importance of head coverings and it seems kind of out-of-place and most Christians don’t follow it. But should we? I’ll tackle that because it’s a very strange passage. So I want to solve the mystery of head coverings. Make sure you’re subscribed so you can get it!
Do you want a wrap-up of the book of Jude? Because I kinda got derailed from it by the Enoch stuff. But I also kinda got through all the weird stuff in Jude. So if you’d like me to take an episode or two to wrap-up Jude or recap what we learned, just let me know. Leave a comment or send me an email: weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com
Some recent feedback on the podcast. I posed a question of why we don’t really see demons in the Old Testament like we do in New Testament: Phil has an idea on that, “I'm assuming the reason the demons didn't show up in full force until the New Testament is because of Jesus' birth and ministry. With God's glory fully displayed in his Son, maybe the demons understood their time was coming to an end, as with the world - and lashed out at humanity out of fear and desperation, and continue to do so today. Jesus also said that in the last days that it will be as in the days of Noah. I don't know what he meant by that, but there's a connection there. I think it's highly possible to see more and more demonic activity, and maybe the return of the giants, as the return of the King comes closer. How that's supposed to go down? No idea. Maybe the demons will inhabit new bodies as hosts with the help of AI (digital/virtual giants this time?), and present themselves as gods once again, to lead many astray in the last days. Or maybe all the UFOs we're seeing on the news these days are the fallen angels seeking to impregnate women again. It's all speculation of course, and not beneficial to spiritual growth to think upon too much - but it's fun, and would be an awesome sci-fi movie. In any case, we have nothing to fear! Jesus has given his followers authority over the demons! They have no power over God's children :).”
So I’m sharing Phil’s comment there because it’s similar to my own views and touches on many things that I’ve shared here on the podcast before.
I have a couple theories on it that I’ll share here, because I ran out of time on that episode and I try to keep these episodes less than 30 minutes…
One, maybe there just wasn’t anything that could be done for someone who was demon-possessed in the Old Testament, so that’s why we don’t see the Bible addressing it. Perhaps it was because Jesus and His power was necessary to cast out demons, so the Bible just didn’t even get into that subject until the New Testament time. That’s one idea.
Another is that if you think about it, the land of Israel was God’s territory for most of the Old Testament, right up until the end of it. At the end of the Old Testament chronologically, the land of Israel gets conquered and overrun but its enemies. Perhaps up until then, demons weren’t much of a problem in Israel because God had supernaturally protected His territory from them, so that’s why you don’t see them until you get to the New Testament and they had lost control of their land and now it’s been infiltrated with all kinds of evil spirits. I am not sure. These are just theories.
Now, let’s get back into today’s lesson.
What Was Jesus Doing?
What is Jesus doing in this story? A man comes to Jesus and asks Him how to go to heaven. Did Jesus tell the truth to the rich young ruler? What was Jesus doing here?
Exposing to this man his love for his own possessions. This guy thought he was perfect in every way. He thought he had maintained God’s laws perfectly. What’s shocking is that Jesus plays along. “Yeah, I’d agree you’re perfect, there’s just one thing you’re missing…”
Jesus is kind of like Detective Columbo here. Columbo would also have a sense of pegging the bad guy every time he’s interview people at a crime scene. And he’d kind of act oblivious and just let the criminal or killer lie to his face and go on and on and on with whatever story he was spinning, and Columbo would let him go on and on. And then he’d say, “thanks for your time, thanks for clearing that up, just one more thing…” And then Columbo would ask the question that pulls the loose thread that unravels their story.
And that’s kinda what Jesus did with the Rich Young Ruler here. He let’s the Rich Young Ruler go- “oh, you’ve kept all the commandments, that’s great, you must be some kind of superstar.”
And then Jesus lays the big one on him: “if you really are such a great guy, if you truly are so perfect and Godly in every way, why don’t you just sell everything you have and give it to the poor.”
And suddenly, the rich young ruler’s heart is revealed to himself. You can just imagine the shock on his face.
Why did Jesus go after a specific sin problem in this guy’s life instead of just giving him the Gospel? Because Jesus was able to identify a problem that was keeping this guy from God.
And when you look at the story that way, you see that Jesus wasn’t being that weird after all. He was just trying to give the guy what he needed the most.
Every single one of us has something that keeps us away from God. At least one something. It’s not necessarily money/possessions, although it could be; we are a very materialistic culture.
It could be your love life. A lot of people nowadays say that God and the Bible aren’t allowed to tell them what to do with their sexual decisions. So many have left the church over this issue. Or that the Bible says to date and marry Christians and yet a lot of young people say, “I’ll date who I want.”
It could be your freedom. I was a youth pastor for many years. Lots of young people- especially when they get drivers licenses and cars- say “I’m not going to church anymore. I’m gonna go do what I want.” Many adults get two days to sleep in on the weekend and it’s hard to give up one of them and go to church. I get that. I understand it. But following God is a matter of priorities.
It could be your money and possessions, like this rich young ruler. Because I think we all are rich, too. The majority of the world lives on less than $2 per day. 53/100 people. Who has ever bought a movie before? You spent more than the majority of the world makes in one week. Who has running water and electricity at home? You’re better off than a lot of people in the world. There are people in Africa who don’t even have clean water, or they might have to walk two miles just to get it. I have this picture on my computer of a kid in Africa sticking his head down into a mud puddle because that’s what he has to do to get a drink. I save that picture for perspective. If someone ever reaches that kid with the gospel, that kid is getting saved easy. You don’t have to convince him that he has needs. But you take an American who has 4G cell phones and a warm bed at night and he doesn’t have to worry about having enough meals tomorrow and it’s hard to convince him: “one thing you lack. You need Jesus.”
We Americans are at a real disadvantage when it comes to going to heaven because we have so many of our needs met that we can forget about how we need Jesus.
We are so comfortable. And lazy. We have it so good. Too good. No wonder this country has forgotten that it needs God.
We have cell phones and cars and air conditioning and Legos and Star Wars and Fornite…and now my 5-year-old has Lego Star Wars Fortnite…do you think you have a better life than the rich young ruler? Yeah, we’re way better off than he was. He didn’t even have toilet paper! Would anyone want to switch places with this guy? You would never in a million years want to trade what he has for what you have.
And yet he didn’t want to give up what little he had so he could go to heaven. He didn’t even realize how poor he was.
No wonder this country has forgotten that it needs God.
What this country needs are Christians to stand up in this culture that can check its bank balance and order Door Dash and book a plane ticket from our cell phones and have a Fortnite dance for every day of the week subscribe to more streaming services than we even have time to watch and say to it: “One thing you still lack.”
And if you think that sounds weird, I hope you’ll be a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time.