The Gospel According to Luke - Luke 18:18-30

And look with me at verses 18 to 19 as we begin.

This is how the story begins.

And a ruler asked him, asked Jesus, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? Why do you call me good? No one is good except for God alone.

Isn't that a strange response that Jesus makes to this man? Seems a little bit abrupt.

Seems a little bit strange.

What's going on here? Let's unpack it.

What's going on here is this.

Likely, in the context, this young ruler has already been in the crowd, and he's heard the previous two episodes that came before our text.

So if you have the Gospel of Luke in front of you, you can see there are two important episodes that came before the one that we're in.

Jonathan taught one last week about the little children.

I taught the one before about the two men praying in the temple, the Pharisee and the tax collector.

And he'd heard in these interactions, this parable and this interaction with the kids, how the tax collector, he simply cries out for mercy.

He's justified before God.

And how Jesus then says that we all must become like empty-handed, joyfully receiving children to receive the kingdom of God at all.

And I think this man has heard those things and he's perplexed by it.

And so he just kind of desires to press in a little bit deeper with Jesus.

And he kind of says, no, no, no, no, Jesus.

Okay, I'm hearing you, but seriously.

what must I do to have eternal life? I've heard all that, but there's more, isn't there? Like, what must I do? And he's kind of caught in this dilemma.

He's trying to sort it out.

He's perplexed.

And Jesus answers, and what's interesting is that in the answer Jesus gives, he provokes two crises of faith that strike at this man deep in the inner person.

There's two crises of faith he provokes.

The first one is in the verses we just read, a crisis of belief.

And the second is the rest of the passage, this crisis of love.