And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, One thing lackest thou go, sell whatever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, [taking up the cross].
A rich young ruler comes to Jesus, and Jesus answers with a look of love before naming the one thing he lacks. The verse holds two things at once: real love for a good man, and a demand that exposed him.
Mark sets a sharp reply and a warm look side by side. Neither the rebuke nor the Lord's knowledge of the ending cooled His love for the man.
It is striking to notice these two things side by side. One is the relative sharpness of our Lord's answer. The other is the plain statement that He looked at him and loved him. The first showed how He dealt with a pleasant nature pushing into what it does not know. The second showed something else. He rebuked the man's spiritual blindness sharply. He also knew the young man had no faith and would go away sad at His word. Yet neither of these held back the Saviour's love for what was sweet and attractive in human nature.
This detail is unique to Mark's account.
In Mark's account of the rich young ruler we read that Jesus looked at him and loved him. Neither Matthew nor Luke mentions this feeling of the Lord's heart.
The Lord's diagnosis is personal. It points to Himself, not to a gap in the man's record.
The Lord knew his condition, and expressed it in the words, "One thing you lack." And what was lacking? Attachment to Himself. You have not attached yourself to Me, and there are certain things in the road that hinder you from doing so.
The Lord's word does more than ask for money. It reaches the thing that moved him.
"One thing you lack," says the Lord: "Go, sell what you have, and come and follow Me." Here we see the desire of the heart exposed. The Lord's powerful but simple word lays the young man's true state bare, for that word knows and tests the heart. The fine flowers of the wild tree are worth nothing; the fruits are those of a heart alienated from God. The love of riches ruled this young man's heart, however pleasing his natural disposition was. The low desire for gold lay at the bottom of his heart. It was the mainspring of his will, the true measure of his moral state. If he goes away grieved and leaves the Lord, it is because he prefers money to God manifested in love and grace.
The Lord's answer moves in three steps, and each one probes something different.
There was something he was asked to give up; something to take up; and Someone to follow.
The third step costs the most. It asks who we are willing to be seen with.
The third test is a rejected Christ, for the Lord says to the young man, "follow Me." Are we ready to take our place beside One whom the world hates and rejects? He was born in a stable and laid in a manger. On His way through this world, He had nowhere to lay His head. He died a shameful death on a cross, and they buried Him in a borrowed grave.
The command comes with a promise. The Lord sets two things on the scales and lets the man choose.
He puts the world in one scale, Himself and heaven in the other. He offers him the assurance of the very thing he had asked about. "You will have treasure in heaven." But He offers it on one condition: the man must leave everything and follow Christ on earth. So it is Christ on earth and treasure in heaven. These are in one scale — and in the other, the world. Not the world in its misery, but in its fair and attractive forms.
The Lord gives him something to do because that is the ground the man himself chose.
He told him he lacked one thing. He should sell what he had, give the money to the poor, and come, take up the cross and follow Him. No doubt this was a matter of doing something. It was not the gospel. The man felt no need of the gospel of grace. That gospel asks us to do nothing, but to receive what God freely gives.
The man's case looked closed. It was not.
With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. At the very start, the Lord had shown him he was completely on the wrong track, seeking goodness in man. God alone was good, and so the heart came to light. The cross alone would do. Those who follow Him must take it up, for death to what man was is the only path. But then there was a blessed starting point for this: "He came to give His life as a ransom for many."
- Loved first. Christ's love met him before the demand did, and a sharp word did not cancel it.
- One thing lacking. What was missing was not another good deed but attachment to Christ Himself.
- One word testing. One simple sentence exposed what ruled him: he preferred money to God.
- One choice offered. The world in one scale; Christ on earth and treasure in heaven in the other.
- One hope left. Doing was never the gospel — with God all things are possible, and He came to give His life as a ransom for many.
But he, sad at the word, went away grieved, for he had large possessions.
The man who ran to Jesus with such eagerness now turns and walks away. Mark tells us why: he owned a great deal. This verse closes one of the saddest meetings in the Gospels. It leaves every reader with one question: what is holding my heart?
The man's fine character was not the whole story. So the Lord set him one test he did not see coming.
But such a character is not everything. The Lord wanted his everlasting welfare. So He addressed him once more and tested him in a way he had not expected... "One thing you lack: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Was Christ more to him than all his possessions? ... The Lord probed his heart and uncovered its true state. In a moment what had appeared so fair became clouded. The bud of promise never opened into a flower. It withered away. He who had run to the Lord with such eagerness turned from Him with a sad and burdened heart. What an appeal to the law did not achieve, Christ as a touchstone demonstrated.
The refusal was not a small failure of nerve. It exposed what had been driving him all along.
Here we see the desire of the heart exposed. The Lord's powerful but simple word laid the young man's true state bare, for that word knows and tests the heart. The fine flowers of the wild tree are worth nothing. The fruits are those of a heart alienated from God. The sap is the sap of a bad tree. The love of riches ruled this young man's heart, however interesting he was in his natural disposition... If he goes away grieved and leaves the Lord, it is because he prefers money to God manifested in love and grace.
This gives a measure for anyone, however pleasant.
You can find good qualities even in animals. We should value them, but they do not at all reveal the moral state of the heart... What gives moral character to a man is the object of his heart.
His good qualities were real. Something was still missing.
Yet all this natural excellence left him without any true appreciation of the Person and glory of Christ. It also left him without any true sense of the state and need of his own heart. He could see the outstanding excellence of Christ as a Man, but he could not see the glory of His Person as the Son of God.
Selling everything was only half of what the Lord asked. The rest was to take up the cross and follow Him — and that second half is easily overlooked.
Self-denial is the first requirement of a disciple, and he lacked it. At the very least, he loved his riches too well to give them up at the bidding of a prophet of Nazareth. We need not suppose he was a miser. Yet it is quite clear that he did not find enough attraction in the person of Jesus, or enough authority in His words. Neither outweighed his regard for his store of earthly treasure. And here it is important to notice one thing. Giving away all his possessions for charity did not cover "taking up the cross."
He left with what he came with. What he carried away besides was sorrow — and the exchange he refused was never a bad bargain.
Instead of the gladness that the company of Jesus would have brought him, he went away sad and grieved. How much better the divine blessing in the company of Jesus would have been than the grief and sadness his possessions brought him. He might have used his present possessions to lay up treasure in heaven.
The grief was not only his. Writers note that the One he walked away from felt it too.
He turned back again into darkness from the light he had come to. He returned again to that circle in which he himself was the centre. He turned away from the One who had rightly claimed to be his Centre... We may be sure that the heart of the Lord was grieved.
The disciples were shocked. The answer takes the whole matter out of man's hands.
He had the best dispositions, a readiness to be taught, and plenty to make good use of. Even so, the state of the heart came out. "Who then can be saved?" With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible... The cross alone would do; those who follow Him must take it up — death to what man was, the only path. But then there was a blessed starting point for this: "He came to give His life a ransom for many."
- Tested — an appeal to the law did not reach him. One word from Christ showed where his heart was set.
- Exposed — the object of the heart is the true measure of a person. Good qualities do not reveal it.
- Blinded — his natural excellence was real. It still left him unable to see the glory of Christ's Person or the need of his own heart.
- Refused — giving money away was not the whole demand. He was also to take up the cross and follow. Self-denial was what he lacked.
- Possible — he kept his wealth and carried away grief. With man salvation is impossible, but not with God. The One he left came to give His life a ransom for many.