Dear Christian friends:

Our text today tells about a young rich man who came to Jesus asking about how to get everlasting life, how to get to heaven.

Can a rich man go to heaven? Or will only poor people go to heaven? Some of us may think that all rich people are crooks and can't go to heaven, but all poor people are honest and will go to heaven. We may be thinking that God loves the poor and hates the rich.

But here in our text it says that Jesus loved this rich young man. So what about the rich people? Should we try to get rich? Should a Christian be rich?


Riches make it harder to be and remain a Christian. It isn't a sin to be rich and a Christian can also be rich. The rich young man came to Jesus and asked about everlasting life. When Jesus told him to sell all of his possessions and give the money to the poor and follow Him, he was very sad and left, because he was very rich. He let his riches separate Him from God.

Then Jesus said to His disciples that it is very hard for a rich man to get into God's kingdom. Why? When we are rich we worry and fear that we may lose our riches. That's true of other things we may have such as beauty, strength of body or a high position and power. If we buy a new car we adore it and worry about it getting a scratch or dent or getting wrecked.

New furniture or a new rug we worry and worry that someone will spill food on it and soil it. The more we have and the nicer these things are the more we worry and fret about losing them or hurting them. So also we we worry about money.

We think we can't be happy without these things. We love them and trust in them as we ought to love and trust in God. Yes, these earthly things easily become our idols. Jesus could see that in the rich young man. He worried too much about His money. So Jesus told him to get rid of his money and give it to the poor, and find a better God, "Follow Me and you will have new riches. Then you will have peace in your heart and cheerful spirit and be free. You will no longer be a slave to money."

So you and I when we worry and fear about money and beauty or earthly things the wise thing to do is to give them away. This is true, but you will never know that until God helps you to do it.

When Jesus said these things about the rich man the disciples were afraid and they said, "Who can be saved?" They knew that even they wanted riches and worried much about getting more and more earthly things. So Jesus said, "Men can't do this, but God can do anything."

By God's grace and the Holy Spirit we can learn that riches, beauty, power and strength are false gods and can't really help us; can't really give us peace in our hearts and joy or hope. He helps us to see we will never be satisfied or happy with riches and earthly things.

They can't free us from sin and the devil and everlasting death. He helps us to see that our only help is in Him because He is really God and Keeper and He forgives all our sins through His Son Jesus Christ who died for us and rose again.

In Jesus God frees us from riches and all earthly things and helps us to love only Him. If He asks us for all our riches we will give them up without complaint. If by sickness or other terrible event He takes them from us we will say with Job, "the Lord God gave; and the Lord hath taken away, praise the name of the Lord."

Certainly if God blesses us with riches and earthly things we will be glad to use them to help others in our city and nation, especially the poor and the needy. And we will also gladly give our beautiful, young bodies and time and money for supporting the preaching of the Good News of Jesus which has freed us and can also free others and bring them happiness now on earth and forever in heaven.

Yes, a Christian can be rich. Money and earthly possessions in themselves are not sinful or bad. It's how you feel about money. That's the important thing. The Bible does not say that money is the root of evil. It says, "The love for money is the root of all evil."

By nature we all love money and so are greedy and crabby and do much sin. But God can change our nature through Jesus our Savior and give us a new heart so that we love Him and not money.

Amen.