In our last home, where we lived for four years, one of the garage doors did not have a remote-controlled opener (or so we thought), which means we would open the door, pull out the car, go back inside and shut the garage, and then go out of the house and back to the car and finally drive away. When we returned home, we would reverse the process and spend way too much time and hassle just getting into our house.
Through the process of packing up and moving out of our home, we discovered a remote control we did not recognize. My wife said, “wouldn’t that be funny (not ha-ha funny) if that remote was the one we thought we didn’t have for the garage door. Sure enough, as you’ve no doubt guessed by now, that was indeed the remote that we could have been using for FOUR YEARS, but didn’t know it existed.
I think I’ve shared that “remote control” experience in a previous blog, but have you ever done something similar when reading the Bible? Have you ever discovered something that was always in God’s Word, but you didn’t realize it? This very thing happened to me when I read the following passage:
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Did you catch that? Because I did not catch it in the previous 10 or 20 or 50 times I read this passage. “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” When I reviewed my notes to preach yesterday morning, I thought there was a typo. But there was not. For a very long time now, I have missed the fact that Jesus loved the rich young ruler as He was about to tell him the one thing he was still lacking in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus loved this man enough to tell him what he really needed to do. And Jesus did this because he loved him. When our Savior convicts us and challenges us to change, He does so out of love. He knows what’s best for us and when He asks us to give up something, it’s for our good and not our harm. We just need to believe and obey the One who loves us too much to leave us the way we are.
Troy Burns