Mack, the driving instructor over at the Echelon Driving School, tells his students the same thing over and over, “Maintain control of your vehicle at all times.” That means, placing your hands on the steering wheel at 160 degree angle, position your mirrors so you can see the traffic behind you, and keep a safe distance between you and the car in front of you. A safe distance, he says, is counting, “A thousand one, a thousand two,” before you pass the same pole or some marker that the car in front just passed. Maintain control of your vehicle at all times, unless you run out of gas and lose power, or a deer suddenly appears out of nowhere, or you hit a patch of black ice and you find yourself spinning with no idea where you will land or what you will hit. Maintain control at all times…. We try our best, we want to be as prepared as possible, but controlling a car at all times? It’s an illusion. Control over almost anything is an illusion. Tell me, what do you and I really control? Our health? Our relationships? How can we control any relationship? It involves another person and we can’t control people. Taking a test? We can study hard, and then the teacher throws in some question we haven’t even considered. Retired? Taking it easy? Then your son or daughter asks if you could watch the grandchild because she has to go back to work. In line for a promotion? The new hire gets it out of the blue. Tell me, what do we control, really? But, we think we do. We try to.
An unknown person runs up to Jesus, a no-name, a standing-in-for-us no-name and bows before Jesus with a question: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He respects Jesus and is earnest in his question. This is a person who has heeded carefully the direction: “Maintain control at all times.” He’s setting out for life’s road trip, got his seat belt on, and his black leather driving gloves are gripping the steering wheel at 160 degrees. Before he sets out, he wants to make sure he’s got everything under control. He thinks he does, but something is nagging at him. Something. So, he pulls up before Jesus, asks his question and waits for Jesus’ response. Jesus says, “Why call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Jesus begins his response by leading the man away from himself and towards God. The man’s question: “What must I do….?” Jesus’ answer points him towards God. The answer to his question will not be found in him, but in God.
Jesus takes him through the checklist that a good Jew would use: the 10 commandments. (Read 10:19, 20) What a response! The man tells Jesus he has followed the 10 commandments, really flawlessly. He’s been as perfect as any human can be. As Jesus lists the commandments that relate directly to how we should treat one another, the man checks them off his list.
“Do not murder” – that’s commandment #6 – check. He hasn’t killed anyone.
“Do not commit adultery” – that’s commandment #7 – check.
“Do not steal” – commandment #8 – check. He hasn’t stolen anything.
“Do not give false testimony” – He hasn’t lied, commandment #9 – check.
“Do not defraud” – This isn’t specifically mentioned in the 10 commandments, but it seems to speak to the inner motive. Do not seek to take advantage of others. Check.
“Honor your father and mother” – commandment #5 – check.
The man wants to know what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus runs him through a check list and the man seems to have to have done it all. His check list is complete…. But, something is still nagging at him. Let’s run through that list again. Jesus perhaps assumes the man is fulfilling the first 4 commandments that speak to our relationship with God, so he goes through the last 6 that deal with human relationships: Do not murder, that commandment #6, do not commit adultery, #7, do not steal, #8, do not lie, #9, honor your father and mother, #5. We’ve got 5, 6,7, 8, 9…. Excuse me, where’s #10? Jesus hasn’t mentioned #10. What’s he doing, telling the man he just has to obey the first 9 commandments? What’s he running, a special this week? Observe any 9 of the 10 commandments? What’s the 10th commandment? What are we missing?
“Do not covet.” Commandment #10. What does it mean to covet? It means to want something we do not have that someone else does have. It is to earnestly long for, to desire, to want to possess so as to control. Jesus somehow knew this issue of coveting things was keeping the man from the kingdom of God. It was an issue of control. Maybe the man through that his money could buy him a new set of rims for his chariot. As he passed by, people would admire the rims, and perhaps admire him. He could perhaps control their opinions. Maybe his money could buy a pair of new black stallions, increasing his chariot’s “horse power.” Maybe it was a new house on a hill with a drop-dead gorgeous view of the sunset the man thought would make him happy. I wonder if the expression we hear nowadays had been invented in his days, “You can’t buy happiness.” Happiness comes when we are pursuing other things and it sneaks up and taps us on the shoulder. No one can control happiness. Or, maybe he wanted to control his future, make sure he was set, no matter what comes. I wonder if he knew then what we know now. Say a person has a million dollars. Financial planners say we can take out about 3.5% a year and still maintain the principle amount of 1 million dollars. That means we could have $35,000. That’s a nice amount of money, but it would only pay for 1 year of college, not two, for 1 son or daughter, not two, at a public university, not private, away from home. A person could live on that amount of money, as long as they didn’t need to go into an assisted living facility, as long as they didn’t travel much. No, to really be financially secure, we’d need 2 million dollars, or is it 3? And, what if the company we’ve worked for suddenly crashes and takes with it our pension? And, what if the stock market drops like that first big drop on the roller coaster at Six Flags? How much do we need then? Millions more. There is not enough except more than we have. Always, more than we have. What can we control in life, really? The answer is simple. Nothing.
Jesus says to the man, “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (verse 21) Give it all away. “At this, the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” (verse 22)
Jesus said, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.” (verse 23) He emphasizes the point by saying, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a person with riches to enter the Kingdom.” (verse 24) Jesus draws upon the largest animal in the Near East, a camel, and the smallest of openings, a needle’s eye, to tell us that money and possessions are an obstacle to our relationship with God and with eternal life. It’s a real obstacle. And, least you and I are tempted to think that Jesus’ teaching is only for the wealthy, allow me to point out that Jesus says it is hard for those who have wealth, not those who are wealthy. None of us are wealthy, but all of us have wealth. We have money, a place to live, cars, and bank accounts. We have some wealth. And, what we have is an obstacle to God.
Why did the man turn away? Why would anyone turn away from the presence of Jesus? Because he was not willing to give up control of his life. He thought he could somehow take care of his future through money. He was afraid of letting it go and hanging on to the one thing necessary; Jesus. He was unwilling to trust his future into Jesus’ care. He thought he could maintain control of his life at all times by hanging on tightly to his money. After all, you never know whether you will need it all or not.
It’s the same attitude today. An insurance agent told me about a client of his who built a fireproof house. It was built with bricks, not just the front, but all sides. The walls inside had thicker sheet rock. The drapes were made of fire resistant material. Heavy, fire-resistant doors were installed on each level that would closed each night and whenever they were away to contain any fire that might remotely get started. A fire-proof house. They had it under control. The family went away on a trip, leaving their gardener/maintenance man in charge. He was ironing his shirt one day when the phone rang. It was from the Philippines. His father was deathly ill. He threw clothes in a suitcase and rushed to the airport. When the family returned from the trip, they found their house a burnt out shell. The gardener, in his haste to get to his father, had left the iron on, which heated up and started an electrical fire in the wall that spread to the rest of the walls. What do you and I really control? Nothing.
We think the passage ends, but it doesn’t. Peter speaks for the other disciples and says, “We have left everything and followed you.” (verse 28) This is the real point of the passage. It’s about discipleship, following Jesus, which takes everything we have and are. More than “houses or brothers or sisters or mothers or fathers or children or lands….”
More than anything, is Jesus. One thing is needed; following Jesus. Whatever is in the way of you following the one thing, Jesus, needs to go. The choice is ours. Or, to put it in a different way, the choice of whom we will follow comes to us each day. Will we choose the one thing necessary for life, or will we choose something else that at best can only give us a false sense of security and control? One thing…. I leave you with this clip from the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.