Matthew 19 16-22

Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good[e] Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good?[f] No one is good but One, that is, God.[g] But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[h] and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”[i]
The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth.[j] What do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

This is a story that I had always been confused about since I was a kid. Jesus goes on to say that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven. Until recently I hadn't realized that as this young man goes through his checklist explaining how he had kept the ten commandments that he was actually breaking the very first commandment: You will have no other God's before me.

When the young man first approaches Jesus he calls Him "Good teacher" and Jesus responds by asking why he thought to call Him good when God alone is good. Now I wasn't there, and I certainly can't claim to know what was in Jesus' brain right then, but I think that he responded to the man that way because He knew that man thought that he was good. After all, the reason the young man approaches Jesus in the first place is to find out what good thing he could do to have eternal life, and proceeds to tell Jesus that he'd done everything he needed to do to meet the requirements of a holy God. Can you imagine looking the Righteous Son of God in the eyes and telling Him that you didn't need Him because of your own merits? I can't be so harsh on the man though because I do this every time I try to live out of my own strength and not out of Christ's. So Jesus knows that the young man is the God of his own heart, depending on his own goodness and wealth, so He asks him to give up his idol. And the man is heart broken; he's can't give up what he loves so dearly.

Part of me gets a little mad that Jesus asks for the thing that the man loved so much. But that was the thing that was separating the man from seeing God.

Father, please let nothing hinder me from seeking your face. Just as Moses boldly asked to see you, I want to see you too. Please forgive me for my smallness of faith. You alone should have my heart.

I like to think that maybe this man had a change of heart later. It's probably not likely though, because he didn't see his need for God. That reminds me of a lot of people. Oh that we might walk in the balance of knowing that we are decrepit from the core thus unable to stand in the presence of God, yet so vastly loved that God sent His son so that we could be regenerated and worship Him with our lives.