Rich Young Man

Rich Young Man

(Mark 10:17-25)
That passage is simply known as “The Rich Young Man” and is a rather popular story in the church, but the message is often overlooked. Jesus is saying that we can't hold on to anything, that we must fully submit our lives to follow Him. The Rich Young Man was holding on to his materials, it may be different for some of us. But overall, I believe that whatever we hold on to, it is because we consider that a success in our life. So for me, it all boils down to success. Being a senior in high school that word is really thrown around a lot, and rightfully so. These are the last few steps of our lives under our parents’ shadows and we have to venture out on our own and make something of ourselves. It is like the little bird that is dropped out of the nest and expected to fly, we’re in free fall and we don’t want to hit the ground. And the reason we so desperately seek this success is because we are stricken with fear. There is a fear deep down in each of us that our lives won’t have any true purpose. We crave for purpose to our lives, that our lives might mean something, and that’s why we become obsessive over success, because we are at that point of no return. But what I think is so important from this passage is our definition of success. You see this man; he based his entire success on his possessions, his wealth. This man had obtained so much and was still young, that is the epitome of success in this world. I have many friends like this man who tell me that if they aren’t making millions in the next 10 years that their lives would be considered failures, but take it from the Rich Young Man. Can you imagine how devastating that must have been for the man to see all he has accomplished and all the purpose he thought he had in his possessions only to hear that it is all worthless? It’s meaningless; there is no substance, no true worth in possessions. The Bible says that he went away grieving. So how should we define success? Well, success is meeting our goals, and our goals are built off of our purpose. In order to establish our goals, we must first establish our purpose. So what is our purpose? Many Christians would tell you it is to glorify God, which is absolutely correct, but if that were it then why make us at all? God has angels who glorify Him, and much better than you or I could ever do here. Our real purpose is to have a relationship with Him, but in order to have a relationship; you have to have free will. You can’t force someone to love you. So God gave us a rule, a single simple rule. He said, “I give you this whole Earth for you to do as you please, but just don’t eat the fruit from this one little tree over here.” How easy is that? It’s not like it was even a difficult rule to follow, but we still messed it up, causing a chasm in the relationship. Because God is a just God, there had to be consequences for our sins. Someone or something had to die to take away our sins, so the practice of sacrifices began. And the sacrifices were good; they got the job done, but temporarily. But God said He’d fix it, He came down as man, was mocked, brutally beaten and tortured, spat upon, and He ultimately died to be the Perfect Sacrifice that would take away the sins of the world, both now and forever. And the beautiful part is, all we that have to do in order to receive this sacrifice, our very own redemption, is to just say “Yes, that happened”. He gave us the easiest command in the world, and we broke it, He then went through all that pain and torment for us so that we can be reunited to our purpose if we just accept his gift; a free gift, open for everyone. I could give you $100 dollars, but it would do you no good if you don’t accept it. So our purpose is really twofold; have a relationship with God, and bring others back into their relationship with Him as well.

You know, I went through summer football 4 days a week this whole summer with usually around 5-8 other guys with me. We would have a 2-hour practice from 6-8 every morning, an hour of lifting and an hour of running. It wasn’t uncommon for us to have to sprint over 2 miles a day. Towards the end of practice, for the last 10 minutes all I could think about was taking a shower, going home, taking a nap, and do nothing for the rest of the day. Sure enough practice was over, I survived, and I would do just that. Before you know it, it’s 4 in the afternoon and I am just resting on the couch watching TV and I think to myself, “You know, I’m not doing anything else this whole day, that was all the workout I got for the whole day, I could have ran a little more, I could have done one more lap.” And I pray that that isn’t what I say at the end of my life, I pray that isn’t what you say at the end of yours. This world is full of trials and difficulties and it can be so easy to be caught up in the pain and torment and just seek that comfort, but I promise you that an eternity of comfort is right around the corner. You see at most we have 100 years, if even, on this Earth. But what is that compared to an eternity? You know how each year seems to go by quicker? That’s because it is a smaller fraction of your life. To a 12 month old, a year is literally a lifetime. So a million years or so down the road, this life will literally be but the blink of an eye. We need to focus on the things that last, do you honestly think that 5 years from now you will care about what someone will think of you, or how we are presented right now? We need to focus on fulfilling our purpose here, because nothing else will matter, but we can’t sellout for comfort. Because that comfort is temporary, it’s fleeting, but the comfort that God promises us is eternal. Don’t get to the end of your life and say “You know, I could have helped save one more person, I could have shown God to one more friend.” This is our only opportunity to share God, and much like that success I mentioned before, there is no shot after this, this is it. Don’t waste this life.

So what is true success if our purpose is to have a relationship with God and bring others to have that same relationship with Him as well? This is something I have always thought long and hard over, but for me, I would consider my life a success if I can help bring one person closer to Christ. And I am so thankful to be able to tell you today that my life, as short and trivial as it may be, is already considered a success, just like yours may be. But that doesn’t mean we stop now and call it in because God literally gave us everything, we should strive to give something back, we should share our joy with His children. If anything, we should do so out of empathy for our brothers, our sisters, our friends, and our neighbors. And I know that value of success to be true, but I still have trouble accepting it, which is our human nature. But we can’t get caught up in the trials and tribulations of this world, we can’t seek that temporary and artificial comfort that goes with the wind, we have to stand firm and fulfill our purpose. We can’t look back on our lives with regret saying there’s something more we could have done, but rather find peace in knowing from this day forth, we did all that we could. Our comfort is coming, and it will be here before you know it, but it can wait, it has to.