Two Men, Two Kingdoms: The Rich Young Ruler (RYR) — Part 1
My last post was titled ‘There is Only One Gospel: The Gospel of the Kingdom of God’. The Kingdom of God is here; it is not here in its fullness. That will come later when Jesus returns and the New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven and we will live on earth in what the Bible calls the New Heaven and the New Earth. In the meantime, Scripture helps us understand what the Kingdom of God is, how we enter the Kingdom of God, and what life in the Kingdom is like.
One morning in prayer, I felt the Holy Spirit asking me to take another look at Mark 10 — the chapter where, among other things, Jesus speaks to the Rich Young Ruler (RYR) and to Bartimaeus. Because these stories are separated by some other conversations Jesus had with His disciples, I have never thought of comparing them. But their relationship was just what I felt the Spirit urge me to study. When I did, I saw that these two men represent lives in two different kingdoms: the kingdom of the world, also known as the kingdom of self; and the Kingdom of God.
I was really surprised to find that at almost every point in the stories their attitudes toward Jesus, their words, and their actions were diametrically opposed. I saw that they are end-members of a kingdom spectrum. In addition to that, these two stories are the climax to Jesus’ teachings on the Kingdom of God, given to us as His public teaching ministry comes to a close and He begins the long, steep climb to the cross. It is on the cross where He will fulfill His destiny and make the Kingdom life possible for all who “repent and believe”. For me, a comparison of these two men provided deeper insight into the Kingdom of God. Here is what I found; first the RYR — in two parts. Next, Bartimaeus in another post.
Jesus had turned His eyes toward Jerusalem as the final Passover of His life approached. He set off from Capernaum following the ‘low road’, along the side of the Jordan river toward Jericho accompanied by His disciples, other followers, and thousands of Jews also going to Jerusalem. At some point on the road He encountered the RYR, presumably before He got to Jericho. Scripture tells us that Bartimaeus crossed Jesus’ path on the other side of Jericho, as Jesus was beginning the steep climb out of the Dead Sea rift valley up to Jerusalem, a difference in elevation of more than a half mile.
As I reflected and prayed about these two men, I wondered if Jericho played any role in these two stories: both men seemed to have encountered Jesus at or near this city. I found a clue in the book of Joshua. In Joshua 5:13 Joshua met a man with a drawn sword standing on the road to Jericho– the Commander of the Lord’s armies standing on Holy Ground. The Commander has been interpreted to be God or Jesus. When Joshua asked Him if He had come to take sides in the upcoming battle for Jericho, He said, in effect, “No, I have come to take over”. Joshua fell face down and worshiped the Lord. Then the Lord gave Joshua instructions for the battle.
Israel had recently crossed over to the west side of the Jordan, an act that symbolizes repentance, to enter the Promised Land. In order to enter and live in the Land, Israel needed to conquer and control the hills to the west (where Jerusalem sits today); known as the Judean hills in the time of Jesus. The fortified city of Jericho blocked their way. Until it was destroyed Israel would not be able to fully conquer the Land God has promised to them. The Lord with the sword (Jesus?) told Joshua how He would destroy the city with a very strange strategy.
It was crazy! Thick walls of a fortified city will fall when the army marches around them silently and then, on the seventh day, blows a horn and voila — total destruction. I wonder what Joshua’s generals said when he brought the plan back to them? Anyway, they followed the Lord’s instructions so that today Jericho stands for a walk by faith, not by sight; of complete trust in the Lord. As we shall see, it was exactly this faith that saved Bartimaeus and it was the lack of this faith that caused the RYR to walk away from Jesus sorrowfully. It is this faith that Jesus requires of us to enter into the life in the Kingdom. Perhaps that is why Jesus encountered these two men near Jericho at the climax of His teaching ministry — to make the point that we need faith and to show us what this faith looks like. And while faith is a gift, we must choose to receive it, just like Joshua, and act in accordance with the Lord’s instructions.
We don’t know much about the RYR. We meet him in Mark 10: 17 -22, Matthew 19: 16-22, and Luke 18: 18-24 (In Mark 10, he is called “the Rich Young Man” in the NIV; “the Rich Young Ruler” in the NKJV). We know he was wealthy, powerful, and pious. He might have been a religious ruler but we can’t be sure, but certainly Jewish — he followed the Decalogue. He represented the ‘upper crust’ of Jewish society. In that culture, he would be considered to have favor not only with men, but also with God due to his obvious success in the world. The fact that he was young might suggest that his status was the result of birth and inheritance. We also know that Jesus loved him — “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10: 21 NIV).
Somewhere on that road running along the Jordan river, on the way to Jerusalem, probably before Jesus entered Jericho, the RYR ran up to Jesus, fell on his knees (like Joshua, who fell on his face — both signs of worship) and said “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life”. This is a Kingdom question. NT Wright puts it this way:
“This was, of course, the question of the Kingdom: what must I do to have a share in the age to come, to be among those who are vindicated when YHWH acts decisively and becomes King? (It is not, that is to say, the medieval or modern question: what must I do to go to heaven when I die?)”
The RYR wants to know how he can enter the Kingdom of God — “what must I do?” In hindsight we know that Jesus was the promised and expected King, but the RYR did not have our perspective.
In this encounter we see four things:
First, he had access to Jesus. Jesus was traveling with a crowd, including his disciples who acted as His bodyguard in the past, even with children. But because of his status, no one challenged him — he was the ‘right’ kind of person. I imagine him dressed in his finest robes, wearing his most expensive jewelry to meet Jesus.
Second, he called Jesus ” good teacher”. I think Jesus gently rebuked the boy saying “why do you call me good, only God is good” to make the point that Jesus was, in fact, God.
Third, he was very respectful and sincere. He knelt in front of Jesus and acknowledged Him as a learned teacher, a title of honor, but still, a teacher, not the Messiah.
Fourth, he wanted Jesus to instruct him on what he must do to inherit Kingdom life; which he believed, he could do by his own efforts.
The RYR was a genuinely sincere, pious person — he told Jesus he obeyed all the commandments Jesus mentioned since he was a boy. Jesus listed six commandments and left off the most pertinent: the first two. The RYR found all of his value, acceptance, his ‘ultimate’ sense of worthiness in his wealth, his power, and his religion (a ‘religious spirit’?). He had everything he would ever need for the rest of his life, except one thing. He needed Jesus for that thing — not really to ‘give him eternal life’ but to tell him what he had to do to inherit eternal life, which is of course, Kingdom life.
In his commentary on Mark, Michael Card writes about the RYR and Jesus this way:
“Jesus recognizes the man’s sincerity. He is intimately acquainted with this world of works righteousness. Perhaps He is even touched by the man’s sad delusion that the commandments are ultimately keepable” (pg. 129).
The RYR missed the point — the point was Jesus, not what Jesus could do for him. I can’t blame him. He was confronted with a new way of believing, a totally alien way of thinking. Today, we know that Jesus desires our moment-by-moment presence, walking with Him, manifested in worship and obedience. The paradox is that when we want Jesus for what He can give us, we don’t get Jesus or what we want. But when we want Jesus just for Himself, we get Him plus the gifts of the Kingdom.
Jesus knew that the RYR had not kept all the commandments, especially the first two. The RYR’s value and acceptance came from his wealth and power. Jesus told him: sell all you have, give to the poor — you will receive treasure in heaven; take up the cross, and then follow Me — instead of being under the Law, the RYR was to place himself under the authority of Jesus in faith. This is the Kingdom life.
Like the Lord explaining to Joshua how he could enter the Promised Land, Jesus explained to the RYR how he could enter the Kingdom of God. He gave the RYR exactly what he asked for. But the answer turned the world upside down for the RYR. Jesus told him:
you must stop trusting the things of the world for your security and life.
you must put your faith/trust in Me.
you must repent of your life relying on wealth by giving it away.
you must pick up your cross, which is the mark of a repentant spirit.
you must follow Me on the Way, which is a life of obedience and connection.
All of these things are impossible for anyone to do on their own, which is why he/we must trust Jesus to do these things with us and, to some extent, for us in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. These are not the things we do to ‘earn’ the Kingdom life, which I believe is salvation; but these are the things we must do to receive and live the Kingdom life. Big difference!
How strange all of this must have sounded to this religious Jewish man (and to many of us today). The RYR does choose — he chooses to continue living in the kingdom of the world. He goes away sorrowfully, because he had great wealth.
The same Kingdom of God is being offered to us today. Have we heard the offer? Have we taken this Jesus seriously? He is radical, isn’t He? Really, when you think about it — crazy. Perhaps this is why the Church in America today, and in other places in the world, emphasizes that ‘salvation’ is in the future, when you die and go to heaven. To receive this salvation you need to speak some special words at some point in your life. That doesn’t require too much of us. And then, within reason, you can on with your life. To teach this Kingdom message that Jesus spoke to the RYR — the gospel of the KIngdom of God — is dangerous. It requires the Church to call people to a life of surrender and submission that is counter to our entire culture. This call hits us where it hurts — at the very center of who we are. It turns our world upside down.
So how is this exchange between the RYR and Jesus like the meeting between the Lord and Joshua? And what does this exchange teach us about our own Kingdom life? If you are interested, see the post ‘Two Men, Two Kingdoms: the Rich Young Ruler (RYR) — Part 2’, followed by the post on Bartimaeus.