Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

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18 April 10

    Greetings, special people.

    It's a gorgeous Spring morning here.  I did my jog.  But I need to hurry again...need to run to the assisted living center in Woodburn where we do a kind of mini-service gospel sing there with the residents every first and third Sundays of the month.

    Have a great day.  Blessings.  Love.

        Dad/Ray

18 April 2010
Passage: Mark 10:1-31
Focus: “How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!”  Mark 10:24.

            What you want is not necessarily what you need.  That’s a deduction that I find easy to draw from this case of the rich young man coming to Jesus with limited worship.  Jesus told him what he needed beyond the good he was already doing.  But what Jesus told him was not what he wanted.  Suddenly his balloon of excitement over Jesus popped and he walked away disgusted and disinterested.  Maybe he liked the idea of trusting Jesus as his Savior, but when it came down to trusting Jesus as His Lord Who knew what was best for him, he judged that the consequences of submission would require sacrificing too much of his lifestyle, security, and plans.  He quickly bailed.

            Noteworthy is the fact that “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (v.21).  It sounds very similar to John 3:16, doesn’t it?  We see here not just the capacity of the Lord to love everyone in general, but His heart to love this young man in particular…even when he was flawed by wrong views.  Think of it.  I have reason to believe that He looks at you and loves you too.

            But His love would not overstep the young man’s will.  Nor will He overstep yours.  It all leads me to the conclusion that THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS A CHOICE.  Choices made in harmony with the Word of God produce the Kingdom of God and the rewards of heaven.  Choices made contrary to the Word of God produce the kingdom of Satan (opposition) and the consequences of a very unbecoming hell.

            Speaking of hell, I think that one of the major factors that would intensify the miseries of such a place is one’s memory.  One will remember all the wrong choices made in opposition to the clearly demonstrated love and Word of the Lord.  Predictably, it would generate a terrible condition of self-condemnation.  “Why was I so dumb?  Why didn’t I pay better attention?  Why didn’t I listen?  Why didn’t I seek God?  Why didn’t I read my Bible?  Why did I think I was so smart and put such confidence in my own limited knowledge?  Why, why, why?”  Not very pleasant.

            In view of man’s propensity toward sin and self-centeredness, Jesus’ words in verses 24 and 25 make a lot of sense.  “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  I don’t believe that this only applies to rich men.  I think it applies to all men.  Everyone has a tendency to be rich in ego and attached to other things as much as this young man was attached to money.  And everyone is responsible to determine the weight and value of those attachments against the instructions of a loving and all-knowing Lord.

            Is it possible that making all the right choices is really quite humanly IMPOSSIBLE?  I think so.  That’s what Jesus seems to be saying after the disciples exclaim, “Who then can be saved?”  Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (v. 27).  In other words, it is only when you seek God and respond to His love through Christ that you are imparted the special grace and power to make right choices that yield eternal life.  With God in your life, the IMPOSSIBLE becomes POSSIBLE.  “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12, KJV).