The Rich Young Man Went Away Sorrowful. James Jacques Joseph Tissot.
The story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus is well known. The story is recounted in Matthew 19 and Mark 10. A wealthy young man comes up to Jesus looking for a system of morality that will get him into heaven, fire insurance as we say today. Jesus tells him to follow the law. The man claims to have been doing this. Jesus tells him to give up all of his money and the man walks away. This young man just gave up the kingdom of heaven for however much money Mark 8:36. He did not see the Kingdom of Heaven as a priceless jewel for which he would sell all Matthew 13:45,46. According to Luke 13:16-21, this man is a fool.
But let’s suppose this man shows up to church on a different Sunday, when the message is not about money. On Do not Murder week, this guy is cheering in the isles. Do not commit adultery week is fine too, “preach it brother”. Do not steal week, “what a great illustration, I need to tell so-and-so about that. He has a little problem with this.” All these weeks sitting in the pew, he doesn’t look like a fool. What is wrong with Jesus? Why couldn’t he just find common ground with this guy and live happily ever after? Why does Jesus have to be so judgemental the guy was 90% right in his theology, give him a break, no one is perfect. Instead Jesus goes right to this man’s one weakness and exposes it. I have see few pastors who are as to the point as Jesus. It’s easy to address piles of legitimate sins floating around theoretically in the world, while telling yourself that you are faithful to the word, but to address the immediate sin of a people is hard. As an old pastor once said if you are not preaching the gospel that needs to be heard by the people right now, you are not preaching the gospel. We all need the gospel every week and every day. We are all fools in some area or another, and the appearance of getting along is not worth the evil that sin can work.
So, seriously do you know any Deists? Gosh I just can’t tell you the number of lives I’ve seen destroyed by Polytheism–wait that never happened. And, I’m not talking about involving elaborate systems of rhetoric to force someone with some error into one of these categories. Because on the face, it is silly to discuss these, these are not our problems. Agnosticism or Atheism are very popular in the west and Pantheism in the east, but I’m talking about our church or the church at large. Not that we are without our problems, so like Jesus I would like to address a few of these.
Problem one is Scientism, it is the grandchild of Darwinism but not quite the same thing. I’m not talking about science as a set of experiments. It’s not about living out our Christianity in a real way on this planet. It’s not an exercise of applied science in any give field. It is applying science to areas clearly covered by scripture. It is allowing science to be a source of authority over scripture. Now of course no one likes to admit that this is the case. Our hearts are deceitful, we do thing subtly. We create complex edifices to assure ourselves that we are ok. The fact remains we put ‘science’ over God’s word in many areas. Ever wonder why pastors use statistics so much these days. It’s not enough for us to hear God’s word tell us something is wrong, we need to try it a bunch and then collect statistics to see if it was really that bad. Look at Europe they legalized everything and their murder rate is down 3.5%. And about God’s word, some parts of it have not been proved by science so we better tread lightly we don’t want to look stupid like the Church did with that whole Galileo incident. No sir, not me, I’m an enlightened modern. . . fool.
This sin first because it is the most fundamental problem these days. It is underlying our thinking at a fundamental level which gives rise to so many other bad ideas. This was the battle of C. S. Lewis. This life is a story which is why God’s word is full of stories. We are not molecules or atoms or some other scientific explanation, we are the incarnated word of God, like all of creation. God incarnated his law and love into a story that was Jesus the Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. Science can do a lot of things for us, but it is no way to run your thoughts, your life or a society. Aurthur Balfour predicted it and Hitler worked it out in real life. His crusade to assist natural selection resulted in millions of deaths. But we do the same thing every time we put the authority of science above God’s word. Scientific advances have given us the false impression that things will always get better, that what is new is always better. It tells us that old book, old morality and old people are of no use. Old people can’t do as much as young people and they are slow at computers, so let’s just kill them. This extreme pragmatism has lead to a huge influx of euthanasia, assisted suicide, and the killing of unborn people with down syndrome and other defects. We worship science when we corrupt the creation account and fundamentally misunderstand that story. He created them male and female, gender is not a choice. Marriage is a God ordained institution, it’s not a convenient social construct which can just as easily be involve two people of the same sex if it’s convenient. Things don’t slowly morph into other things, God put them in their place, quickly and dramatically. The same way he brought his justice and remade the world in the flood and the tower of Babel and in every life remade by the Gospel. Our court systems are full of scientism. Guild or innocence by a standard of God’s law are secondary to a person’s genetic propensity, mental diseases or social conditioning. These are all the constructs of Social Science which is simply pseudo-scientific-heresy masquerading as science. Humans are not machines, we are sinful fallen creatures made in the image of God. Our hearts are deceitfully wicked, yet we think a series of experiments can somehow give us meaning and direction. We are fools.
Problem two is Patriotism. Now there is nothing wrong with loving your country or even fighting for it. But there is a problem with putting your faith in it. Were you scared on 9/11? Why? God was still ruling in heaven the same as he is every day. If God wants to take you, what do you think the government will do about it? Do you give thanks to the government for your personal safety and prosperity or do you praise God? Or perhaps you just put your faith in capitalism as a system apart from any country. That is still false worship. You are still a fool.
With our latest President the country seems to have taken a turn from this sin into the sin of Communism. If patriotism is the Republican sin, this is the Democratic. Obama ran as a messiah, he was going to provide everything for everyone. He was blatantly worshiped. Many put their faith in him. The government is their god, it feeds and clothes them, gives them healthcare, tells them what to eat, how to be safe and even raises their kids. Jesus told the Jews to “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” But my person is not Caesars, I bear the image of God I belong to him. My family is not Caesar’s, nor is my church. But we rendered these things to the government in countless ways. From turning over our 5 year olds to accepting laws we should fight. Inculcated Communism has also lead to fundamental redefinitions of property, justice and even history. God’s repeated command not to steal assumes property ownership. But Communist like to tell a false story about how everyone is owed equal everything and protection of property is a construct of the rich to subdue the poor. Real justice, they say, is redistributing everything to the poor. Or as God might say legalized theft. The only reason there is evil in the world, says the Communist, is because of wealth inequality. No, I’m sorry, the problem is sin, and the solution is Christ. And anyone who puts their faith in government is a fool.