“Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing…”
If you know this story then you know that this man was wealthy. He genuinely wanted to follow Christ. His position and wealth (position because of wealth, most likely) afforded him respect and security. His implied, really decent nature probably also made him popular among his peers and, most likely, those who worked for him. He was probably a patron and the livelihood of of others depended on him. His wealth would have been viewed as a blessing from the hand of God. Again, if you know this story, then you know that it was too much to ask. He obeyed the commandments that made him as fine a person as you could find in those days.
Even Jesus really liked this guy.
But Jesus didn’t come to hang out with people he liked. He had a job to do. Save the world so that there was a way for us to live as we were meant to live: eternally, with him. And so, He had to point out that there was still one thing…and it was too much. For this good, God-fearing man, the blessing of wealth had become too important. It had become his identity. How he measured his worth. And he walked away from Jesus, sad. Sad! Jesus had looked at him and loved him. And laid his finger on that one thing. The thing that, for this man, was standing between a life well-lived and a life worth living. All that he thought defined him, Jesus was asking him to give it up. It wasn’t even a bad thing! But it was in the way. The blessing had become the master. The god.
This story makes my heart ache.
I know that when I ask Jesus to show how to serve Him better or hear Him more clearly, invariably He will look at me with that love and quietly say, “well, Tamara. There is that one thing…”
I pray for the courage to not walk away.
Confessions of a Holy Man's Wife 