Following Jesus … even with our money

Luke 18:18-27 A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" ¹⁹ "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good-- except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'" ²¹ "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said. ²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." ²³ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. ²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." ²⁶ Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?" ²⁷ Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

Plenty of people want to follow Jesus … but on their own terms. They try to follow Jesus without denying themselves. So they compartmentalize areas of their lives they don’t want Him to have access to. They try to negotiate the terms of the deal. “I’ll follow Jesus, but I’m not going to sell my possessions.” “Don’t ask me to forgive the people who hurt me; they deserve me holding a grudge against them.” “Don’t ask me to save sex for marriage; I can’t help my desires.” “Don’t ask me to give a percentage of my money; I worked hard for that cash.”

So instead of following Jesus with their financial life, they follow Money magazine. In their relationships, instead of Jesus, they follow Oprah. In their sex lives, instead of following Jesus, they follow Cosmo. They follow Jesus, just not with every area of their lives.

That’s where the rich young ruler was at. He wanted to follow Jesus, but he also wanted his money. He made a choice. He chose his idols over Jesus, his heart’s desire over God’s desire. The Son of God came to save him, but he walked away to follow gods of his own making. His Savior was standing right in front of him, but he abandoned his Savior for things which cannot save. Jesus loved this rich young man, but the rich young man loved the wrong things. His compartmentalizing, his trying to follow Jesus on his own terms, his departure, his unwillingness to listen to the words of Jesus, are evidence of his unbelief and the emptiness of his heart.

After the rich ruler left, Jesus used this as a teaching moment for His disciples: “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus speaks reality to people caught up in an illusion. The illusion is that riches are evidence of the love and favor of God; the illusion that acquiring riches are the sure and certain sign of salvation.

The disciples were living in a culture very much like ours where wealth was admired. It was considered a sign of God’s blessing. The more wealth a person has the more sure they are that God really loves them. But Jesus turns the tables; He changes things around. He sets before the disciples a whole different reality. The reality is that riches make heaven more difficult to receive. Though we glory in wealth, power and success, that glory in this world does not translate into glory in heaven. In reality, those things which we crave actually make it harder to enter into the glory of heaven.

With these words Jesus strikes his audience where it hurts. He upsets the balance they’ve created in their own minds. He rocks their world and stirs their soul. He goes to their hearts … our hearts. He goes after our idols. We are no different than this rich young man. We are no different than the disciples gathered round about Jesus in our text. We are tempted by wealth. We like our money. … No! We love our money, our possessions, our home, our cars, our technology, our vacations. We treasure our status. And we work overtime for more. 

Because more in our world means happiness. More in our world means comfort. More means success. And success means certainty.

Doesn’t it?

After all, we want certainty for ourselves and our children, so we often neglect eternal things for the things of this world. We value the lesser things and disregard holy things. We turn away from the gifts God wants to give us in Divine Service for the trinkets and baubles of this world. We walk away from Jesus to chase after those things that moth and rust destroy.

How have you set aside worship for work? Sacraments for vacation? Offerings for overtime?

How often don’t we have to go through our closets or clean the clutter in our garage because we have so much in excess? Yet our lust for more is insatiable. We have to make room in our house for more things we don’t need and won’t use. And this lust for things, for money, for certainty and success for this world is idolatry.

When we keep chasing after everything that is meaningless, we will find no rest. The soul grows weary and uncertainty increases because in the depths of our hearts we know that temporal things have a habit of disappearing. Stock markets crash. Cars break down. Banks go under. Economies suffer recession. Jobs are lost. With them goes the certainty we once hoped for. Despair overcomes us. We become sad, like the rich young ruler. Because we have walked away from Jesus to chase after money.

Jesus comments on how hard it is for people who put riches before God to enter into God’s kingdom: “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” People who shun Jesus for earthly riches cannot enter into God’s kingdom. So the disciples ask: “Who then can be saved?” If not the rich, if not those who have received good gifts in this life, then who?” It is a very good question.

Jesus gives the answer: “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” You and I cannot be saved by keeping God’s commandments. We cannot be saved by being rich and having lots of possessions. We cannot be saved by storing up treasures for ourselves in this world.

Rather, we are saved through the treasures that Jesus dispenses here in His house of worship – baptismal waters at the font, the Word of life read from the lectern, the Word applied to your life from the pulpit, Christ’s body and blood distributed at the communion rail, the words of absolution and benediction spoken from the altar.

Jesus earned our salvation through His righteous life from cradle to grave. Even though He knew no sin, He became sin for us, thus winning our forgiveness. He purchased our eternity by shedding His blood on the beams of the cross. He appeased God’s wrath by replacing our death with His death. He acquired reconciliation with God by removing our sin and placing it upon Himself.

The currency of Christ’s kingdom is not hard work, big bank accounts, fancy cars or expensive vacations. The currency that counts before God is Christ’s perfect life, death and resurrection. He was a rich ruler, the eternal Son of the Father, yet for our sakes, He became poor, a beggar on a cross with no place to even lay His head. He gave to the poor in order to make us rich with eternal treasures. It isn’t our poverty that saves us, but Christ’s poverty, for in His poverty we become wealthy. He takes on the poverty of our sin, our greed, our idolatry; and we receive the riches of His righteousness, His holiness, His reconciliation. He did the impossible thing that only God can do – He saved us.

Through His ascension into heaven, Jesus saves up and stores away a treasury of merits in your place. His goodness, His love, His passion, His suffering, death and resurrection are your true treasures – treasures for this life that will last for the life to come.

We work so hard, even on vacation, and never find rest. Jesus is our Sabbath rest for weary and worn-out souls. Though moth and rust destroy, Jesus is our treasure that endures for eternity. Though everything in this world is so uncertain, Jesus is the only certainty we have.

All this means that you can surrender your idols. Repent of your false worship. Put your repentance into action. Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Re-order your life. Re-arrange your time. Renew your tithe. Empty your pockets. Follow Jesus … even with your money. Give of the Lord’s blessings by supporting the blessing of the preaching of the Gospel. Don’t compartmentalize, but rather offer your whole self to God in worship. Change your priorities. Let the world see that you value the Word more than money and possessions.

Jesus is in the business of clearing out whatever gets in the way of your following Him through death to eternal life. What is getting in the way of you following Jesus more closely? What is it that gets in the way of your hearing the Word, of your receiving forgiveness, of your following Jesus as He leads you through this life, through your death, and on to your resurrection to eternal life? What is the junk that is getting between you and Jesus? It could be anything, really. Our hearts are capable of turning any good gift into an idol. Whatever it is, it sure isn’t worth hanging on to, is it?

The rich young man departed Jesus in order to cling to his wealth, possessions and family. He was clinging to the wrong things, walking away from the wrong person and worshiping the wrong god. But I like to be an optimist – especially after someone has encountered the Son of God! I like to think that the rich young man went home to all his possessions, and somehow it just didn’t look so good anymore. Perhaps he looked around at everything and thought to himself, “This stuff isn’t worth it. You can’t take it with you; it brings no lasting satisfaction; it gets in the way.” Perhaps he cleaned out his house and packed all his stuff into a cart and dumped it at the local Goodwill and went running back down the road after Jesus. Or maybe it happened years later, when this young man heard the news of Jesus’ dying and rising and recalled this conversation and heard the call “Follow me” in the waters of Baptism and this time lost it all for the sake of gaining Christ.

We don’t know the full story of that young man. He’s a walk-through example on Jesus’ road to the cross where He dies for the sin of that young man whom He looked upon with love. There Jesus gives what this young man lacked – a death and a resurrection that brings the inheritance of eternal life.

You’ve been called as Jesus’ disciples. The words “follow me” were spoken to you in Baptism with the water and the Word by the Spirit of God. You made the commitment to follow Jesus in your confirmation. To follow Jesus does not mean to keep His rules, to follow His example, to do what Jesus would do. To follow Jesus means to die and rise with Jesus, to lose your life in order to gain it, to get rid of anything that gets in the way of your relationship with Jesus.

So follow Jesus … even with your money.

It is important to remember: if we have money, but not Christ, we will end up with nothing. But if we have Christ, we will inherit everything. Our real wealth is waiting for us in heaven. Amen.