Encounter Jesus: Commitment Confronted

Sunday, March 4, 2007

[Video Clip]

(Pastor) “ Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the union of two lives, that of James and Sarah. James, do you take Sarah to be your wife, to live together in the covenant of marriage. Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor her, keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all others to be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?”

(James) “I do”

(Pastor) “And Sarah, do you now take…”

(Sarah) “Pastor I have written my own vows..”

(Pastor) “By all means ..”

(Sarah) “James, I love you. I cherish every moment that we spend together. You are my hero, my friend. I promise that I will love you, honor you, care for you and support you for the rest of my life. There is only one thing I ask in return. One day a year, only one day, I want to be single again. I want to be able to spend time with old boyfriends, guy hunting, clubbing, that sort of thing; whatever comes up for the day. What do you think?”

(Pastor) “Well, James, it sounds reasonable to me.”

(James) “Are you kidding? You must all be out of your minds.”

(Sarah) “What’s the problem? What more could you possibly want from me?”

(Pastor) “Yes, James, what exactly do you want?”

(James) “What do I want? Well, I don’t want you on a part-time…I want all of you. All of you should belong to me. That’s how this thing works.”

(words on screen) How committed are you?

Deut. 6:5 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

So what’s up with James? Golly, what’s the guy got a problem with? I mean, Sarah’s going to give him 364 out of 365 days. Doesn’t that sound reasonable? You figure out of ten years, all she’s asking for is ten days. So you think it’s unreasonable of what James’ is asking of her? No, I don’t either. Where do you think their relationship would be if James agrees? You see, I think that one day out of the year would negate the other 364. When you enter into a relationship and when you make a commitment, a commitment is 100%. It’s 365 days out of 365. You can’t give up just one day. A relationship is about being fully committed to one another and so it is with our relationship with God as well.

A relationship with God is based upon commitment. He’s 100% committed to us and God asks for that same commitment from us to Him because God doesn’t want our relationship to be broken. He doesn’t want us to be distracted. He doesn’t want something that could take us away from Him, so Jesus looks to us to be 100% committed to Him.

You see, sometimes when you encounter Jesus, you’re confronted with your commitment. That’s the way it was for the rich, young ruler who came up to Jesus. He was searching for something and Jesus encounters him and confronts him about his commitment.

This morning, I want us to encounter Jesus. I want us to take a few moments to look at our commitment to God and where is that commitment level really at. When we encounter Jesus, there’s one thing for sure: We’ll encounter reality and we’ll encounter grace. Whenever you come face to face with the Son of God, when you come face to face with Jesus, you have an encounter with reality. You see, you can’t deny anything anymore. You can’t hide behind anything. When you come face to face with Jesus, you are confronted. You encounter the reality of your own life and the reality of the situation, such it is for the rich, young ruler.

We know he’s a rich, young ruler because of the three gospels that tell the very same story. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story of this young man, each one of them giving a little bit more of a detail about him. You put them all together, we find out he’s young. We find out he has a lot of worldly possessions and also that he’s a ruler, which means he has some position of authority or some spot on maybe the council. At any rate, he’s got power. In fact, when you look at it, he has the whole package. He has youth. He has power. He has money. My guess is he was probably stunningly handsome, too. He’s got everything. He’s got the whole package. And from the looks of it, it also looks like he has religion. It looks like he has a relationship with God. Because when Jesus says to him, “Well, have you kept the commandments?” “Well, which ones?” Jesus rattled them off and he boldly states, “Oh, I’ve kept all of those since I was a youth.” Well, let’s not get into the boldness of that statement but obviously, he thought he had a good relationship with God and if you ask him, he would say he was very committed to God.

But there must be something that was missing in his life because he seeks Jesus out and he wants some assurance from Him about his salvation. Well, whatever he was seeking, I think he got more than he bargained for. Because when he encounters Jesus, he encounters reality. Isn’t it curious that Jesus doesn’t challenge this young man about his claims of a perfect life, of keeping all the commandments Jesus had stated therefore? That’s because Jesus is looking beyond his actions. He’s looking deeper than his actions. He wants to know the young man’s heart. Where is his heart? Who is he committed to? Where do his priorities lay?

So again, Jesus doesn’t ask him, “So what do you think is more important, all your worldly possessions or a relationship with God?” I’m sure the rich, young guy would have said, “Oh, my relationship with God is much more important than all of my money and all of the possessions I have.” He probably would have started rattling off the charities he’s given to, maybe even produced his giving receipt from the synagogue, talk about the Rich Young Ruler Foundation he established last year, all the ways in which he was being generous with his money. And I have no doubt he probably was, but none of that would get at where is the young man’s heart? Where are his priorities? Where does his commitment lie?

Jesus pinpoints the problem. He knows exactly where to probe and so he tells the young man to do something rather radical. He says, “You’re lacking just one thing. Go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then come on back and follow me.” Now don’t misunderstand this or misunderstand the point of the story the gospel writers are giving to us. Jesus isn’t saying, “Take a vow of poverty and you have a one-way ticket to heaven. That’s right. Just give up all of your wealth and that’s all it takes. It doesn’t matter what else you do and God is going to get you in heaven.” We all know that’s not true and that’s not what scripture is teaching. Salvation cannot be earned. Salvation cannot be bought. It is a gift God has given to us. It’s something Jesus has done for us and there’s nothing we can do for it. God simply gives it to us. That’s not the point of the story.

The point of the story is Jesus is pinpointing a problem with this young man’s commitment. You see, he wanted to give Jesus 364 out of 365. He wanted to hang onto that one day a year. He wanted to hang onto that one thing in his life. He was going to be committed to Jesus, wholeheartedly completely, 80-90%, maybe 98% but he was still holding onto something. The point of the story is not his riches, his wealth, his possessions. It’s his priorities and where he’s putting his trust and his security. You see, in essence, he’s saying his money and possessions are more important to him than his relationship with God, that he looks more to his money and his possessions for his safety, his security, his well being than he does to his relationship with Jesus.

It’s a matter of commitment. The young man encounters Jesus and he encounters the reality, the reality of his commitment level to God. You and I will encounter Jesus. When we encounter Jesus, we encounter reality. We encounter the reality of where is our commitment level to God? Are we willing to give God our entire life? Are we willing to turn every aspect of our life over to Him? We can look at our life and say, “You know, I think we’re doing pretty good. We’re not perfect but that’s what forgiveness is all about. That’s what scripture teaches. When we do something wrong, when we’re disobedient, God comes in and forgives us.” But where is our heart? Where is our commitment at? Are you willing to serve God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your strength? Are you willing to trust Him and look to Him alone for security? Are you willing to turn over every moment of every day to Jesus, every aspect of your life? Or are you holding back?

Are you still holding onto something you can’t quite give up? Is it like the rich, young ruler? Jesus talks so much about money in the gospel, that obviously must be on the top of the list of things we put our trust in instead of God. Is that what’s happening with you and your life? Are you putting your trust there? Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with money and there’s nothing wrong with being rich. I think we should understand that. If you feel security because you have money in the bank, if you feel pretty good because your retirement is taken care of, there’s nothing wrong with that. If you’re enjoying the rewards of things you can earn or things you can buy and that you can surround yourself with, there’s nothing wrong with that unless it’s interfering with your relationship with God, unless you’re putting more trust and faith in your portfolio than God’s ability to take care of you and to meet all of your needs, unless it’s interfering with your faithfulness to God.

So you need to ask yourself is the career track you’re on right now, is it destroying your marriage? Are you spending so much time away from home that your kids don’t recognize you when you come home? And then when you do, you’re irritable because you’re tired. Is it ruining the relationship you have with your spouse and with your kids but you won’t give it up? Is your job asking you to do things that are un-Christian, that are unethical, verging on the fact of being illegal? Is your job asking you to treat people in an un-Christian, unloving way and you pass it off by saying, “It’s just business. It’s not personal,” but you’re unwilling to give it up because you don’t want to forego the paycheck. You don’t want to trade it for a lesser salary. There’s nothing wrong with money and possessions unless it’s interfering with your relationship with God.

Do you hold onto everything you have as if you earned it, it’s yours, you deserve it? And you don’t acknowledge that really everything we have is a gift from God. Do you hesitate on giving back to God although God commands that in His Word and encourages us because He wants us to know where our priority is at? Is this what you’re holding onto? Maybe not.

Maybe you’re holding onto control. I like to control my life. Don’t you like to think you’re in control of your life? Are you holding onto that? “Jesus, I’ll turn everything over to you and I’m going to trust you with my life and every aspect of my life but listen, this is how I think it should work out.” Do you turn your prayers into a prescription of how you’d like God to handle this situation? “Listen, God, this is what’s happening and I think I have the solution for you.” Kind of like your will be done as long as it agrees with mine. Are you holding onto control in your life and you don’t want to turn that over to Him?

Is it something totally different? Is it your relationship with your friends? Is it popularity at school? In other words, “I’m behind you, Jesus, 100%. I’m committed to you all the way. Just don’t tell my friends. They wouldn’t understand. And listen, the way I act around them and the things I say and the things I do, that’s not really me. I’m just trying to fit in.” What are you holding onto? Only you can answer that question. But I know this, when you encounter Jesus, you’ll encounter the reality, the reality of your commitment. But at the same time you encounter reality, you encounter grace.

Whenever we encounter Jesus, yes, we’ll encounter the reality of our relationship with Him and what’s happening in our life, but we’ll also encounter grace, His grace, His amazing love for us, His unimaginable compassion for us, all He’s done for us. What we encounter this morning is Jesus is 100% committed to you. He’s 100% committed to you and to your salvation. In fact, Jesus doesn’t hold anything back. When the Father asked Him to leave heaven, He jumped off His throne and He came into our world. He didn’t hesitate and He didn’t look back. When He was among us and He lived among His own creation, He never called upon His divine powers which He had at His disposal. When people beat Him, when they smacked Him, when they insulted Him, when they spit upon Him, even when they nailed Him to the cross, although He could have called down a legion of angels, He doesn’t do any of that. The only time Jesus used His divine powers was to help human beings, whether it was feeding 5,000, cleansing the leper, making the lame walk, or the blind to see. Jesus didn’t hold anything back. And when the time came for Him to take our place, Jesus didn’t hesitate. And He stretched out His arms and He allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross and when the final moment came, scripture says He, Jesus, gave up His spirit. He became our substitute. He took upon Himself our sin and He gave to us His righteousness. Jesus is 100% committed to you and committed to your salvation. And because Jesus is committed to you and because Jesus loves you in grace, He looks to you to be as committed to Him.

He wants that same commitment because He knows if you’re to have a relationship with Him, a meaningful relationship, a deep relationship with Him, then it has to be commitment on both sides. We have to be committed to God as God is committed to us. Think back to James and Sarah. How long do you think their marriage would last if one day of the year she went out clubbing and with old boyfriends and all the rest? How long do you really think a relationship could stand that as she divides her relationship between her husband and her old way of life? It won’t and Jesus doesn’t want that to happen to us. Jesus wants us to look to Him and to Him alone and to be committed to Him 365 out of 365 days, every moment of every day. And He does that because He loves us.

Did you catch the phrase when Jesus answered the young man? Mark records for us, “He looked at the young man and loved him,” and then told him to go and sell all of his possessions. He wasn’t trying to rip on this guy. He wasn’t trying to embarrass him? He wasn’t trying to point out the faultiness of his thinking. Jesus loved him and Jesus wanted to keep a relationship with him and He saw the barrier that was standing between this young man and with his God and He wanted to remove that barrier.

Jesus loves you in the same way. He loves you so much that sometimes you will encounter reality. Sometimes you will be confronted about your commitment, but He does it because He wants that kind of relationship with you. He wants a full commitment from you as He is fully committed to you.

So I ask you again. What are you holding onto and what do you need to give up? Maybe you’re saying to yourself, “I tried before. It’s impossible. I can’t do it. I can’t be 100% committed to God.” And Jesus would agree because His disciples said the same thing to Him after this young man left and Jesus gave them this answer, “With man, it’s impossible but not with God. With God, all things are possible.” So you encounter Jesus’ grace. His grace goes beyond forgiveness. His grace goes beyond salvation. His grace says He walks beside us every moment of every day. His grace says we’re forgiven when we fail and His grace says He’ll give us the power, He’ll give us the strength, He’ll give us the courage to let go of those things we want to hold onto. His grace says when we slip back and we hang onto them again, He’ll pick us up, He’ll dust us off, and He’ll send us down the road again. His grace says you are able to. His grace empowers you to be that committed to Him.

Because relationships are about commitment, 100% commitment. And Jesus is fully committed to you. And through His grace and through His power, you can be committed to Him. Let go. Turn everything over to Him, every aspect of your life. Encounter Jesus. Encounter reality. Encounter grace. And then experience commitment. Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church