URC Daily Devotion Monday 17th March 2025
St Luke 18: 18-30
A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honour your father and mother.”’ He replied, ‘I have kept all these since my youth.’
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’
Those who heard it said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ He replied, ‘What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.’ Then Peter said, ‘Look, we have left our homes and followed you.’ And he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.’
Reflection
Is this account really about the dangers of wealth or about having the right mindset?
The rich ruler was self-assured in his achievements to date and perhaps has the air of someone confident of being in prime position for the next step to “inherit eternal life.” In his still seminal commentary on this gospel, G.B Caird portrays him as an accomplished man of the world who wished for nothing he could not earn: “He supposed that entry into the kingdom was by competitive examination: he had passed Elementary religion to his own satisfaction and, as he believed, to the satisfaction of the Examiner; now he wished to attempt Advanced Religion.”* Jesus’ response cuts through this over confidence with the challenge that he should put his trust in God and not in his own wealth and achievements.
This potently reminds us that, as Paul declared, it is by faith that we are saved and not that of our own efforts: “it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2.9). It also speaks powerfully to our own age where, particularly in capitalist societies, a great premium is placed on being a self-made person, thrusting ahead through one’s efforts and accomplishments. Success is what you make for yourself; by pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. Whatever the merits of this outlook for career advancement, it is not the formula for fashioning and deepening one’s spiritual growth. Here a different mindset is needed, a humble outlook forged at the foot of the cross; placing our trust, our very selves, within the grace won through the sacrifice of Christ.
Prayer
Just as I am, without a plea.
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God. I come, I come.
From Charlotte Elliot’s hymn, 1835
*Caird, G.B. (1963) St Luke. The Pelican New Testament Commentaries.