Separation Anxiety - Mark 10:17-27 Series

Mark 10:17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good-- except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.' " 20 "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."

21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22 At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" 27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

Introduction: Baby Faith

Grace

How would you feel if you had a chance to meet Jesus personally, in the flesh? In today’s passage, we’re going to see a man who had that awesome privilege. And look how excited he is to meet Jesus:

Mark 10:17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him.

Talk about a rare opportunity. I’m sure we would all be that excited to have that opportunity. But after a very brief exchange with Jesus, look how the meeting ends.

22 At this the man's face fell. He went away sad.

If you met Jesus, and he did to you what he did to this guy—he peeled back the layers of your faith, how do you think you would feel when it was over? Happy? Or would you be like this guy and go away crushed? There are two tests you can take to answer that question, and we’re going to see what they are today.

Now, to understand the meaning of this encounter with the rich young ruler, it’s essential to remember the context. Jesus is hammering away at a topic he’s been on since that day the disciples got into an argument about who was the greatest. Up to that point, Jesus was content to just teach as the walked, but when that happened, Jesus sat down, took the formal posture of a rabbi teaching something especially important, and really went after them. Basically he said, “This searching for earthly greatness thing stops now. Greatness in the kingdom is the opposite of greatness on earth, so you guys need to do a full 180.”

Twice since then he has used little children to try to teach them that point. The second one was the passage we studied last time. We come today to the passage about the rich young ruler, and Jesus is still teaching on that same point. All three accounts of the rich young ruler—Matthew, Mark, and Luke, each time it’s connected with this the passage we studied last time about the babies, because that’s the whole point of it. The point of this passage is to explain what Jesus said in the previous passage when he uttered these words:

Mark 10:15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

You can’t enter the kingdom of God unless you receive it like a baby lifting its little arms to mom and dad. You enter with baby faith, or you don’t enter. If you are resting on earthly greatness, you’re out.

A Living Example

Today we’re going to see a man approach Jesus and ask about eternal life, and Jesus’ response is going to teach us how to know for sure whether you have baby faith or earthly greatness. So I hope you can think back all those months ago when we studied the passage in ch.9 about greatness, so you know which kind of human greatness you’re tempted with. It’s different for everyone. The way you can discover yours is by how you usually finish the sentence, “Well, at least I …” When you feel inadequate, you feel like a loser or a failure, and you want to boost your self-worth a little, so you say, “Yeah, I may be a failure in that area, but at least I …” How do you finish that? At least I’m good at ____? At least I’m a good mom? At least I don’t do what those people do? At least I have this skill, this education, this expertise, this success…” We all tend to cling to something to justify our existence, so we don’t get totally discouraged when other people outshine us or when we fall way short in some area. That’s your earthly greatness; that’s your claim to fame, that’s your wealth in this world, and that is the greatest threat to baby faith. Either you trust in God like a baby counting on mom and dad, or you trust in your little area of human greatness. And this passage teaches us exactly how to test yourself to discover which it is.