Event 18 – A Rich Young Ruler’s Faltering Faith
Matthew 19:16-20:16; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30
K As Jesus started on his way, a L certain ruler K ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what M good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. K “Why do you call me good? M There is only One who is good. K No one is good except God alone. M If you want to enter life obey the commandments.”
“Which ones?” the man inquired.
Jesus replied, K “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father M and mother,’ and ‘love you neighbor as yourself.’”
K “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy. M What do I still lack?”
K Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. M “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, K everything you have, M and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.”
When the young man heard this, K the man’s face fell. He went away L very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.
Jesus looked at him and K said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “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.”
M When the disciples heard this, they were great astonished and K said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
M Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And K no one who has left home L or wife, K brother or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and L for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail K to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields–and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and M many who are last will be first.”
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
‘He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”