"When the young man heard that, he went away grieving..." Matthew
19:22 CSB
What
a joy it is to keep hearing God loves us and will bless us, our family and we
will get all that we desire. We will be the head and not tail and we will be
receiving in abundance, right? Jesus flips the coin in this real time incident when
a young man who approached Jesus to know if he qualifies for the kingdom of
God. He is the person who followed all the commandments ardently from his young
age and wanted a confirmation of eternity.
Jesus'
response grieved him severely. Not because he was not assured of the eternal
life but because it challenged him on the summarized greatest commandment which
starts like this; "The
second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:39
CSB. This guy was satisfied with only giving all that he owed to God alone.
Jesus clarified by saying
“if you want to be perfect go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mathew 19:21. He never thought about his services to fellow neighbors and his responsibility towards poor which demanded sharing his resources, probably because he thought it is only for him and for his loved ones. The response from Jesus made him so uncomfortable that he went away grieving.
“if you want to be perfect go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mathew 19:21. He never thought about his services to fellow neighbors and his responsibility towards poor which demanded sharing his resources, probably because he thought it is only for him and for his loved ones. The response from Jesus made him so uncomfortable that he went away grieving.
In
reference to Jesus' response, our perfection status depends upon our
willingness to focus our attention towards poor and helping them with our
resources, and there are no substitutes to it. In the book of Acts Paul
says how he set an example for all of us. "In every way I’ve shown you
that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the
words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to
give than to receive.”. Acts 20:35 CSB. This is a great principle which
does not sink in us deeply.
You remain blessed in your giving and not in your strategy to receiving. Most often people get disappointed because certain enhancements or blessing comes with a cost, and we just don't want it. There is an incident about King David planning to buy a field from Araunah to build an altar. Araunah refused to accept the money, obviously who would want to accept money from the king who comes in person? David response in 2 Samuel 24:24 is just amazing where he says “No, I insist on buying it from you for a price, for I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”.
The second example is where we understand the context of Paul where he says he worked with his own hands to support himself and those who were with him. (Acts 20:34). How often from the Bible such demanding context where it involves the spending of our own resources towards ministering to the needy gets blurred because it hurts us. There are no alternative whatsoever, your service to God and to the less fortunate is the strong qualifier.
You remain blessed in your giving and not in your strategy to receiving. Most often people get disappointed because certain enhancements or blessing comes with a cost, and we just don't want it. There is an incident about King David planning to buy a field from Araunah to build an altar. Araunah refused to accept the money, obviously who would want to accept money from the king who comes in person? David response in 2 Samuel 24:24 is just amazing where he says “No, I insist on buying it from you for a price, for I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”.
The second example is where we understand the context of Paul where he says he worked with his own hands to support himself and those who were with him. (Acts 20:34). How often from the Bible such demanding context where it involves the spending of our own resources towards ministering to the needy gets blurred because it hurts us. There are no alternative whatsoever, your service to God and to the less fortunate is the strong qualifier.
Have
you pondered over the sins of Sodom more than all the wickedness quoted in the
book of Genesis, you will notice the same in this book which says like
this, "Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her
daughters had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security, but
didn’t support the poor and needy". Ezekiel 16:49 CSB. May God
use our ministry to poor a model in the nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment