The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE GREAT REFUSAL
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE GREAT REFUSAL
Lesson Plan:
1. The Great Question (v 17)
2. The Great Answer (vs 18-22)
3. The Great Refusal (vs 22-27)
4. The Great Reward (vs 28-31)
Lesson Setting:
Time: March, A.D. 30, two or three weeks before the crucifixion.
Place: In Perea, beyond Jordan, during Christ’s last journey to Jerusalem.
Inductive Study of the Lesson:
a. Read the lesson, Mark 10:17-31, together with the parallel passages, Matthew 19:16-30; Luke
18:18-30
b. Compare the question of the lawyer, Luke 10:25-28
c. In connection with verse 17 see the first use of the phrase, “eternal life,” Daniel 12:2
d. With Christ’s steadfast gaze upon the young ruler compare the same word used of the look cast
upon Jesus by John the Baptist, John 1:36; and Christ’s gaze upon Peter, John 1:42; Luke
22:61
e. On Christ’s prophecy of persecutions see 2 Corinthians 12:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Timothy
3:11
Introduction: The Last that are First and the First that are Last; What is the most important of all questions? – It may be put in many ways, but certainly one form is, “How may I gain eternal life?” Our lesson will hopefully provide a clear answer to that question, from the one best qualified to answer it; and therefore it is one of the most important passages in the New Testament.
Scripture Reading: Mark 10:17
1. The Great Question
Who proposed to Jesus the great question? – Matthew tells us he was young, from the term ‘young man,’ however, that could cover any age from earliest manhood to middle life. We learn from Luke that he was a ‘ruler,’ a person of position, perhaps one of the rulers of the synagogue. All three Gospels notice his wealth. “The duty of the ruler of the synagogue was to look after the external order in public worship, to select teachers or readers, to examine the discourses of public speakers, and, in general, to see that the service was conducted in accord with ancestral usage. He had also the supervision of the synagogue building” (Standard Bible Dictionary). He was probably an ‘ideal’ seeker. Though rich, he was apparently not lax in morality, influential yet earnest, religious but not rigid.
In what way did the young ruler propose the great question? – Jesus was about to leave Perea for the last time. “Determined, therefore, not to be too late, he came running, breathless, eager, in a way that surprised all who beheld it” (Farrar). He was so earnest that he forgot the conventionalities of his position, kneeling at Christ’s feet in the open street. Others had come to Christ in like manner, but it was for healing, a father pleading for his son, or a mother for her daughter. Here was one who from trouble of soul alone sought Him out.
What was the great question? – “Good Master [the word may be rendered ‘Teacher’] what shall I do [Matthew: “what good thing shall I do”] that I may inherit [Matthew: “that I may have”] eternal life?” (v 17) What do you think the word “inherit” implies? Why is this the greatest of all questions? Because every person has only two possessions – a soul and eternity. The greatest possible question is, “What shall be the lot of my soul through my eternity?” Two alternatives are before each of us: eternal life and eternal death. What shall it be? No soul should rest until that question is settled, hopefully in the only happy way.
Scripture Reading: Mark 10:18-22
2. The Great Answer
With what question did Jesus answer the young man’s question? – Christ saw that the young man, with all his fine possibilities, had been living in the exteriors of religion, and he asked him a question piercing to the depths. The young man had used the word, “good,” evidently with no idea of its profound meaning.
v 18... “Why callest thou Me good?” asked Jesus. Matthew reports the question, “Why askest thou Me concerning that which is good?” taking up the young man’s question, “What good thing shall I do?” In either case our Lord refers the inquirer to the One Source and Pattern of goodness.
v 18 ... “There is none good but one, that is, God.” Two views of this saying are possible: (a) One view emphasizes Me: “Why callest thou Me good?” This would be similar to Christ’s statement, “My Father is greater than I” (Jn. 14:28). The Lord had no desire to hear Himself called good. It was not of consequence to Him. He was there to let men see the goodness of the Father in whom He glorified. “You call Me Good! You should know my Father!” Though Jesus was the Son of God, still, in His humiliation, He would not accept a title that is appropriate only to the Eternal Godhead. His modesty stands in curious contrast to the self-confidence of one who had “kept all the commandments from his youth.” (b) The other view, not necessarily conflicting with the first, emphasizes why: “Why callest thou Me good? Is it because you recognize in Me the Deity, who alone is good?” Jesus is good because He is God. That was the point of His question, and a point which at once pricked the bubble-like conception His questioner had formed of goodness.
Without waiting for a reply to this question, what famous rules of life did Jesus quote? – Matthew says that our Lord first answered, “Keep the commandments,” and when the young man asked, “What kind of commandments?” probably expecting some minute rules out of the oral Law. Instead, to his surprise, our Lord mentions the broadest, most obvious and plainest commandments to show the young man that he had fallen short even of these when truly interpreted. “Do not defraud” may sum up the four precepts mentioned before it, as some suppose; but it is rather a form of the ninth commandment. Some think it is a free quotation from Exodus 21:10; Deuteronomy 24:14.
Illustration: This young man was under a sad delusion. A cartoon once depicted a demented prisoner sitting on straw, chained like a beast to a dungeon wall; but smiling and singing. He thought of the straw as a throne, the jailers as his courtiers; and in his mind he was the envy of crowned kings. His self-deception is not much difference from the young, self-righteous man who deemed himself worthy to appear in judgment before God.
Why did Jesus love the young man? – Beholding (v 21) implies a searching look. Christ saw in him a soul, which, if it could just be the hero, would become the angel.
Illustration: When Caesar saw Brutus for the first time and heard him pleading in the Forum, he said, “Yon youth is destined to make his mark, because he intends strongly.” The youth who here prostrated himself before Jesus intended strongly.
What requirement did Jesus lay on the young man? – The platform of the commandments could not be raised high enough to reach eternal life. Therefore, Christ went on to say, “One thing you have not done: you have not yet used that wealth of yours for the needs of your fellowmen; that is the one condition unfulfilled by you. Do that, and I will let you come with me.” Perhaps if the young ruler had said, “Yes, Lord, I will get rid of every penny at once,” Jesus might have replied, “No, keep it; the snare has been broken.” The willingness to obey is all important. Note that Jesus, as reported in Matthew, prefaced the requirement with, “If thou wouldest be perfect.” Selling all he had, giving to the poor, would have completed and perfected his character. However, do we have the right to impose that condition upon one seeking the mercy of God? It is not a condition of salvation, unless exalted into a god; thus preventing full surrender to Jesus Christ.
Why was this a necessary requirement? – Simply because a human heart is not large or strong enough to contain two thrones. To be in one’s heart, Christ must be King. If He is to be our King then money power, sense power, and brain power must go to the rear. There will be a place for each of these in every sanctified life, but it must be a subordinate place.
Illustration: The world’s highest honors have often gone to the poor. For instance, a great name in Greece is Socrates, a poor man. A great name in the first century of the Christian era is Paul, a working man, often in want. It has been said that the “Poets” Corner, in Wesminister Abbey commemorates a glorious company of paupers. Even in America, the names that are graven on the nation’s heart and which men delight to honor are not the multi-millionaires, but Lincoln, Grant, and Webster and others of poor background.
Illustration: “One thing thou lackest.” That one thing was the point, the meaning, the life of the commandments – love. Do you think a heart is truly converted if there is a conscious, deliberate, or intentional reservation regarding complete and total obedience to the will of God? The lack of one thing may make void the presence of all other things. Lacking its mainspring (just one little thing) a watch with jewels, wheels, pinions, and beautiful mechanism is of as much use in telling time as a stone. A sun-dial without it gnomon is as useless in daylight as in the darkness of night. A ship may be built of the strongest oak, with masts of the strongest pine, and manned by the best officers and crew, but without that trembling little needle which a child might fancy only a toy, the safety of all on board is at risk.
What is involved in following Christ? – Bearing the cross; Christ’s cross, as well as our individual cross, the hard tasks that no one else can do as well, the duties needing our special hands, the purification and uplifting of the world around us. This work calls for all of the best we have.
Illustration: Mary of Bethany went to a shop desiring a box of ointment. The man in charge showed her a box, but she wanted something better. He showed her a second box, but it, too, was not good enough. The third box, though costly, did not seem sufficiently worthy. Then the merchant said, “I have another box, but its price is very high.” “That is what I want,” she said, “There is nothing too good for my Lord.”
Scripture Reading: Mark 10:22-27
3. The Great Refusal
How did the young man receive Christ’s command? – “His countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful.” The young man’s possessions were like golden chains binding him and his strength was not great enough to break free. He kept his wealth. He kept his means of luxury and pleasure. He went away to a life of indulgence and enjoyment; but with a sad heart, as it is with too many of us when our higher nature is touched?
What may have become of the young ruler? – Was such sorrow in the mind of an earnest youth likely to grow less or more? He perhaps needed time to think it over. We are not told if he ever came back. We are also not told that he never came back. “If he had been able to make the last sacrifice, then one dares to think the young ruler would have become a chief apostle, and the rival of St. Paul. When such a one refuses the cross which alone can raise him to his full manhood, the Master is bitterly disappointed. And that man suffers the chief loss of life” (Maclaren). “The sad, stern imagination of Dante follows him, and there, among the myriads of those who are blown about like autumn leaves on the confines of the outer world, blindly following the flutter of a giddy flag, rejected by heaven, despised even by hell, hateful alike to God and to his enemies, he sees ‘the shade of him who made through cowardice the great refusal” (Farrar).
What warning did Christ base on this refusal of the young ruler? – “Jesus looked round about” (v 23) “to see whether the sad incident had brought its own lesson” (Farrar). Perhaps because it failed to do so, He said to His disciples “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” Does this mean it is easier for poor people to enter into the kingdom of God? Jesus Christ does not say so. It is always difficult to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Why were the disciples amazed at this saying? – “Peasants by birth and in rank, accustomed from childhood to that sad, uncomplaining, unquestioning submissiveness which, to this day, characterizes the Fellahin of Palestine more entirely than any of the patient Orientals of down- trodden classes – familiar, too, with the spectacle of enormous wealth accumulated in the hands of those to whom they looked up with awful reverence, the words came to them like some strange revelation” (Farrar).
How did Christ vary the saying the second time? – By saying, “Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!” The added statement about the camel and the needle’s eye seems to suggest that Christ was saying, in effect, that “the rich man stands the poorest chance of salvation of anybody on earth; that fewer rich people are saved than people of any other class.” In the East the small side gate of a city, admitting foot passengers after nightfall, is often called “the needle’s eye,” but there is no proof that such was true in Christ’s time. “And, on the other hand, there is proof that, soon after the Christian era, this and similar proverbs were familiar in the East, in their most literal sense, as expressions of impossibility” (Farrar). Trusting in riches means to rely on them for peace, happiness, and power. Material things can never truly be possessed by a man who cannot do without them. Note that Christ did not advocate the abolition of wealth. Wealth has duties to perform in the constitution of our modern society that poverty can never perform. The progress of science, the arts, higher education, and philanthropy all require capital, as surely as trade requires capital. Wealth used in this way becomes a permanent and inestimable factor in the elevation of mankind.
Why were the disciples still astonished? – “Who then can be saved?” (v 26) they asked. In other words, if a rich man, with all his apparent advantages, finds it almost impossible to enter the kingdom, who can enter? Making money purely for personal enjoyment is prohibited to Christians. Obviously, following and believing Jesus, desiring heaven, means that one would not deliberately adopt a mode of life that makes it hard to enter there. To what did Christ point as the only way out of the difficulty? To the power of God. With man it is impossible; with God all things are possible. “The salvation of the soul in the midst of earthly riches requires a spiritual miracle, a miracle of the grace of God. But so far from miracles being rare, we live in the midst of them” (Farrar).
How can we avoid the perils of wealth? – (a) By refusing to fix our affections on money. “Remember thou are mortal,” was said every day to a great king. In the same way, a man of great possessions should frequently remember that an end to of all things is coming. (b) By giving money away to better the world. It is a miracle that one may be working at his desk in Boston, Dallas, Nashville, London, or Paris while at the same time preach the gospel in India, Africa, China and around the world. Modern inducements, in carrying the light of life to this world’s dark heart.
Scripture Reading: Mark 10:28-31
4. The Great Reward
What credit did Peter claim? – It was like him to say “Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee” (v 28). They had left an honored religion, given up home associations, and forsaken daily avocations for a wild and roving life, for a couch on the ground and the night sky bending over them, and for the privilege of living on a begrudged charity. What was to be their reward? And how soon was it to begin? How did Christ respond to Peter’s boast? By His earnest promise of a reward far more glorious than Peter had in mind. Whoever, like Peter, had left all to follow Christ should receive a hundredfold immediately, even in the midst of persecutions; of course not literally a hundred houses in return for the one lost, any more than a hundred fathers or wives, but spiritual blessings a hundred times as valuable as any of the lost joys. “And in the world to come, eternal life” (v 30), perfect joy unhindered by any persecutions or sorrows for evermore.
What great reversal did Christ foretell? – That “many [not all] that are first shall be last; and the last first” (v 31). In that day neither brilliant intellect nor vast achievements will count, but only simple, loving obedience to Jesus Christ. Perhaps Christ had the rich young ruler in mind.
What are some present rewards serving Christ? – The consciousness of pleasing Him. The knowledge of constantly growing stronger and wiser. The love of Christian comrades. The honor of good men. The thorough enjoyment of living on this beautiful earth. The blessed promise of the eternal joys of heaven.
What are the eternal rewards of serving Christ? – The Christian has God’s Holy Word, revealing that eternity far exceeds the joys of this earth. But the greatest of all the joys of eternity will be loving Christ and being loved by Him. Illustration: There is a legend that a woman was seen running through the streets of Jerusalem, with a pot of red-hot coals in one hand and a pot of water in the other. When asked what are you going to do she replied, “With the water I am going to put out hell, and with the fire I am going to burn up heaven, in order that man may love God for Himself alone.”
