“Jesus said again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God’” (Mark 10:24b).

“How hard it is to ender the Kingdom of God…”

That’s what Jesus said. And, he meant it. We don’t normally think of it this way. We tend to think that following Jesus and entering the Kingdom of God is the most reasonable thing for us to do.

The context for this passage is Jesus’ encounter with a rich young ruler. The rich young ruler runs up to Jesus and falls on his knees before him and asks Jesus what he has to do to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus responds to his question by telling him to keep the commandments – referring to the Ten Commandments. To which the young man responds, surprisingly, that he has faithfully kept all of God’s commands.

Wow! That’s some confidence!

What is surprising, is that the gospel writer tells us that Jesus is in agreement with the rich young ruler. We are told, “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21).

Wow! That’s impressive!

Then, Jesus tells him the one thing that’s keeping this young man from the kingdom of heaven – “One thing you lack. Go and sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21).

This young man had kept all the commandments of God. This man had lived his life right. This man was an upstanding man.

But, one thing he lacked.

For him, it was his money and wealth. The point is not necessarily about money and wealth. The question is what is the one thing which you treasure even more than Jesus? What is the one thing that remains unsurrendered to Jesus. It is what you treasure, what remains unsurrendered to Jesus that impedes your spiritual growth and maturity.

It is that which we treasure more than Jesus, the thing that remains unsurrendered to Jesus that is an impedance to our spiritual growth and maturity.

What is the one thing you lack? What do you treasure more than Jesus?

“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

Tony Campolo was once preaching to a wealthy Presbyterian church on the West Coast.

He said, “In the next hour, 5,000 children are going to die of starvation, and most of you don’t give a s*&t. And what’s really sad is that more of you are upset that I said s*&t than that 5,000 children are going to die. Now, let’s talk about the nature of obscenity.”

God declared through the prophet Isaiah long ago, “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like noonday” (Isaiah 58:6-10).

“The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’

Moses replied, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?’

But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?

Then Moses cried out to the LORD, ‘What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ The LORD answered Moses, ‘Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you stuck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’” (Exodus 17:1-7).

Observation:
At the command of the Lord, the Israelites camped, but there was no water to drink. You’d think that if God commanded a camping spot, there’d be plenty of water, as well as a buffet line and waiters to bring them coffee and dessert. You’d think if God planned it all the logistics would have been taken into consideration and a catering company would be waiting for the Israelites as they arrived.

Application:
There will be times, even though the Lord leads us, when we will find ourselves with sparse resources. Not enough money. Not enough help. Not enough encouragement. But it doesn’t mean that God is not in the situation. Being patient comes hard when I am thirsty after a long trek. We can react prematurely, jumping to the wrong conclusions about how God is working. In doing so, we make the desert a hotter place than it needs to be. 

God is not finished yet. Think about it – God had water stored in a rock!