I want to invite you to read in your bible, the story of a rich man who had the opportunity to recognize Jesus and surrender everything to him.
“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me…” Mark 10:17-21 (ESV)
This man knelt before Jesus, and claimed that he was keeping the commandments, doing what seemed religiously right. However, if we read carefully, when Jesus mentions the commandments, he only mentions six, and not the first four that are related with our relationship with God. He had failed to understand that eternal life is not something that can be inherited or bought, eternal life was in front of him.
When Jesus asked him: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone”, He was giving him the opportunity to give a powerful answer like: Because You are the Son of the Living God! Because You are God! But the man was silent because he did not really believe that Jesus was the Son of God. This young man approached for spiritual help, since despite being a very wealthy man, there was a void in his heart.
Of course, Jesus knew that he had not really kept the commandments, as he was claiming! But despite that, Jesus loved him, and asked him to do the one thing he hadn’t done: sell all his belongings and give the money to the poor, to have treasures in heaven, then go and follow Him.
But, «Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions» (Mark 10:22). He had confidence in his riches, and not in Jesus.
And that makes me think, many times, about us, who act in the same way, we do everything that seems religiously correct, we surrender to Jesus, we raise our hands worshiping and we say to him: Good Teacher.
But the question is: do we really believe what we are saying? Are we paying attention to the words we are using? Are we willing to leave everything and follow only Him?
Or on the contrary, are we having more faith in our earthly resources and acting like this man? We go to church, we praise God and tell him how much we love and exalt him, but the moment He confronts us with reality and tells us: leave everything and follow me, we leave sad because we have not been able to fully trust in Him. Jesus said: “…Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:24)
He invites us to accept the gift of eternal life, He asks us to surrender everything. He wants us to love him with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and stop trying to make ourselves rich on earth.
Hence, today I want to invite you to take your gaze and heart away from all your earthly possessions and put your trust only in the Son of God, trust that He will have control to supply each of your needs and fulfill each of the requests of your heart, according to his good, pleasant and perfect will. Surrender everything to Christ, and love the Lord your God, above all else.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33 ESV)
