19/09/2012 - HARD FOR THE RICH

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Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 19: 23

Some of the messages preached by the Lord Jesus were meant for everybody, but others were addressed only to His disciples. Not that our Master wanted to hide some truths but because many would not fully understand them so He revealed them only to those who already belonged to Him. To start with, everybody needs to acknowledge the sinful state they find themselves in, which is pretty much the same to all people because Adam’s sin took all of us from God’s hands and drove us towards perdition.

The truth is that no message from the Lord is to be kept hidden. We must preach the Gospel to everybody, whoever they might be, and even to those who consider themselves be superior to others due to their wealth. Such spiritual blindness prevents them from heeding the Lord’s Word and they won’t achieve salvation unless they repent. There’s nothing sadder than seeing people trust in uncertain riches (I Timothy 6:17).

Because Jesus is the Lord of the Kingdom of Heavens He knows pretty well what it takes us to guarantee our access to it. The Son of God talked about it when He saw the wealthy young man who after being loved by our Master went away in sorrow on account of the mission he’d been given. The truth is that those who put their trust in riches are unable to trust in God. Their faith is frail and false and, for that reason, it won’t assure them eternal happiness.

Jesus had instructed that young man who was among the crowd longing to be informed about what he should do to inherit eternal life. The Savior showed him that the first step to take was to keep the commandments. Then, that young man replied by saying he did keep all those the Lord had mentioned and then he asked what else he could be missing out on. The Master told him to sell all of his possessions and give them to the poor, but the young man got sad upon hearing this word (refer to Mark 10:22).

There are people who have possessions and nonetheless they won’t be kept from entering the King of God. What must be pointed out here is that oftentimes people focus too much on material things as their priority and when they obtain these things they become enslaved by them. But he who truly wants to go to Heaven must strive not only to keep the commandments but also to do what the Lord says we should do.

In our present time, when we hear about people being successful in the business world, in science, in sports and even in faith, some get carried away by such accounts and stop abiding by the divine plan. For those who haven’t received the divine revelation what really matters is to have a good source of income, a wonderful house, a car, etc. But they would better watch out so that the thorns don’t choke their faith.

Even after hearing Jesus say that he would have treasures in Heaven if he sold his possessions and followed the Master, the young man went away sorrowful. He would certainly have been even wealthier.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares