Day 296 – Jesus’ Ministry across the Jordan

Readings

  • Matthew 19
  • Mark 10:1-30
  • Luke 18:15-30

Prayer

Pray… that in your heart you will want to honour God in all ways – not just in wordly obedience.

Day 296 – Jesus’ Ministry across the Jordan

 marriage, the rich young ruler, & sacrifices for God

 

  • We’re back to reading about the same events in multiple different gospels. I’ll focus on the words in Matthew, but spend a moment considering the similarities and differences between the three different accounts of the rich man. Because this story is repeated so often, should we pay extra special attention to it?
  • The readings in Matthew and Mark today start with Jesus’ teaching on divorce. At the time, there was conflicting opinion on this subject. Old Testament teaching from Moses (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) had permitted it for “indecency”, but some thought that that meant “only adultery”, and others thought that a man could divorce his wife for something as minor as burning food! What did does Jesus say about divorce, and God’s greater plan for marriage? How do you think Jesus challenged the legalistic hearts of the Pharisees, who seemed to be more interested in the technicalities of divorce, rather than the sinful attitudes that led to it?
  • What do you think about marriage?
  • In the story of the rich young man (or ruler, in Luke) we see someone coming to Jesus. Based on their initial conversation, would you imagine that this man was confident expecting to go to Hevaen, and have eternal salvation? What clues are there for this?
  • What initially strikes you as not right about the man’s question in verse 16 of Matthew 19?
  • Jesus listed an interesting selection of commandments in Matthew 19:18-19. He missed off the first ones about honouring God, and instead listed the ones about relationships with other people… except one. Which one did Jesus miss? Why do you think He listed the commandments regarding other people?
  • How wass the rich man challenged? Did he have a legalistic understanding of salvation, or a genuine devotion to God? How had his “coveting” (i.e. accumlation) of money meant that he had failed to keep all the commandments that Jesus missed off in his list?
  • Why is it “easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of the needle than enter the kingdom of God”? What was Jesus’ point? Think about all the instances in the gospels that you know about where money (or the promise of it) has led to evil. Why, therefore, do you think it’s such a good habit to get used to giving money away, joyfully and freely?

 

Jesus’ words are as easy to understand, and yet as hard to live out, now as they ever were. Do you think there will ever be a moment in the history of mankind where people won’t have their hearts challenged by this parable on letting go of earthly riches to enjoy heavenly riches?

 

We often think that we have many rights – rights to good standards of living, comfortable jobs, clean air, friends to treat us right, money to enjoy, and so on. If we don’t have these – and more – we feel like demanding them, or consider that we’re missing out by not having them. But money can be as much of a trapping as it is an enjoyment. The old phrase that “money doesn’t buy happiness” is true for good reason.

 

Jesus, however, calls us to give up our rights – and perhaps our material luxuries, or anything else that stands between us and him – just like He did when He came to earth for us.

 

Of all the parables Jesus gave, I think this one hits the hardest. Just what would you be prepared to give up to follow Jesus? Could you see yourself acting in any other way than the young man in the story did?

 

As you consider that, you might remember the famous words of evangelical missionary Jim Elliot. Jim died when attacked by a group of people in Ecuador whom he visited to share the gospel. In his diary entry for October 28, 1949, he talked of his realisation that work dedicated to Jesus was more important than his own life, with the words “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, in order to gain that which he cannot lose.” Luke 9:24-25 links most closely with these words, but Matthew 19:29 echoes it too with Jesus’ reference to eternal life; something our earthly riches could never earn for us.


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