A Humble Savior and a Proud Sinner

Matthew 19:16-24

Matthew says, “Humility is more important than you ever imagined.” How has he led up to this?

We’ve divided his gospel into three sections. Part One establishes Jesus fame as the Messiah even though there were doubts and opposition beginning with his birth. Part Two follows Jesus and the disciples and shows the growing opposition between old ideas and Jesus’ new revelations. Part Three puts all the chess pieces on the board for Jesus’ death, resurrection and the Great Commission.

Part One is all about who Jesus is, what he said and did and why he came.

Part Two starts with the question: Where did he get his wisdom and power? That’s followed by a discussion of greatness in the kingdom of God.  That’s where we are now.  We are also between two special events in Jesus’ life: the Transfiguration and the Triumphal Entry. The first revealed Jesus in all his glory and greatness. The second demonstrated his humility, a king sitting on other people’s cloaks and riding on a borrowed donkey.

We’re between these two events in the three chapters dealing with the topic of greatness in the Kingdom of God.  

These chapters begin with this question: “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven (18:1)?” Jesus answered that and said the humble person is the greatest. In Chapter 18 he showed why that’s true. It takes humility to effectively combat sin. Chapter 19 begins with three test plots for greatness: 1. Marriage, 2. Parenting and Childhood and 3. Being single. 

So we might expect a fourth test plot for greatness: maybe grandparents or being an employee or retiree. Instead Matthew gives us a rich guy asking a question how to have eternal life. Good question but it’s seems out of place.

One of the assumptions we’ve been going on is that Matthew was not just a numbers guy who sat down and pasted together a bunch of stories about Jesus. He was a brilliant writer, a literary genius and he was inspired by God. That means the first gospel isn’t slapped together in random fashion. Every piece fits and its up to us with the help of the Holy Spirit to put it together.

Matthew 19:16-24. 
  16 Once a man came to Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”  

17 “Why do you ask me concerning what is good?” answered Jesus. “There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life.” 

18 “What commandments?” he asked.

Jesus answered, “Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; 19 respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” 

20 “I have obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else do I need to do?” 

21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.” 

22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich. 

23 Jesus then said to his disciples, “I assure you: it will be very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of heaven. 24 I repeat: it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”

It seems like Matthew took a lunch break and when he came back he forgot where he was. What does this story have to do with either greatness or humility?  We better take a closer look: first at the savior and then at the sinner.

What did Jesus do that showed his humility?

1. He could have been haughty and used the man’s coming to him as a reason to put puff himself up.  He didn’t do that. He said something intriguing, “Why do you ask me concerning what is good? There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life (17).”  He was engaging the man to get him thinking and soften his heart.

2. When the man asked, “Which commandments?” Jesus could have put the man down, “Isn’t it obvious, you’re greedy.” But he didn’t. Instead he listed six of the Ten Commandments. Jesus was nudging the man toward honest self-evaluation.

3. When the man asked, “What do I lack?” Jesus could have taken advantage him and told him to sell all he had and hand it over. But he didn’t. Instead he told him to give it to the poor. Jesus knew he had to put a crack in the man’s self-centered worldview so he could peek through the crack and see treasures in heaven. Jesus wanted to get him in a position where he could turn toward God. 

  You’ll never find a more humble witness than the gentle one Jesus gave to the rich young man.    

What did the rich man do to show his pride?

1. His questions show he fully believed himself capable of doing whatever it took to have eternal life. “What good deed must I do? What do I lack? Tell me and I’ll do it. No sweat. I’m great. I can do anything.”

2. Jesus said, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me (21).”  Then the man went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. That’s odd because sorrow usually arises when things are lost. But he was keeping his stuff so why the sorrow? 

   His earthly goods were hiding the value of treasures in heaven. But Jesus gave his a dose of humility that made them lose their luster. Jesus probably got him to start pondering his life.  Whether or not he sold everything, his heart may have shifted. He may even have grasped a treasure or two in heaven and turned to follow Jesus.  I expect to see him there.

The story does fit here. If the quality most esteemed in the kingdom is humility, it makes sense that pride would be the quality most venomous to the kingdom. Pride would keep people out. Pride would rage against the kingdom. Pride would be characteristic of everything not a part of the kingdom. Humility would be its core value.

Before we see how this applies to us, we need to pause to make sure we understand what Jesus was saying about entering eternal life.

First, he did not say that if someone sells their possessions and gives to the poor they would have eternal life.

What he said was if the man sold his possession and gave to the poor and he would have treasures in heaven. Salvation is not the same thing as having treasures in heaven. Having treasures in heaven means we have some understanding that earth is just temporary. It’s a shifting of values from temporal to eternal. Having treasures in heaven means we have a heart disposed to God. It’s not salvation but it’s a big step in the right direction.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. (John 16:8). That’s what Jesus was doing with the rich young man. The whole process may have looked like this.

The rich young came to Jesus full of pride. The encounter had a humbling affect on him. Hopefully Jesus helped him be a little suspicious of his values and opened him to consider treasures in heaven. If that happened, he could have come back at some point with the humility to follow Jesus and have eternal life.

Humility is a powerful evangelistic force.

Rarely do rich young men come up and ask us about salvation, but when they do . . . we’ll be ready. Is there any other application?

Matthew’s focus shifts back and forth between Jesus and his kingdom. Every time the disciples are to follow Jesus’ lead. Here are some examples.

Matthew 4:23 is a good summary of Jesus ministry: Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues preaching the good news of the kingdom. Pretty amazing but what’s even more amazing is that he told his disciples to do exactly the same thing: As you go, preach this message: “The kingdom of heaven is near (10:7).

Jesus also went through Galilee, healing every disease and sickness among the people (4:23). And he told his disciples to do the same thing: Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons (10:8a).

Jesus stood out to the crowds because he exuded authority (7:28-29) And when he sent the disciples out he gave them authority (10:1). 

Jesus was called a great king (5:35). And in his kingdom anyone who practiced and taught his commands would also be great (5:19).

Jesus knew he was going to be killed and he told his disciples: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (16:24).

Time after time, Matthew alternates between stories about Jesus and information about his followers. Why did he do that? Jesus gave us the answer in this important principle: A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master (10:24-25a).  

We are students and servants. Jesus is our teacher and master. Our goal is to be like him, to do what he did and say what he said. 

In his gospel John recorded seven famous I-am statements. Jesus said: I am the bread of life (6:48); I am the light of the world (8:12), and so on.

In Matthew’s gospel there’s really only one. And whatever it is, if we want to be like Jesus, we better pay extremely close attention to this particular I-am. So here it is: Jesus said, I am gentle and humble in heart (Matthew 11:29).

I think you get the message. In the kingdom of God, it’s great to be humble.

Youth Message

What makes us great?

Can you think of anything that’s great? What’s a great place to eat? What’s a great car? What’s a great tooth paste? What makes it great? Tastes good. Prevents cavities. Get’s rid of plaque.

Now let’s think about what makes people great. We need a volunteer. This guy seems like an ordinary guy. What could we do to make him great?

1. We could make him taller.

2. We could make him stronger. 

3. We could make him look like Indiana Jones.

4. We could make him rich. Let’s write him a check for a million dollars.

5. We could make him smarter.

After all that, he seems about the same doesn’t he. That’s because none of those things make a person great.

Jesus said there are two things that make a person great:  Obeying God and being humble. And those two work together. So when you grow up, don’t hope to be rich and famous. Pray that you will be obedient and humble. And you don’t have to wait until you grow up, do you?

Today we’ve got the greatest treat in the world, M&M cookies.