Sam here with another thought for you.  This week’s blog post is going to be fairly short, and involve more thinking on your end for a few reasons.  First, it’s finals week, and life is chaotic.  Rock Hill is going to be posting a pretty sweet post later this week just for the college students who are trying to keep their head above water during finals weeks.  Second, Matthew 19 and the rich young ruler brings up some great questions to ask, so it’s probably going to serve us better to get to the bottom of those questions instead of reading a novel of a blog post or reading the sermon.

The last two weeks Matthew 18 addressed conflict, and how it’s dealt with individually, and as a church body.  Next in Matthew 19, Jesus addresses the most hellish realities of conflict, first the separation of each other, divorce, and then the separation from Jesus.  What he root cause of all of this destructive conflict?  Unmet desires in our hearts.  Conflict arises when we buy into the lie that we cannot be satisfied unless we have something we want.  When this thing turns into something we need, we demand it, and we judge and punish those who get in our way.  Last week we discussed what is meant to forgive other people who’ve bought into that lie.  This week we’re asking ourselves if we’re buying into that lie.  In Matthew 19 the rich young ruler, we’ll call him Rob, doesn’t start a fight after he chooses not to follow Jesus.  Jesus simply revealed the state of Rob’s heart, revealed the truth that would set him free, and Rob rejected that truth and walked away.  Rob’s conflict of interest with his creator was eventually resolved when he stood before God and all he had to show were a few of the ten commandments and his net-worth.  As Pastor Kyle noted on Sunday, Rob’s not pathetic because he’s got money in the bank, but because he thought all that dough was more important than a person.  And not just any person, but the person who started and will end it all, Jesus.  But in Rob’s false reality, choosing not to follow Jesus is something he thought he could afford.  Jesus didn’t hold him in a chokehold until he gave him all his money.  He simply choose to walk away.  We face that same reality today.  We live in one of the most healthy, wealthy, and prosperous societies this world has seen.  Our society preaches that Jesus is a person we can all afford not to follow.  We have government, order, safety, shelter, jobs, food, vacations, retirement accounts, and a house full of stuff.  In our culture, we can easily afford not to follow Jesus with our time, hobbies, jobs, money, and even families.  Anyone could live a ‘comfortable’ lifestyle in our culture without following Jesus.  Anyone can walk away from Jesus in the temple. The solution isn’t to compromise our security or health, or asceticism (abstaining from all forms of indulgence).  The solution is a change in our desires, in our wants, and in our needs.  The solution isn’t wrapped up in our net-worth or how much stuff we have, but in what we’re willing to give up to follow Jesus.

As Christ-followers, we cannot afford to lose Jesus.  His life, death, and defeat of death is our only hope of salvation.  Simply a knowledge of His existence doesn’t guarantee eternal life, but requires following Him.  Following Jesus not only saves us from eternal damnation, but a reality of hell in this life: perpetual disappointment in people and our stuff for never satisfying us.  The forgiveness of Jesus not only saves us from this hell, but to a life satisfied by Christ.

Getting to the bottom of our desires, wants, and demands is a daily struggle. We’re all getting up, going to school, working, raising children, going out, and making a name for ourselves for a reason.  As Christ-followers we’re committed to fix our reasoning on one thing, Jesus.  Choose to fix ourselves upon Jesus is an everyday, every hour, and every minute decision.   A decision to not find our satisfaction in our stuff, status, career, or people, but in Jesus.   This is a reason we need community.  We’re eventually going to need someone to tell us nothing is going to fill the voids in our lives except Jesus.  The question is, are you walking away from that, or into a life of following Jesus?

Here are a few questions to answer individually and in your missional communities this week:

What is an idol?

In what ways do you ‘afford’ to walk away from Jesus?

What am I preoccupied with? What is the first thing on my mind in the morning

and the last thing on my mind at night?

Finish this sentence… “If only _____________, then I would be happy, fulfilled,

and secure”?

When a certain desire is not met, do I feel frustration, anxiety, resentment,

bitterness, anger, or depression?

Is there something I desire so much that I am willing to disappoint or hurt

others in order to have it?

Take a look at each of these 3 miracles.

Feeding 5000 people in the wilderness.  This is incredibly miraculous, but it would have clearly connected Jesus to the entire story of the Bible.  What did God do for his people while they were wandering in the wilderness without food?  He miraculously provided for them through the provision of Mana.  Jesus is showing here in a way that clearly connects to the rest of the story that he has Yahweh’s power and that in his coming Kingdom, there will be no lack of provisions.

Walking on Water and Calming the Storm.  Jesus certainly evidences the power of God over even nature itself by walking on water (that is not frozen ice fisherman, you’re not as cool as Jesus) and by once again calming a destructive storm that could have destroyed his disciples.  As he calls out to his disciples he says, “take heart, it is I” which literally in Greek is “Take heart, I am.”

Jesus heals the sick in Geneseret.  As is almost normal now in his ministry, he uses the power of God to restore people to health.  Disease, sickness, disability are the result of the fall and will be completely done away with in his coming Kingdom.  He foreshaddows that power even now.

What we learn in this passage is quite clear.

• Jesus is God
• Jesus has his own agenda, but is not opposed to being interrupted by need.
• Jesus shows us a foretaste of how he will use his power to restore all things.
• The disciples “get it in part” but not yet fully.
• Jesus transfers some of his power to his disciples.

Jesus clearly withdraws from the crowd and popularity because he is on his own time frame (“it is not yet his time to die”).  Yet, even as he consistently withdraws, people continue to follow him.  Jesus shows compassion to them by feeding, teaching, and healing them.  I wonder, do we reflect Jesus in both of these aspects?  Do we have a plan?  Do we know where we are going?  And if so, are we willing to deviate from it in order to meet people’s needs?

Another question that really hit me was: Do I long for the Kingdom of God to come in all it’s fullness?  Have I tasted in part so that I ache, I long for the full restoration promised?  This is called the great “hope” of Christians in the 1st Century.  Have we lost that?

Does your life resonate with the disciples at this point?  They have seen the power of God, they cry out “You are the Son of God” and worship him, and yet a couple chapters later (16:22), they are rebuking Jesus for not fitting their plan for what God’s Messiah should do.  I know that this is all too often the pattern of my life.

Finally I am struck by this question: Do I really believe the same power (the Holy Spirit) that raised Jesus Christ from the dead and empowered his miraculous life LIVES IN ME?

Please process through these very real questions in your Missional Communities this week.