High righteousness individuals
This week's verses are Matthew 19:23-26:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.” The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.”
People often assume that wealth is evidence of particularly righteous behaviour. A high net-worth individual is assumed to be that way because they worked harder, or sold a better product, or were nicer to the right people, or were somehow smarter and more intentional than common folks like us. We see the rich and we want to find out how they got there, maybe emulate their behaviour and life choices in the hopes of getting the same results. People back in the disciples' time weren't much different.
In their legalistic world view, the quality of a person's life was evidence of how much God has blessed them, and blessings were only handed out for righteousness. So it would follow logically that anyone who was rich would be particularly righteous, because God had obviously blessed them with far more than the common man. Just like today, people looked at the rich and wanted to do whatever it was they did to get such favour from God.
So when Jesus says that the rich have an especially hard time entering the kingdom of heaven, the disciples are understandably shocked. If anyone had a chance at heaven, it would have been the rich folks that God loved and blessed that much, right? So the disciples are thinking, "if even the most righteous and blessed people among us can't get there without difficulty, what chance do the rest of us have?" That's a very serious problem! If your only hope is to do something even the best of the best are unlikely to pull off, your hope is badly misplaced.
Jesus redirects their hope to where it should be. If even the rich, and the famous, and the holy men and theologians were unlikely to achieve sufficient righteousness, there has to be another way if heaven isn't going to be empty. Jesus confirms that it is impossible for people to attain, but reminds us that God can do anything. In other words, our hope should be in God's grace, not in what we can accomplish or how we measure up on the righteousness leaderboard. It's God who makes entry into heaven possible for us, not our attempts at being righteous.
At the same time as sounding crazy, it also kind of makes sense. Can we really expect as human beings to be so righteous that a perfect God would accept us into his private space for eternity? It sounds ludicrous! Maybe the same people who think everyone can become astronauts and NBA stars if they just put their mind to it might believe it, but to the rest of us it's just a hopeless proposition.
And yet if God himself wants us there, who is going to tell him no? Are the theologians going to tell God that he can't have you, the person he loves, by his side for eternity? Are you going to tell him that he can't also invite the guy who cut you off in traffic or rooted for the other sports team? God can do anything he wants! He is God. And his stated desire is to have us with him for eternity, if we are interested.
Our righteousness is made whole the same as if we had been made millionaires by a billionaire who wanted us to marry into his family. It's the relationship that gets us that blessing, not earning it with our own hands. This is why it's important to pray and connect with God, not because we are earning a place in heaven by doing so, but because that's how we become friends with God. God shares his righteousness with the people he knows so that we can be by his side in his kingdom. He makes all things possible so that he can have his desire fulfilled.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.” The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.”
People often assume that wealth is evidence of particularly righteous behaviour. A high net-worth individual is assumed to be that way because they worked harder, or sold a better product, or were nicer to the right people, or were somehow smarter and more intentional than common folks like us. We see the rich and we want to find out how they got there, maybe emulate their behaviour and life choices in the hopes of getting the same results. People back in the disciples' time weren't much different.
In their legalistic world view, the quality of a person's life was evidence of how much God has blessed them, and blessings were only handed out for righteousness. So it would follow logically that anyone who was rich would be particularly righteous, because God had obviously blessed them with far more than the common man. Just like today, people looked at the rich and wanted to do whatever it was they did to get such favour from God.
So when Jesus says that the rich have an especially hard time entering the kingdom of heaven, the disciples are understandably shocked. If anyone had a chance at heaven, it would have been the rich folks that God loved and blessed that much, right? So the disciples are thinking, "if even the most righteous and blessed people among us can't get there without difficulty, what chance do the rest of us have?" That's a very serious problem! If your only hope is to do something even the best of the best are unlikely to pull off, your hope is badly misplaced.
Jesus redirects their hope to where it should be. If even the rich, and the famous, and the holy men and theologians were unlikely to achieve sufficient righteousness, there has to be another way if heaven isn't going to be empty. Jesus confirms that it is impossible for people to attain, but reminds us that God can do anything. In other words, our hope should be in God's grace, not in what we can accomplish or how we measure up on the righteousness leaderboard. It's God who makes entry into heaven possible for us, not our attempts at being righteous.
At the same time as sounding crazy, it also kind of makes sense. Can we really expect as human beings to be so righteous that a perfect God would accept us into his private space for eternity? It sounds ludicrous! Maybe the same people who think everyone can become astronauts and NBA stars if they just put their mind to it might believe it, but to the rest of us it's just a hopeless proposition.
And yet if God himself wants us there, who is going to tell him no? Are the theologians going to tell God that he can't have you, the person he loves, by his side for eternity? Are you going to tell him that he can't also invite the guy who cut you off in traffic or rooted for the other sports team? God can do anything he wants! He is God. And his stated desire is to have us with him for eternity, if we are interested.
Our righteousness is made whole the same as if we had been made millionaires by a billionaire who wanted us to marry into his family. It's the relationship that gets us that blessing, not earning it with our own hands. This is why it's important to pray and connect with God, not because we are earning a place in heaven by doing so, but because that's how we become friends with God. God shares his righteousness with the people he knows so that we can be by his side in his kingdom. He makes all things possible so that he can have his desire fulfilled.
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