[AI translation] Dear Brothers and Sisters! Today, for once, I do not want to talk about the next part, but God willing, we will continue next week. For now, however, I would like to return once again to the subject of the sermon on Sunday. The problem of the so-called rich young man. I would now like to illuminate this story from another Gospel, the Gospel of Mark. Not that they are essentially different, but it is good to hear the same story from a different perspective, from someone else's description. I think everyone was in the service on Sunday, heard it in the sermon. I'd like to add things that are not new, but it's good to look again at the Word read in connection with this story. I will briefly refer to the fact that last time, in the sermon on Sunday, I talked about the fact that this young man had a great sense of lack, even though he had so much. It is not to be despised if you can afford everything you want. That's what's so wonderful, that although he was so fortunate to be able to afford everything he wanted or desired, there was a sense of inadequacy, a sense of lack that drove him to Jesus.There is something in a person's life that only Jesus can satisfy, that only Jesus can truly give a person an answer to. If someone resists this attraction that flows from God through Jesus Christ, no matter how richly he has lived his life, no matter how well he has done in all the things he has started in his life, something is still lacking. His life will not be complete because, quite simply, man is made to be complete only through what is found in Jesus, what is in Jesus. In Jesus man finds his true self, in Jesus he finds his true self. Money is not enough - and money is a great power on this earth. It is not enough what others can give us, whether in appreciation, love, or anything else, it is not enough what we can give ourselves here in this life through diligence, work, good intentions, virtuous living. All, all is not enough, because somehow the only thing that satisfies man can only be given by Jesus.
So what does Jesus give? What is it that satisfies man, that brings balance to man's life? Let us first stop at this sentence, which I have tried to explain many times. It is very interesting: "Good Master, what shall I do to obtain salvation?" he begins. There is such sincere, humble reverence for Jesus in this! The question itself is such a simple question. One is almost taken aback when Jesus asks back, not answers directly. He says, "Why do you call me good?" He almost refuses to be called "Good Master", God alone is good, he says. What gives meaning to this little dialogue? What is behind the question? It could be many things, but I feel that Jesus sees into the heart of this man and sees in this expression politeness rather than faith. Rather, he feels that it is a courtesy to address him as "Good Master" rather than truly out of faith, not an experience of faith. Ultimately, the young man is right when he calls Jesus good. Jesus wants to let him know, "why do you call me good?", do you know what you said? Do you know what "good" is - in relation to me? In Jesus' relationship with God, what does this word, this phrase, mean? That's why it was important for Jesus to ask back, because there is politeness rather than faith in this question.
Civility is a very beautiful thing, good, necessary and useful in human coexistence. I would say it is indispensable. Human life is unbearable without it. We experience its absence very often. How bitter and terrible the discourtesy of the other person! We all need politeness, and we miss it when we are not around - so, I say, in human terms it is a very necessary and useful thing. But with Jesus, you cannot be rude! You cannot approach him with courtesy, or at least there is no point in approaching him if your relationship with Jesus is mere courtesy. And yet, very often we find that our relationship with Jesus is a kind, gentle, polite relationship, rather than a relationship of true faith. Let me give you just two examples: if after the last communion we had been asked, "Why did you take communion, why did you stay in the church when so many people went out?" It is possible that we could give a very good answer, but I am afraid that it would only be something like this in our hearts: "Well, on the last Sunday of the month there is a communion service, it is fitting for a believer to take communion." This is already a kind, polite gesture to God: "I'm staying here, I'm taking communion!" Or just now, when we sang: "With me, Father, you have done so much good, I call you my Goodwill." If you ask Jesus, really not a man, but Jesus: why did we sing that? Just because it began the Bible lesson, or because the writer of the text wrote it that way, we are compelled to sing it. Or else, at the same time, there was a very happy exultation in our hearts, because of how wonderful it really is, how much good God has done for me!
I have often found that people's attitude to Jesus is a kind, benign, but undisguised courtesy. That is why Jesus asks back, "why do you call me good? The only good is God!" If you call me good because you recognize in me the revelation of God on earth, then you are right. Now think of how many times we use the phrase "God". When "God" is used this way and that... How have we ever experienced that God is really good? In what have we had such an experience of God being good? It would be worthwhile to put together in a bundle in what way we have experienced God's goodness in our own lives: because I have experienced that when I was in need of something, God helped me, I have experienced that when I asked God for something, God listened to me. I have experienced that in my sickness or in the sickness of a relative, I have begged Him and they have been healed, or something like that. He helped me in some specific way, I experienced His goodness, that's how I know how good God is. But here you could immediately ask me back in the same way that Jesus asked the rich young man, "Why do you call me good?" Well, if I hadn't listened, wouldn't I have healed the patient? Would I not have given him what he desperately needed, not in the way you would have imagined, just in case the opposite had happened? So often the opposite happens - is God not good then?
How do we see that God is good? How many of us have taken God to court because we don't see him as good enough, how many of us have taken God to account: how is it possible, how can it be reconciled with God's goodness that this has happened or that has happened?! There is such a thing as God not responding the way I would like him to respond, then all of a sudden it can become doubtful that God is good.
How do we see that God is good? I've said it many times, but let me say it again, dear Brothers and Sisters, if I were asked by Jesus or the Lord God, "Why do You call me good?" With a truly full and sincere heart I could say, "Lord, I have known you to be good in that you are unjust to me, because I do not get what I deserve many times over, but always better, in the forgiveness of sins." What is in this word, in this I have experienced how good God is, that He does not treat me as I deserved, as I could have deserved.
Let us try to get a little deeper into this, whether it is really true that it is so, because I maintain that God is unjust to all of us, but for our good. There is, for example, the very first question of communion, which we ask every single time. "Do you believe, do you confess that we are sinners from the beginning; that we deserve punishment and damnation?" And we so easily say, "We believe and confess!" But are we really convinced that we deserve punishment, death, damnation? If we are really like that, and do not receive punishment, death, damnation - is this not the goodness of God, the unspeakable mercy of God? And if it is true that we deserve punishment, death and damnation - let us try to realise in ourselves: comparing ourselves to the fate of a condemned man who deserves punishment, death and damnation - what does a condemned man need most, what would he be most happy about? What would he ask for? I can imagine him asking for a glass of water because he is thirsty, he would like to drink before his execution. Maybe he asks for a piece of paper on which to write his last greetings, or a short time to say goodbye to his loved ones, but what does the condemned man need most? Not water, paper, pencil or a little time, but: mercy! That is what we get, that is what God gives us, sinners deserving death and damnation, grace. We always ask for something else, we want to see his goodness in something else. A piece of paper, a glass of water, just a little bit of time for something, so always something insignificant, which of course can all be significant in our lives. But he gives more, he gives better when he gives mercy, when he gives grace! Why is God good? Because he is merciful. Because the punishment, the death, the damnation that we deserve, Jesus took upon himself. He took the sin of all of us upon Him. Jesus is good because he took it, accepted it, finished it. Now that is injustice! Isn't it? The most blatant injustice! So when someone argues with God's justice: how and how can God allow such a thing - let us always think of this: does he never ask God how it is possible that instead of a sinner He allowed an innocent to suffer, die and perish: Jesus instead of me? That is the greatest injustice - mercy. This is what God gives me, the greatest mercy. So if that is why you call me good, then you are correct, accept this statement, "Good Master". But if you don't call God good for that reason, you are disappointed, definitely disappointed. It would be good to think about this within ourselves, why do you say God is good? I could put the question this way: Why do we love God?
Then he says: "What shall I do to gain eternal life?" I have already pointed out that he was rich, he had wealth, obviously money, land, many possessions, we read in Scripture, he had everything he needed. But he was missing something. Somehow, if I think a little bit more about the whole attitude of this young man - because we see the end of the story, the outcome of the conversation - if we look at the whole profile of this young man, perhaps we could say that this young man, in addition to everything he already had, wanted to secure for himself eternal life. Because the emphasis here is on 'in addition', 'alongside'. Somewhat like a rich, spoiled woman who wants to add to her wardrobe a dress she doesn't already have.
I once knew a man who had three degrees, including two doctorates. She even wanted a fourth. But here I feel that it is not possible to say, "Well, I'll fill in the gaps in my life with Jesus, and where there is a gap, I'll fill it in with Jesus. I can't be like, yes, in our troubles and problems let Jesus come, and then I'll manage somehow in the other things. I can't do things with Jesus in such a way that I just give Him a little place next to everything else. You can't do it with Jesus and leave Him, but leave my sins, my miseries, my wickedness in my life.I once had a very dear friend, a serious believer, who tried to reconcile his sins with his faith until he lost his faith. You can't do that on a reconciliatory basis. A man who is not willing to sacrifice all that God has ordained in his life for Christ will sooner or later be forced to sacrifice Christ for his sins. That is what is in this story.
On the other hand, these words of Jesus are expressed very often: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' (Lk 10,27). You can only follow Christ with your whole life, putting everything at His service. (Mk 10,22) So let us commit ourselves to truly putting Jesus first and foremost in our lives. It is truly under His Lordship that all our other affairs are settled: our financial affairs, our family problems, our official conduct, everything, everything. This is what the rich young man could not undertake. He would have loved something of Jesus, of what Jesus gives, until it meant not giving his whole life, but accepting Jesus into his life along with the rest. That is why the outcome of this story is so tragic. He was on the brink of this decision, and yet nothing came of it.
There is a very great warning in this story, in this question, "What must I do to gain eternal life?" We can see from the story that this is part of the whole image of this young man, that he is a good man, decent, religious, honest, kind, modest, there are many good things to say about him. He did not steal his wealth, he was not empty, idle, his family relations must have been in order. Jesus, when he looked at him, is told in the Scriptures that he liked him. He was a man blessed with many good natural gifts. It's a very great thing when you bring a lot of good qualities by nature, it's a very great gift from God. But behold, we see from the whole story: not all natural goodness is enough for salvation. The last time we talked about the earthly aspect of eternal life. Now let us consider the salvation aspect. It is not enough for salvation to have kept the commandments and lived a respectable life. This man has no assurance of salvation. He is unsure of his salvation. Perhaps he does not dare to think what will happen to him when all that he has valued - his own goodness, wealth and esteem - is gone. When all this is over, what will be beyond?
"What shall I do to gain eternal life?" is a very important question. Again and again it is important for us, Dear Brothers and Sisters, because we are basically people of more or less similar natures, we are also people of more or less likeable, well-mannered people. We also bring with us a lot of natural goodness, perhaps no particularly ugly stain in our lives, no sharp, ugly sin makes our lives conspicuously ugly. We are sacrificial mothers, we are people who have been grieved in honour. We have never harmed anyone, we have given all we had, we have been virtuous, pure in our lives. There are many good and beautiful things that could be said about us as we are here. That's just the point, that it is not enough for salvation! In no way is natural goodness enough! Not enough, no matter how great a gift, if any. Not enough! Something is missing in the lives of good people. Not just the lives of sinners, the great vile evildoers. Something is missing in the life of this man too: not treasures, but the liberating power of forgiveness of sins. When we see before us this wretched man, who, for all his goodness, is pitiable, we must say that, humanly speaking, it is easier for the greater sinners than for such good men. For such a good man does not so much feel the need of forgiveness, does not so much feel that he himself is in need of mercy.
Nor did this man feel, "Master, I have kept all these things from my youth." (verse 21), he says. Jesus does not argue with him, does not explain to him what we would try to do in such a case: Not really, you haven't kept it... But he simply says to him a word whose meaning is, in the final analysis: try once more to be really serious about following me, try once more to be deadly serious about following me, and then you will see how sinful you are, how miserable you are, and how dependent on grace you are. For this is the only basis on which a man can relate to God, which he truly finds in Jesus. For our lives too are restless until we find peace in God, until we are oriented towards God's reconciliation, and this is only possible for all of us today through Jesus.
Here the story ends sadly, because this young man, seeing the impossibility of this in his own strength, went away sad. There was a fruitless encounter between a man and Jesus.
I believe, Brothers and Sisters, that every time we are together in this way, listening to the Word, an encounter has taken place between a man and Jesus who is present. Oh, let no one go away sorrowful, but rather with the great, happy hope that, however impossible it may be for us, with God all things are possible: that we "good" people who are honest and upright - that is, "rich" - may be received into His grace in such a way that we may carry with us the liberating power of forgiveness of sins, so that this encounter may not be fruitless. May this address be truly sincere in our hearts and on our lips: good God, "Good Master"! Let us pray for this!
Amen
Date: 1 August 1965 Bible Study.