What good thing must I do?
Martha Olawale
“Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Matthew 19:16
When you find Christ, you gain everything, with the access to the greatest treasures in life. Like your priceless possessions, keeping your treasure close is wise. You can’t walk away from Jesus and leave with joy. To know true joy, you must know Christ and be willing to follow where He leads.
The young rich man in Matthew 19 was unsatisfied with all his accomplishments and religious pride. Jesus offered him a hand of fellowship, but he refused it. He hung on to his heart’s and earth’s possessions, leaving his source of peace and joy behind. He walked away from Jesus back to what he believed to be worth more than Heaven.
What a shame to gain access to the King’s throne and choose to live in a dung. Verse 22 states, “He went away sad because he had great wealth.” The question is, how can you have great wealth and still be sad? It’s because true wealth is found in Jesus, and what he left him for is temporary. He short-changed himself by falling for the devil’s trick to value worldly possessions above Heaven’s glory. What the world defines as wealth: money, houses, fame, and friends is nothing compared to the joy of walking with and following Christ.
To follow Jesus, we must be willing to strip away all our excesses and worldly attachments and allow Him to lead. I am guilty of constantly trying to fix myself when I know that I can only find help resting in the hands of Jesus. There is no good thing outside Christ, so trying to value things outside Him is stepping off the cliff edge away from a paved path.
The young man had a wrong view of Jesus when he came to Him. To him, Christ was just “A good teacher,” nothing more (Mark 10:17). He could not see beyond the earthly good things he saw Jesus doing. He was blinded by his pride and self-worth, which limited his approach to the Godhead of Jesus. Seeing his heart, Jesus tried to help him see beyond the healings and good things he must have heard or witnessed about Him, and said in Mark 10:18, “Why do you call me good?” “No one is good—except God alone.”
How we approach God determines what we get out of the relationship. If you ask many people what they think of Jesus, they’ll probably have good things to say about Him and maybe even wear a cross pendant on their neck. However, it is not acknowledging how ‘nice’ Christ is that frees us; it is accepting His Lordship over our lives. We enjoy freedom from things we hold above the Kingdom of God when we follow the King of kings.
God, in His mercies, gave us the gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, and with that comes all the good we could ever wish for. Don’t walk away from God’s love for the things you left behind; stay with Jesus when you find Him. Lay down what He asks of you because you gain much more in doing so. And if you haven’t crossed the line of salvation already, tell Him you are willing to surrender, and He’ll meet you right where you are to lead you to where your soul finds rest.
