Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 3 Study # 4
September 5, 2023
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(No Audio Available)
(427)
Thesis: Jesus' response to the question is deliberately "searching" because the man's attitude is not the one that John (the Baptizer) presented as the necessary pre-faith condition.
Introduction: In our studies thus far in this paragraph we have seen that Mark is returning to the earlier thesis that there is an attitude of man that will prevent his ability to "receive The Kingdom of The God as does a child". In the initial presentation of this "attitude" Mark used the "divorce" issue to highlight how men and women often "bend" the words of God in order to bypass God's words in favor of their own self-centered agendas. Such "twisting" of the words of God will definitely yield "destruction" (as Peter said in
2 Peter 3:16) rather than participating in God's Kingdom.
In the record before us, as a second statement of the issue of what keeps men from being able to inherit eternal life, Mark is presenting the same "self-centeredness" of the "divorce" text, but he presents it from a different angle: man's idolatry.
- I. Round Two: The Attitude That Prevents Entrance Into The Kingdom Of The God.
- A. The initial indicators of this "attitude" (the running and kneeling).
- B. The first words out of his mouth were "Good Teacher".
- C. The "burning question" that was actually designed to appear to be reason for the "running" and "kneeling".
- 1. Is couched in terms of "inheriting eternal life" in 10:17.
- 2. Is couched in terms of "having treasure in heaven" in 10:21.
- 3. Is couched in terms of "entering into the Kingdom of The God" in 10:23-25 in a triple repetition of this particular issue.
- 4. Is couched in terms of "being saved" in 10:26.
- D. Jesus' "cryptic" answer.
- 1. Is immediately focused upon "the commandments" that God had imposed upon the nation as He covenanted to be their King and they covenanted to be His people as people who would treat one another properly (totally ignoring the weightier issues of those commandments which addressed the issues of loyalty to God).
- a. "Do not murder"; Exodus 20:13.
- b. "Do not commit adultery"; Exodus 20:14.
- c. "Do not steal": Exodus 20:15.
- d. "Do not bear false witness"; Exodus 20:16.
- e. "Do not defraud"; Exodus 20:17. This is a variation of the command to "Do not covet"; it goes beyond the "attitude" of coveting to the actual "actions" designed to obtain what belongs to one's neighbor.
- 1) This is deliberately not a "quote" (as all of the rest are) of Exodus 20:17, which has a strong implication that the man's "wealth" was not honorably obtained.
- 2) As Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:10, "the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil", Jesus knows that this truth applies to this rich man.
- f. "Honor your father and your mother"; Exodus 20:12. This is a deliberately "out of order" command that has strong implications of "failure" on the part of this rich young man.
- 2. Has never been "The Gospel", but has always been lurking in the shadows as what Paul called "a tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24).
- a. This function of being a "tutor" was to press the issues of man's abject failure to keep any of the commandments.
- b. This function of being a "tutor" was never to become the sort of teaching that had gained an absolute grasp of the Jews by the first century: a way to gain entrance by performance.
- 3. Is rooted in Jesus' "love" (agapao) for this man.
- a. The oddity of such a declaration of "love" arrests our attention.
- b. It holds Jesus high above the normal human response to rich, arrogant, self-righteous people as it explains why He persists in pressing the man to admit his need.
