Accepting the Hope

The woman in the IGA parking lot, turned away, with disappointment. It happened to Jesus, too. Someone wanted something very important, but the price seemed too high. He wanted a magic answer. This is told in the gospel story of the rich young man who encountered Jesus.

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"

"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."

"Which ones?" the man inquired.

Jesus replied, " `Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and `love your neighbor as yourself.' "

"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.¹

He turned away, sorrowing. He wanted an easy answer. He wanted an easy restoration in his relationship with God. He wanted magic. It wasn’t going to be easy. His money, rather than being the indication of a right relationship with God was an impediment.

I just couldn’t help but think of this story as the woman walked away from me. She needed help, power and hope. But she wanted it on her terms, and that just wasn’t going to work.

The power and hope is in God’s power and willingness to change us.

We may want an easy answer. It will never be easy. We can go away, sorrowing, or we can trust in the power of God and his willingness to change us. This is the key to getting off the spiral.

There actually are things we can do to get off the comfort spiral. It usually isn’t all that easy. We have had lifetime patterns of behavior that we go back to, because we have always gone back to them. We may do well for a time. Then we fall back into old patterns. And I can tell you, it is harder to get off the spiral the second time, than it is the first time.

The rich young man had a lifetime pattern of relying on his wealth as the blessing from God that indicated God’s favor toward him. The idea that he had to give up the one thing that brought him his comfort was just too much. He wanted it easy, and Jesus seemed to make it hard. Most of us cannot relate to him in this regard. We don’t see ourselves as wealthy. We (hopefully) see salvation as something so incredibly worth everything that we would be willing to give away everything we have for eternal life.

Would I give up my calories? If Jesus told me that I could inherit eternal life if I successfully lost one hundred pounds and kept it off, would I be like the lady in the IGA parking lot? Would I turn away, disappointed? Would the alcoholic easily give up the bottle? The smoker her cigarettes? It sounds so easy. But if we don’t truly believe that God can provide more comfort than we have ever known, what will we do?

There is hope. There is power. It is in God’s power and willingness to change us. God can lift us out of the spiral. It’s not a magic pill, but it is powerful.

¹ Matthew 19:16-22