At the
church where I serve we have been spending the weeks leading up to this Easter
week looking at various encounters that people had with
Jesus that are recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible called
the gospel of Luke. And as we look at these encounters with Jesus, we have
discovered several timeless truths that will have the potential to powerfully
impact our lives today.
This week I would like for us to
spend our time together looking at another encounter that Jesus had while here
on earth. And as we jump back into an account of Jesus life that is recorded
for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke, we are going to discover another
timeless truth that can occur when we encounter Jesus. So let’s discover that
timeless truth together, beginning in Luke 18:18:
A ruler questioned Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life?"
Luke begins
this section of his account of Jesus life by explaining that as Jesus and His
disciples traveled to Jerusalem to attend the Passover celebration, a ruler
stopped Jesus to ask Him a question. This ruler, who would have been considered
a leading political and social figure in the Jewish culture of the first
century, asked Jesus "Good
Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
In other
words this political and social leader was asking Jesus “What must I do to be right with God so that I can be
with God in Heaven?” This political and social leader was looking past this
life and was wondering what would happen to him after this life. And this
political leader wanted to be in a position that he could experience life with
God in Heaven.
And it is
this question that has been asked by humanity throughout history. You see,
there is something within us that recognizes that there is more to this life.
And that recognition leads us to seek and search for answers when it comes to
what is beyond this life. And this ruler, who grew up with a knowledge of God,
wanted to make sure that he knew what he had to do so that he would be with God
for all eternity in Heaven.
You see, word
had reached this ruler that Jesus was a teacher that seemed to have all the
answers. Jesus was not only able to answer all the questions that the religious
leaders were asking Him; Jesus was asking questions that the religious leaders
were not able to answer. So, as far as this ruler was concerned, Jesus was a
good teacher that would be the natural choice to ask this question. Luke
reveals for us how Jesus responded to the ruler’s question in verse 19:
And Jesus said to him, "Why do
you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
Luke
explains that Jesus responded to this ruler’s question with a question of His
own: "Why do you call Me good?
No one is good except God alone.” Now a natural question that arises here is
“Well Dave, why would Jesus respond to the ruler that way? Why answer his
question with a question?”
The reason
why Jesus responded to this ruler the way that He did was because Jesus wanted
to question and challenge
this ruler’s view of goodness. You see, in the Jewish culture of the first
century, just as it is today, people tended to view good on relative terms. We tend
to view good on a sliding scale, don’t we?
You know
what I mean. We may look at our life and rate ourselves as an 85 on the good
scale. We see someone that we work with and find ourselves saying, that guy is
only a 70 on the scale, I am better off than he is; but that guy, well he is a
90 and I am not nearly as good as he is.
Here,
however, we see Jesus redefine the concept of good by revealing the reality that
God is the only source of true goodness. But why would Jesus do that? Why would
Jesus redefine that ruler's concept of what good is? The reason why Jesus
redefined good for this ruler was so that He could challenge the ruler’s view
of who He is.
Jesus is
basically saying to this ruler “so you believe that I am good. Well the only
source of true goodness is God. So since you are calling Me good, do you
believe that I am God?” Jesus is, in
essence, asking the ruler if he believed that Jesus is God.
Now I want
us to take a minute and imagine ourselves in this event from history as this
ruler. I want us to take a minute and place ourselves in his shoes. You have
heard the word on the street about Jesus. You have heard that Jesus is an
amazing teacher that can answer any question and that asks questions that no
one else can answer.
And you have
questions. You have questions because there is something within you that senses
that there is more than this life. You recognize that there is a God and you
want to make sure that you are with God for all eternity in Heaven. So you
approach Jesus and ask Jesus what you need to do to make sure that you will be
with God in Heaven because you believe that Jesus is a good enough teacher to
provide you the answer to that question.
And instead
of answering your question, Jesus asks you a question. Instead of immediately
answering your question about being right with God, Jesus asks you if you
believe that He is God. You are this ruler. What would you be thinking? How
would you be feeling? How would you respond?
If you were
this ruler, wouldn't you be caught off guard? However, before the ruler could
answer Jesus question, Jesus continues to engage this ruler by beginning to
answer his question in verse 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.'"
Luke tells
us that Jesus continued to engage this ruler and his question by quoting the 7th,
6th, 8th, 9th and 5th commandments
of the Ten Commandments that God had given the Jewish people through a man
named Moses. In a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of our
Bibles called the book of Exodus, God had given the Jewish people a series of
commands that were designed to reveal God’s nature and character and the nature
and character that the Jewish people would need to posses in order to live in a
right relationship with God, which the Jewish people referred to as the Law.
In Exodus
20, God began to give Moses what would become known as the Law by giving Ten
Commandments that were written on two stone tablets to be taken by Moses to the
Jewish people. Now when Jesus quotes the 7th, 6th, 8th,
9th and 5th commandments, these commandments are all
horizontal in nature and deal with our relationships with others as we live in
community with one another.
Jesus is
basically saying to this ruler “You know the answer to this question because
God already answered this question. Remember the Ten Commandments that God gave
Moses? Remember all those commandments that deal with how you treat others. You
need to keep those commandments”.
Tomorrow, we
will see how the ruler responded to the answer that he received from Jesus…
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