The Rewarder of the Faithful

From infancy to eternity, we were made for more than the paltry pleasures of this life. When our God made us and sent us into the world, he did not intend that we find satisfaction with the baubles and trinkets of this life. He certainly did not send us into this world that we might be satisfied with those thieving pleasures of sin. The Father did not intend that we would waste ourselves on things that break us and destroy us. He created us to be with him and find our joy in him. We were made for infinite pleasure and joy, for a kingdom and a King who brings us into his glory.

Luke 18:18-30

This famous passage of the Gospel focuses us on the major question of existence: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” No more important question could ever be considered. John 17:3 defines eternal life as knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. Eternal life is personal knowledge of God through his Son, Jesus Christ. This man comes to the right place with the right question.

Our Lord responds by pointing the man to life. Jesus says he must be clear on three things. First, the man must be clear on who Jesus is (v. 19). When the Lord asks, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone,” he does not deny that he is God. He attempts to lead the man to the logical conclusion of his assumption: If Jesus is truly good, then he is also God. He wants to know if the man himself has come to the point of confessing Christ as Lord.

Second, the man must clearly understand what God requires of him (v. 20). We must keep the law. However, we must not keep the law in our own strength. The man doesn’t yet understand this. He claims to have kept the second table of the law since his youth. However, he doesn’t notice that Jesus temporarily omits the first table of the law that records those duties we owe to God. We must have no god but God. So the Lord calls the man to practically demonstrate he has no other gods but God by selling his possessions and giving to the poor. The Lord promises the man treasures in heaven if he forsakes treasures on earth and follows him. What a promise!

The man went away sad. He not only had wealth, his wealth had him. He was rich in material possessions but spiritually impoverished. Christ was calling the man to show the kind of faith that relinquishes this life in exchange for eternal life. The Lord required the man to lay down the things of this world so that he might have Christ. Christ is too big a God to have him in our hands and hold on to the world as well. Christ displaces all the world’s treasures so that he alone will be adored, trusted, and obeyed.

This man speaks with the living Lord but does not recognize it. He hears an answer to the most important question in the universe, but he cannot receive it. The deceitfulness of riches blinds him. He looks at Jesus and then his things, and he chooses his things over Jesus.

He kept what he had, losing nothing, but he goes away “sad.” Beloved, this man’s reaction dramatizes the life choice of so many people today who look at their possessions, look at Jesus, and choose their possessions. They walk away with an inexplicable sadness. Their possessions do not satisfy them anymore, but they cannot let them go—which is how we know their possessions have become idols. They are sad with it, but they must have it! So many people waste away like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, stroking their “Precious” and dying from it!

The man walks away sad, and Jesus feels sad for him. The Lord does not thunder condemnation from heaven. He points out how difficult it is for rich people to enter the kingdom (vv. 24-25). Riches strangle the spirit in many. The Lord laments what created things do to immortal souls.

Again, the disciples think like the world (v. 26). Because the rich have access and ease in this world, they assume the rich will have access and ease with God. They think riches in this life indicate God’s pleasure with a person. They even go so far as to suggest that if the rich can’t gain eternal life then nobody can! They have not yet come to understand how the kingdom works.

Jesus explains that with man it’s impossible for a camel to travel through the eye of a sewing needle, and it’s even harder for a rich man to come to saving faith. But nothing is too hard for God—even putting a camel through the eye of a needle! God can save a rich man, but it will be an act of God, not a result of wealth. No one is beyond the reach of God’s salvation.

Peter begins to understand. He mentions the things the disciples have left (v. 28). The Lord assures the disciples that no one making this sacrifice will go unrewarded (v. 29). We must forsake our lives if we are to gain our lives. When we deny ourselves then we find ourselves and the kingdom of God and eternal life! There is a way to have your cake and eat it too—it’s by coming to Christ. If your “cake” includes the things of this world, you will have to let it go, but Christ promises a better “cake”—a better feast, in fact. You will have to forsake all things to follow Christ, but it’s worth it!

Ultimately the rich young ruler is a bad businessman. He was offered ultimate profit in a kingdom of glory, and he turned it down. He made a bad trade. A healthy sense of self-interest and a healthy desire for sustained pleasure ought to lead every person to trade this world for the eternal world to come. Christ will certainly make demands on our lives. He will demand our entire lives. He will rearrange our lives. He will remove us from relationships and circumstances that we love but that are not pleasing to him. He will cause us to make stands, even against our loved ones, where he is concerned. He will call us to make stands that may cost us greatly—like our spiritual brethren in Muslim and Hindu lands who lose their families, homes, and churches in persecution. He will call us to do all of these costly things, but he will reward us with an everlasting kingdom and eternal life.

Only one person in Luke 18 went away from Jesus without a reward—the man who would not deny himself. He trusted his treasures rather than Christ. Do not make this man’s mistake.

Luke 18:31-43

Luke orders this section very intentionally. In verses 31-34 the Lord meets privately with the disciples to relate the events about to take place in Jerusalem. He prophesies the facts of his passion and resurrection. But the disciples understood none of these things (v. 34). Hearing, they did not understand. It’s as though a veil lay over their eyes.

Contrast the disciples with the blind beggar we meet in verse 35. Because of his blindness the man is reduced to begging in order to survive. He sits near the city gate when the crowd passes in commotion. He calls out to understand what is happening. When he learns Jesus is passing by, he springs to his feet and repeatedly calls out to Jesus using an Old Testament messianic title: “Son of David.” The Son of David was prophesied to be the descendant of David who would rule on David’s throne forever (2 Sam 7). The Scriptures prophesied that the Son of David would fulfill all God’s plans for his people. Though the beggar cannot see and has not met the Lord before, this man knows the Lord’s true identity.

The blind man discovers more riches in Christ than the rich man had without Christ. The blind man sees more in Jesus than the disciples with their sight. The beggar was not present in the private meeting Jesus held with the disciples (vv. 31-34), so he did not know Jesus had used another messianic title, “Son of Man” (v. 31), from Daniel 7. The disciples with the private study could not see it while the blind man sitting by the streets saw perfectly. He prays, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (v. 38).

As a young boy I grew accustomed to hearing older persons in my family and community say, “Lord, have mercy.” The words ran together in a southern twang, “Ham-mercy.” The older saints would use that phrase with variable tones and richer meaning than I could grasp at the time. Now that I’m a little older, I’m beginning to understand a little more. This blind man by the city gate shared a lot in common with my grandmother as she cried out or whispered the same prayer, “Lord, have mercy.”

He sees with the eyes of faith. He believes that if he seeks Jesus, the Lord will reward him. He’s hoping for the blessings prophesied in the Old Testament. He will not be silenced, even though the crowds insist that Jesus does not have time for blind beggars (v. 39). This man will not let the crowds keep him from Christ. The crowds of religious people do not always value what is in fact good and true.

The Lord calls the man to himself and asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” (v. 41). The Lord gives the blind man a blank check in prayer! It’s the same blank check he gives us. He asks us each day, “What would you have me do for you?” The Father has given us his son. How will he not along with Christ give us all things (Rom 8:32)?

The man asks to recover his sight. He wants to see again, to behold colors. He perhaps wants to again see the faces of his wife and children—not by slowly fading memory but with his own eyes. He wants to behold trees swaying in the breeze and blades of grass bending beneath his feet. He wants to behold life again.

I love the story of Fanny Crosby, the great hymn writer who was blind from a young age. A well-meaning visitor one day lamented her blindness and told her he wished she had her sight. He said that he was sure that she too wished she could see. Fanny Crosby said to him, “Oh, no.” She said she trusted Christ with her life. “Blindness,” she wrote in later life, “cannot keep the sunlight of hope from the trustful soul.” She maintained a wonderfully joyful perspective on her life. She wrote,

It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me. (“Fanny Crosby”)

But the most remarkable insight, in my opinion, came from her longing for heaven. She expressed it with these words: “If at my birth, I had been able to make one petition to my creator, it would have been that I should be made blind. . . . Because, when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Saviour” (Moseley H. Williams, “The Man Born Blind,” 302).

This man comes to Jesus asking for his sight. Jesus replied, “Receive your sight. Your faith has saved you” (v. 42). Then the first thing that floods this man’s renewed vision is the face of the Savior!

As the hymn writer puts it, “Oh, I want to see him, look upon his face.” His is a face so full of glory that when our eyes open on the day he comes we will be transformed into the very glory we see in him. To see him will be the highest happiness of heaven. Of all that’s promised in the kingdom, of all the rewards, of all the treasures of infinite worth, none will compare to that moment when we lock our eyes on the face of Christ. Then, beloved, we will be satisfied (Ps 17:15)! Then we will be glad for sight. We will no longer take seeing for granted. We will see with perfect vision the perfect glory of our Lord’s perfect face. All that we see will make glad the weary heart, will strengthen the tired soul, will replace all of our struggle with infinite joy.

Perhaps that’s why the text ends by saying the once-blind man praised God. When we see him we will praise him too.

Ultimately, the Lord rewards us with himself. In all of his giving and answering of prayer, in the end we will receive Christ and Christ will be the greater part.

In verse 8 the Lord asked, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” That’s the question that comes to us now. Are we people who believe? Are we people who trust in him? When the Savior comes, I think he will find faith because he gives faith. Those of us who receive the gift of faith may now rejoice in him.

Will you be found in faith when the Lord comes? If you are not now in the faith, consider what you have gotten to know about Jesus from this passage. He rewards those who seek him. Call on his name while you may be saved. Call out for mercy. He will answer you. Ask for the gifts of repentance and faith. Consider his love for you, proven through the crucifixion of his Son. Meditate on the righteousness God offers through Jesus’s resurrection. Then ask for saving faith so that you would be found in Christ on the day of his coming. Confess your sin, repent, and believe, and the hope of seeing Jesus will be yours.