Introduction

Today, we are continuing our series on Matthew, and our two-parter on the story of the Rich Young Ruler. 

Over the course of this week, one thing really stuck with me. It was the Ruler’s last question that he asks Jesus: “‘All these I have kept. What do I still lack?’” (Matt. 19.20b) Have you ever looked back over the course of your life and thought to yourself, “Have I done enough?” With one eye we can see all the good we have done and with the other we see all the times that we have let people down, sinned against them, and feel the weight of that. 

One of our deepest desires is for someone to look at the good we have done and say “You don’t lack anything. You are enough. You have done enough.” And to look at the bad we have done and tell us, “You don’t lack anything. It is not your fault.” 

But, our passage today has a bit of a different beat. Jesus tells the Ruler that, because he doesn’t lack anything materially, the Ruler should give up everything to love his neighbor and follow Jesus. And when the disciples are astonished that the rich will enter heaven with great difficulty, He does not turn to them and tell them, “But not you guys! Y’all are doing just fine!” He tells them, “With man it is impossible…” 

Today, these stories of the children coming to Jesus, the Rich Young Ruler, the cost of discipleship, and the parable of the laborers work together to tell you that there isn’t enough that can be done to earn eternal life and possess the Kingdom of Heaven. We still lack… something. In fact, the passage highlights that our relationships to God and others will be damaged when we try to earn eternal life and a place in the Kingdom on our own. The text demonstrates this in two main ways: 1.) the misunderstanding of earning the Kingdom and 2.) God’s gracious gift of the Kingdom. What does it mean to “earn the Kingdom” versus “receive the Kingdom.”

“Earning” the Kingdom

First, to impress upon you the weight of this problem, the text highlights humanity’s biggest misunderstanding about possessing eternal life and entering the Kingdom: that we are able to earn it on our own. And to show you the scope of this problem, the text gives us two of the horrible fruit that grows from this belief.  

The Ruler’s first question strikes at the heart of this misunderstanding. In Matthew 19.16 he says, “‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’” (Matt. 19.16b) The Ruler thought that he could earn eternal life by doing good.

Jesus tells the Ruler that he needs to keep the commandments and walks through six of the Ten Commandments and then wraps up with “‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matt. 19.20b) The Ruler, like we talked about a bit ago, says that “I’ve done all those! What else?!” Which is fascinating, because this interaction comes way after the Sermon on the Mount. And with the Sermon on the Mount as background for us, we - as readers - know the utter challenge it is to “not murder” in your heart, to “not commit adultery” in your heart, and what it really looks like to love your neighbor. 

But, the Ruler thought that he could still earn God’s favor into eternal life by “doing the commandments.”. It is kinda hard to not read the Ruler’s statements like a check-list. He wants eternal life and is making sure he has all the boxes marked off, so when Jesus names the Commandments that the Ruler thinks he has done - his “What do I still lack?” could almost be read as a sigh of relief. “Oh! I’ve already done all those. I’m good, right?” But, Jesus has one more command, “Sell everything, give it to the poor, and follow me.” 

The Ruler thought he could earn his way to the Kingdom, because that’s the way that the world works. I mean his name kinda clues us into that: he is the rich, young ruler. He is rich and a ruler, if anyone would know how to earn their way it should be him right? Yet, when he is asked to lay down the very thing that gave him identity - he went away grieving.

And thinking we can earn eternal life and the Kingdom like this will only drive a wedge between ourselves and God and others. And the text directly shows us both of these “wedges.” They are both found in the parable of the vineyard laborers. 

In the parable, a vineyard owner goes out to seek workers for his vineyard. He hires some early in the morning and they agree on a day’s wage. He then goes out at 9am, noon, 3pm, and 5pm looking for people to work in his vineyard, promising to pay them “whatever is right.” When it comes time to pay them, he starts with those who were hired last and pays them one day’s wage. So, the workers who had been there all day think to themselves, “Oh if they got that, then we are getting paid paid.” But… they only get one day’s wage. So, they grumbled to the owner. Essentially saying, “Hey, look at everything we’ve done, give us what we deserve.”

That perfectly shows us the wedge that our striving to earn eternal life on our own drives between us and God. At best, we will view Him as an employer Who owes us for the good work that we are doing. We won’t stop to examine our hearts, our motives, or our attitude, but will just grit our teeth, “do good,” and then ask God to give us what we deserve. At worst, we will cower before Someone Who we think will disown us if we aren’t doing enough. Earning the Kingdom will cloud our eyes until we see God as a cruel taskmaster or Someone Whose favor we have to buy. And if we find ourselves, like the laborers, demanding God to give us what we deserve… we are not going to like what that looks like.

Second, the laborers’ reaction shows us the wedge forms between us and those around us. I mean think about the tone of that response. They weren’t glad that there were people to share in the labor with them, they weren’t happy that others were getting paid, and they weren’t happy with the work itself. What they thought they were owed completely overshadowed what they thought of the other workers. Earning life on our own will make us view our neighbors with contempt when they receive good things, because “I deserve better, I worked harder.” It also will harden our hearts toward compassion and grace when our neighbors fall short, because “I did better, you should to.” And like Jim showed us last week, the Ruler’s reaction showed that he actually did not love his neighbor as himself, even if he claimed to. 

And this assumption strikes at the heart of our problem. Because trying to earn eternal life and possess the Kingdom on my own is the pursuit of self-righteousness. “Righteousness” is a claim about “right-ness.” If someone is “righteous” that means that what they have done, thought, and said is “right.” And the Ruler knows that there is a barrier between him and eternal life and the Kingdom, and that barrier is his own un-right-ness. The Old Testament is very clear that humanity lacks internal righteousness after the fall, and the Ruler knows this. And the penalty of being unrighteous before God is spiritual, total death. So, the Ruler’s assumption is “I can counterbalance my unrighteousness by acting righteously. With enough right-ness, I will undo my un-right-ness, and I will deserve to live!” He doesn’t understand that this is not just an external problem, but one deeply internal. Think about what he says to Jesus, “‘All these I have done. What do I still lack?’”

And Jesus says as much in verses 23-25: “‘Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’” And many people have attempted to explain away the gravity of that statement, because it is uncomfortable to suggest that one sort of person will find it more difficult than others to get to heaven. And as 21st century Americans, we are definitely richer than most of the people Jesus entered. Some people say that “I mean eventually, you could get a camel through a needle.” Others have said “Well maybe our manuscripts are wrong! The Greek for camel and rope look very similar, that makes more sense.” Or some have said “He’s talking about the small gate into a city, and that’s not impossible.” But, I think that undermines all that Jesus is saying. Because the disciples seem pretty shocked by the saying. And that isn’t even the harsher thing that Jesus says! In verse 26, He tells them that it is not just difficult or improbable, but impossible! 

And the disciples’ reaction puts the pieces together about why Jesus is focusing on the rich. When Jesus makes His statement about the camel, they reply in verse 25, “‘Who then can be saved?’” I was really baffled by the disciples’ reaction for a while. What does money have to do with being saved? 

Commentators point out that money and possessions were the primary way that people during this time thought they were blessed by God. They point to Job as the prime example. When Job lost all this family, all his things, and his health, all his friends were like, “Dude, what did you do to make God this angry?” So, this is what the disciples are likely thinking (guess they didn’t finish reading Job). The disciples are essentially asking, “If the very people we think are most blessed by God cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, how will we ever be able to?”

Think about it this way. Imagine you have a friend, maybe he is your boss and a mentor, maybe. And this friend eats three times better than you do, while you love snacking and cooking with arguably too much butter. This friend has an utter disdain for sugar, while you cannot pass the candy aisle without rewarding yourself for grocery shopping. This friend works out like he’s going to be in a Nike commercial, while you might lift weights every other day for 30 minutes. And then, said friend has a heart attack at 43. Your initial reaction (after care, concern, and shock) might be, “Well if he couldn’t ward off a heart attack, there’s certainly no hope for me!” This is purely hypothetical, this definitely didn’t happen and make me want an EKG. 

Jesus is directly confronting the disciples’ view of righteousness. It isn’t purely external, it isn’t measured in monetary value, and it cannot come from us. It is pretty desperate, and that is the point. When they ask who can be saved, Jesus looks at them and tells them that it is impossible with man… thank God that verse 26 didn’t stop there.

Receiving the Kingdom

That brings us to our second point: God’s gracious gift of the Kingdom. So far, the passage has made it abundantly clear that we cannot earn our righteousness to stand before God and the horrible outcomes of pursuing our self-righteousness. But, this passage also shows us the utter grace that God has for those who realize they cannot earn their righteousness. 

I put a lot of weight on the heaviness of Jesus saying, “‘With man this is impossible…’” (Matt. 19.26) but our hope is found after the comma, “‘... but with God all things are possible.’” (Matt. 19.26) Our hope has to come from God and not ourselves. Remember, the disciples are thinking that the rich are like the most likely people to get let into the kingdom, and if it is impossible for them what does that mean for the rest of us? Help has to come from outside of ourselves. It has to come from God. He is the One Who has never stopped being righteous ever, and the righteousness that we need only He has. And is ready to generously give.

And we see this in the parable too! In the parable, we see that the vineyard owner goes to find his laborers. The laborers aren’t chomping at the bit to come work in the vineyard, but the owner goes out, finds them, and graciously offers to pay them. The laborers had no right to be hired by the vineyard owner. But, he goes out to seek them. Not only does he go out and find a few workers and that settles it, he goes out five times in search of people to be generous toward. And that is what is so sad about the laborers who complain, they have forgotten that it is only because of the owner’s generosity that they are there to begin with!

And it is the same with God. When we realize that we cannot muster up enough righteousness for even an hour, we have to turn to the One Who is ready to lavish grace on us if we just ask. God is not a stingy manager who is withholding (that was the lie of the Serpent in the Garden). God, like the vineyard owner, has never stopped going out and bringing in people that He wants to generously give His grace to. He seeks out people who have nothing to give them everything.

Remember what the Ruler asked? “‘What do I still lack?’” It wasn’t something, it was Someone. It was the Lord who has no need, our God Who owns  cattle on a thousand hills, the Father Who longs to give His grace to those that repent and turn to Him. It was the very Person standing in front of him. The irony of the whole exchange is that the Rich, Ancient Ruler is standing right there! And instead of refusing to love His neighbor and hold onto what was rightfully His, Jesus “though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor, so that you by His poverty you might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8.9) That is the Gospel. Our righteousness bank account was not just at zero, it was negative and hourly we were racking up overdraft fees. And even still, the very One that we owed all things to became like us in every way except for sin so that we might be like Him.

And what is beyond gracious about this is that Christ did not come to save us just to help us “break even” so then we could earn eternal life. He became poor so we would be rich with Him. His perfect life is united to ours so that we lack nothing before God! And now when we do sin and fall short, we know that it is not going to cause us to be cast out - but we can run to Christ when we do sin.

“What do I still lack?” For the Rich Young Ruler the answer was nothing… but everything. But for God? The answer is nothing, yet He gives us everything. Because He gave us His Son, so that we could have an inheritance alongside Him. 

But, how do we get this righteousness? The parable shows us that God is eager to give us righteousness, but how do we get it? It isn’t a checklist, it isn’t proving to God that we deserve it, and it isn’t demanding what we are owed. The answer is seen all the way back at the beginning of this whole section. “‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matt. 19.14)

God doesn't need your works, He doesn’t need your righteousness, but He wants you. All you have to do is go to Him. You don’t have to prove yourself before you do, you don’t have to confess everything before you do, and you don’t have to wait. He is a loving Father, not an angry employer. And just as we cannot muster up enough self-righteousness to enter the kingdom, it isn’t about how good we have faith. It is all about the Good Vineyard Owner Who has graciously given us all we need. Relying on the quality of our faith is nothing, relying on the Object of our faith is everything. Like I said before, when we fall - we run to Him. The children don’t seem to be looking to get anything from Jesus, they just want to get to Him. 

I am not a father yet, but I gave my dad a call just to test this out. I asked him, “How would you feel if you knew that I felt like I needed to prove to you that I deserved time with you?” Apparently, I could have been more clear that this was a hypothetical question, because his initial reaction was to ask me what the matter was. After explaining to him that we are good and that I was just asking him a hypothetical, he said, “Oh yea… that would feel pretty terrible.” (Paraphrasing).

And before we go on, I know that some of you might have a type of relationship with your parents where that lens affects how you see God as your Father. And it is beyond sad when our earthly fathers affect us in a way that we cannot see all of our heavenly Father. But, I want you to know that God is a Father Who will never disown, shun, or hate His children.  

When we see that our righteousness is a gift from God and we cannot earn it, that puts us back in the right relationship to God - it starts to remove the wedge. We see Him as a generous, loving Father and not a cruel taskmaster or distant, aloof relative ready to disown us. It has always been about His goodness. And once our relationship with God has been put in right order, our relationship with our neighbor is as well.

Once we realize that we all are given the same grace from God, that is the perfect antidote toward thinking that we deserve more than others. It is also the perfect flame to thaw our hearts toward compassion and grace toward others. And, as one commentator points out, this passage shows us one way that we can practice that.. 

Jesus, in the middle of all of this, assures His disciples that they will receive rewards in the next life for the cost of their discipleship - saying that they will sit on 12 thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And what that means: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. However, Jesus makes this promise in 19.29, “‘And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold…’” 

I want to say that some of us will not be called to have to leave all of those things behind for Christ, but there are some of us who will or who already have lost those relationships for Christ. And my heart breaks for you if that is your situation. And if that is you this morning, I wish more than anything for you to know you are in the right place. Because, if you have not lost relationships with your biological brothers, sisters, mothers, or fathers because you are a Christian - there are countless people who have. And this is not to make you feel guilty that you haven’t, please don’t feel like you are less of a Christian because you haven’t. However, this passage is an implicit call for you to be that brother, sister, father, mother, or child for those that have lost them for Christ's name. When our relationship with God is fixated on Him as Father, the family that He has brought us into comes into sharper focus. 

And when we have received Christ’s righteousness as our own, we are united to Him in such a way that we can show Him to those around us who have lost for His name’s sake. We are able to offer others glimpses of Christ until they see Him in person.

Conclusion

If you are here this week and are tired of trying to earn your place before God by checking off spiritual checklists, praying “enough,” or getting through the Bible in a year, you can lay down your labor and go to Him - asking Him for the greatest reward just because He offers it. If you are here this week and have begrudged God His generosity toward others, go to Him and He will enable you to be the spiritual brother, mother, sister, or father you are called to be here. If you are here this week and once knew the love that the Father had for you but doubt it because of your lack of righteousness, go to Him and He will prove time and again what kind of Father He is. Whether this is the first time you have ever gone to God because you see what you lack or it is the thousandth, His offer still stands as He says in Isaiah, “‘Come, everyone who thirsts; come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.’” (Isaiah 55.1) Even in our poverty, He wants us to come to Him.

“What do I still lack?” For the Rich Young Ruler, the answer was nothing materially but everything because he didn’t have God. For God, the answer is absolutely nothing, but He gives lavishly. On this side of the cross, for us, the answer is nothing because God has given us His Son. And you never have to worry that one day that God is going to pull the rug out from under you. Remember, it isn’t about the quality of our faith - it is about Christ. And because of that, even in our moments of doubt or when our faith feels weakest, we can sing like the Bride in Song of Songs that “I am my beloved’s, and His desire is for me.” (Song of Songs 7.10)