Matthew 19:16-22.

¹⁶ And see, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good thing must I accomplish to have eternal life?”

¹⁷ But he replied to him, “Why do you ask me about a good thing? There is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸ He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness,

¹⁹ Honor your father and mother, and, love your neighbor as yourself.”

²⁰ The young man said to him, ” I have obeyed all these. What do I still lack?”

²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in the sky; and come, follow me.”

²² But when the young man heard this he went away unhappy, because he had many possessions.

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Jesus and the garbage hoarder

This man who approached Jesus looked like he had everything, so I could imagine that Jesus’ disciples were inwardly saying “I hope Jesus picks him – he could really help out. He was young, wealthy, and outwardly obedient. Who wouldn’t want someone like that in their church? But Jesus saw the inner flaw. The man’s lack was found in his surplus. He did not have room for the total commitment required of the sky kingdom.

This hits where it hurts, because all of us have things or even ideas that we hold dear. For Jesus to come along and say “you have to give that up first” is a hard pill for us to swallow. For this man, it was his wealth. He could not see serving Christ as a poor man as gain. His whole life had been about gain. That is why he asked the discipleship question in that way: “What do I still lack?” Discipleship was – for him – just one more possession. But even he realized that there was a flaw in his worldview. In spite of all the wealth he had gained, he still knew that he lacked something.

Jesus’ challenge is to us all – rich or poor. He challenges us to surrender our current worldview. He wants us to stop trying to gain the kingdom by what we possess – or even confess. He wants us to give up everything for the one thing that we can carry with us into that kingdom when it comes. That one thing is a relationship with him. Without that, all the wealth in the world is just garbage collecting.

This man went away unhappy because of all the garbage he had hoarded.

Oh, please, LORD, give us the wisdom to surrender the garbage we have hoarded for the only real treasure we can gain in this life – a relationship with you.