FollowBy Bill Naron
In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, we come upon a scene where Jesus is approached by a rich ruler. This man is interested in inheriting eternal life, and he wants Jesus to tell him how to do so. Jesus lists out the commands, and the ruler quickly responds that he has kept them since his youth. But then the unexpected response from Jesus comes, and we pick it up there in verse 22:
Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he had heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. (Luke 18:22-23, KJV)
Sorrowful — this is how the ruler responded. Jesus presented him with the answer to his question, and it saddened him. At the surface, we see that it saddened him because he was very rich. But I would add that it challenged his status quo. It presented a challenge to him, to sell everything he had and follow Jesus.
Is this not the same challenge that we are presented with still, to give of all we have to follow after Jesus? On Sunday, Martin was presenting to us about the culmination of being a guide. Being a guide takes risk; it takes moving beyond what is comfortable to what is uncomfortable. To accomplish the task that is set before of reaching the unbelieving community around us, it takes us setting ourselves and our comforts off to the side. One may even say that it takes us losing our lives, just like Jesus talks about in Luke 9:23-24.
The ruler was not sorrowful simply over the loss of riches that he had gained. It was a challenge that was loaded with risk; he was also sorrowful because it was calling him to engage outside of his comfort zone, where he may encounter people whom he would not normally engage, where he would be stretched to do things he would not normally do.
I wrote a Last Word back in November of last year, entitled “Called to Be Sheep!” As I have reflected on the state of the community around me, I have been reminded of this article. When I wrote this blog post last year, I was talking about reaching out to help the community around you to be like the sheep in Matthew 25:31-46. In the last couple weeks, my wife and I have been presented with situations that have really brought this back to the forefront for us.
Jesus says that if we lose our life, we will find it. He has called us out of the world to follow Him and to reach into the darkness that surrounds us and offer hope. When we decide to be the Church and we begin to go and shine a light in the darkness, it is going to get uncomfortable. Engaging with people in our community will be messy.
There is great risk in taking up our cross to follow Jesus. There is risk when we begin to be sheep, engage the community around us, and work to meet needs. There was risk in the challenge that Jesus presented to the rich ruler. We must not be like the rich ruler, though, clinging to our possessions and comfort so much that Jesus’s presentation saddens us and causes us to walk away.
We should hold loosely to everything we have, because we only have what God has given. Our possessions, our finances, our homes, were all given to us by the Lord. These things should be used to do His work. It may be risky in the sense that it challenges our status quo, and maybe it could even cause us a lot of hardship.
Jesus said that we should not be surprised when the world hates us, because they first hated Him. Jesus came to reach those who were broken and calls us to be His sheep and to do the same. This challenge is risky and uncomfortable, but the reward is great and immeasurable.
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