Mosaic Teaching 141 - Mark 10:14-22

Mosaic is an in-depth teaching discovering Jesus through all four of the Gospel accounts in the Bible. This teaching is led by Rev. Dr. Chad Foster, reaching into the Hebraic roots, Jewish roots, Torah references and messianic fulfillment of Jesus to find truth and life.

Teaching PDFs and Mosaic Audio at: https://immlutheran.org/mosaic/

Purchase Dr. Chad's books at: immlutheran.org/books

#immlutheran #drchadfoster #christian #lcms #messianic

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Mosaic Teaching Service today. This is teaching number 141 in our course looking at the four gospels, the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as we explore who Jesus was, who he is in that authentic first century Galilean perspective. Today we're going to be finding ourselves in the Gospel of Mark, primarily, the Gospel of Mark chapter 10, although we will uh briefly flip over uh into Matthew's gospel for a little bit of uh a parallel account, but primarily the basis is going to be in Mark chapter 10. Um, but let us uh bow our heads uh for prayer. We pray. Blessed Lord, who has caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, and grant that we would so hear them. Read, Mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, so that by patience and comfort of your holy word we would embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given to us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In Mosaic, we value our Bibles, love our Bibles, always encourage you to bring your Bible with you to the Mosaic Teaching Service. But if you need one today, not a problem, just grab one in the pew or the chair in front of you or around you, and you can make use of that today. And if you need to make that your own Bible because you don't have one, uh please accept that as a gift from us to you. Uh but if you will, please take your Bible, hold it up, and repeat after me. This is my Bible. Jesus is who it says He is. I am what it says I am. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the Word of God. My mind is alert. By God's grace, my heart is receptive. The Bible is the incorruptible, the indestructible, ever-living word of God. My encounter with the Bible today will transform and grow my faith. And we say together, in Jesus' name, Amen. So let's open up our Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, second gospel, Matthew, Mark, and look at chapter 10, and we're gonna pick it up in verse 14. Uh again, kind of keeping um where we're at in the narrative, in the flow, uh, to the best of uh our ability, which of course is subject to criticism and these types of things, and there's many times will probably be a just criticism or certainly up for debate. We've been trying to do uh a harmonious kind of look through the gospels, trying to go through the gospels um in a continuous kind of form, uh, taking all four of them together. And so where we're kind of at, where we need to envision where we're at in this, is the idea that Jesus has kind of uh gone back down into the Galilean region. He's rendezvoused with family, friends, extended family, um, getting ready to go back up to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. Passover has not arrived yet, but they would be on their way to Jerusalem for that. They certainly would arrive before Passover, they'd need to get settled and all of those kinds of things. Um, but as they are traveling, they'd be making their way through territories in between. And much like even now, if you're gonna be driving from, you know, Macomb, this area, to St. Louis or Chicago or something like that. You're gonna have lots of road time, right? You're gonna have conversations in the vehicle. Same kind of thing would have happened back then. Uh, so they would have had conversations, they would have encountered other individuals. And so we're kind of encounter, we're kind of eavesdropping in to these conversations that Jesus is having, not only with his disciples, uh, which is being very intentional when he is having those discussions, because he's trying to prepare those disciples for what he knows will be coming uh their way when they get to Jerusalem, when they get there for the festival, uh he's preparing them for what will be eventually his betrayal, his suffering, his death, his resurrection, but also uh for their eventual after his ascension kind of they're taking the mantle of the movement. And so he's got a lot to prepare them for. And so there's a lot of discipleship kind of talking and the cost of discipleship and kind of perseverance kind of discussions and um sticking through things, and even when it looks like it's one way to stick through it because things aren't always as they appear at first. Then there's also they're encountering other people who are curious as to who Jesus is, they've heard about him, uh, they they want Jesus to heal them or speak into their lives, and then of course, there are those who uh maybe are not such big fans of Jesus. So all of this is kind of this caravan moving from the Galilee and through areas of Perea and around the outskirts of Jericho and so forth, moving towards Jerusalem. And so you've got this journey, okay? And so today is one of those incidents where on the journey uh they encounter some individuals and have a certain interaction, and Jesus uses the interaction as a way to speak teaching or words to his disciples. Okay, so with that, let's look at Mark chapter 10, verse 14. Let's read this verse together. Permit the children to come to me and do not withhold them, because theirs is the kingdom of God. So on this journey en route to Jerusalem, people began to bring their children to Jesus so that he might lay hands on them, so that he might bless them, so that he might pray for them. This is not unlike even in modern-day Hasidim bringing their sons to a Hasidic Rebbe, are like many Christians bringing their babies or their children to clergy. They look to Jesus to impart some kind of spiritual blessing, spiritual boon upon their children. And the disciples by this point, they had become accustomed to protecting Jesus from the pressure of the crowds. In some ways, uh, Jesus had a security team. There were always people pressuring in on Jesus, people always wanting something from Jesus, and yes, quite honestly, some people wanting to harm Jesus. And so the disciples by this point in Jesus' ministry had grown accustomed to kind of protecting Jesus from the crowds around him. So when they saw a number of mothers and parents appearing with their children, some of them with infants in their arms, they felt a little indignant. And Jesus, they felt had more pressing concerns than bestowing blessings upon infants and babies and children. They thought Jesus had more important things to be doing than blessing children. And so the disciples began to rebuke the women and began to rebuke the parents and tried to send the children away. It's as if they had forgotten Jesus' very own words, for he had previously taught them in Mark chapter 9, verse 37 Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives me. And so Jesus calls them aside and said, Permit the children to come to me. Do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. And he lays hands upon the children in the manner of a father, bestowing blessings upon his own sons and daughters. And he probably would have taken the smaller ones and the infants into his arms, and he would have prayed over the children, and he would have blessed them. And so here you have a very in the gospel's a very warm image of Jesus, almost a paternal image of Jesus, but certainly a very kind, warm, loving image of Jesus, uh, embracing children, holding children, blessing children. In fact, in Jewish homes, not only then, but even still to this day, fathers will place their hands on each of their children and will speak a blessing over them. This is traditionally done uh every Friday evening, and the father will pray for each child, affirming each son or daughter with love and blessing, and pray that the sons be like Manasseh and Ephraim. Uh that's uh reminiscent of uh the blessing of Jacob, basically just praying uh blessings of prosperity on the sons, blessing of abundance on the sons, and blessings that the daughters would be like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, that they would be like the matriarchs, that they would have this wisdom, that they would have this strength and so forth. For in the Torah, Jacob had placed his hands on Ephraim and Manasseh to bless them. And so when Jesus lays his hands on the children and blesses them, he's demonstrating that although these are not necessarily his natural children, nevertheless he has many children. He has spiritual children, and more so that he regards his disciples as children. And that's something you need to keep in mind when you're reading the gospels. You kind of need to read it at a couple of levels at the same time. When Jesus is speaking about children, or he's encountering children or teaching about children, uh, on the simplest level, that's what he's doing, right? He is encountering actual real children and he's teaching about real children and he's talking about real children. But on a different level, a deeper level, uh implied level, what in Hebrew would be known as the Rimiz level, the hinted level, rabbis always considered their disciples their children. Uh in fact, you know, the Talmud speaks of every person should have two fathers, right? Their earthly father, the father that brought them into this world, and their spiritual father, the father, the rabbi, their teacher, the the one that will bring them into the world to come, the spiritual world. Uh and many, many tales in rabbinic literature about the relationship between the teacher and the student, the rabbi and the disciple, being like uh a parent and a child. And so Jesus very often will speak on that level. Um in fact, he once told them, I will not always leave you, um, I will not leave you as orphans, he says, and John 14, verse 18. There he's implying that that parent-child relationship to his disciples. When he says, I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Or on another occasion in Matthew chapter 12, verse 50, he says, Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, this is my family, right? You know, when and when they uh some people come to him and say, Hey, your mother and your brothers and your sister are outside and they're they're looking for you and they want to speak to you. And he says, Who is my mother and who are my brothers and sisters? I tell you the truth, you are my mother and my brother and my sister, right? Meaning, my disciples, you're my family, you're my spiritual family. And so many times when Jesus is speaking about children and even giving warnings about causing a child to stumble, yes, it's true on the most literal level, for sure. Uh, we're to take our children very seriously and and the the nurture of them seriously and the spiritual raising of them seriously, and not putting stumbling blocks in front of them, and not giving bad examples for them, and not uh providing for them ways that would cause them to stumble spiritually because of our behavior, most certainly. But he also means it in a teacher-student relationship that you shouldn't do anything to cause one of his disciples to stumble, uh especially one of his new disciples. A new disciple would be like a child. And Isaiah uh even prophesies about uh Jesus and his status in the passage of the suffering servant. Um it's interesting when he says in Isaiah 53, verse 8, who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living. But in verse 10 of Isaiah 53, he says, He will see his offspring. So it's interesting that Isaiah prophesies that this suffering servant, this Messiah, uh will not really have any natural children born into this world to speak of, um, that he will be cut off from the land of the living, but that he will in fact see his offspring. That is, he will have spiritual descendants, he will have spiritual children. So let's keep reading in the text here. Mark chapter 10, verse 15. Let's read together Jesus' words. Amen. I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it. So Jesus rebuked his disciples for turning away the mothers with their children, and he reminded them of the teaching that he had delivered to them probably, oh, probably about a year or so earlier, way back in Capernaum, at what uh the gospel texts simply call the house. Most people assume it's Simon Peter's house or Simon Peter's mother-in-law's house. I personally think it's Jesus' house, uh, but it's the house in Capernaum, the base of operations. Um and there in Luke chapter 18, verses 16 and 17, Jesus taught, the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. And even the apocryphal, non-canonical gospel of Thomas says it this way. Jesus said to his disciples, These infants at the breast are like those who enter into the kingdom. And they said to him, Shall we enter the kingdom as infants? And of course, that's an implied rhetorical question of, yes, you are to enter the kingdom as infants. The point of the teaching is that egotism has no place among those truly seeking to enter into the kingdom of God. One who desires to see the messianic era, one who desires to be a disciple of Jesus, one who desires to be a follower of Jesus should not consider himself or herself among the great and the worthy. They instead should consider themselves lowly as a child among adults. To be like a child has to do with status. All right, when you think about a first century Galilean cultural perspective, speaking of being like a child has to do with status, and less so with any character traits supposedly typical of children, such as their innocence or their childlike faith. Not that it's completely exclusive of their innocence or childlike faith, but it's more about their status. You see, while first century Judaism revered children and it prioritized the nurture and the education of the child, a child still occupied the lowest position on the social scale. And this is something that has done a little bit of a flip in our modern Western culture, where we have almost made the child the most important person in the family. We have made everything in the family revolve around the child, our schedules will revolve around the child, our finances will revolve around the child, our free time will revolve around the child, our diet will revolve around the child. Basically, anything and everything will revolve around the happiness of the child. That is not the first century Galilean perspective. In the first century Galilee, the child was on the lower portion of the social tier of things. A child was under the authority and the care of others. And its needs, outside of, of course, being fed and cared for and educated, its needs, or rather its wants, really were not the most important concerns for the family. A child in the first century world did not have the right to independent self-determination, much like they do in our society. A child did not think of himself or herself as a peer to the adults around them. They did not sit at the table and have conversations with the adults, thinking their opinion mattered as much as the adults. They did not see themselves equally worthy of prestige or honor as the adults. And the child naturally considered themselves lower than and dependent upon and subordinate to the adult world around them. Therefore, to become like a child meant to set aside the concerns of prestige, to relinquish one's personal dignity or prerogatives, and to accept the lowest place at the table, to set aside one's ego, to realize that you are not the teacher, to realize you do not get a voice in this, to realize that you are to listen and to learn, that those that are speaking actually do know more than you do, and that you have much to learn from them, and that your job is mainly to be quiet and to learn from them. And so a true disciple adopts an attitude of self-denial, replacing their own sense of self-importance with the humble posture of subordination. That's what in a first century Galilean perspective it means to be like a child. It doesn't just mean to be innocent or have simple childlike faith. Again, it doesn't mean to be exclusive of that, but it means to imply you don't have an ego and to realize who you are in the grand scheme of things. And so Jesus explains in Matthew. Chapter 18, verse 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In other words, the one who truly considers others more important than himself or herself, that is the one who will find themselves first in the kingdom. So if you're willing to take the last place in line, if you're willing to be uh at the end of the table, if you're willing to get the your take your plate last. So, like again, in the first century world, probably very different than 21st century America. In 21st century America, who usually, if there's a gathering of 20 people, four or five families, who usually gets their food first? The kids in the first century Galilee world. Kids, you hang out in the back until the adults are done eating. Once we're done eating, once we who've worked our tails off and have earned this and have provided for this and have cooked this and have paid for all of this, once we have enjoyed the fruits of our labor, we will make sure you get something. And you will like it. He who is willing to accept that role will be first in the kingdom of heaven. Right? And so it is spiritually, right? The one who's willing not to always tell you, you know what I think this means? You know what I think this means? Oh, yeah, you're right. I mean, you have a point, but you know what? Here's why, here's what it really means, and always is ready to take over and lead and take the charge, but rarely is the student, rarely is the one who listens, rarely is the one growing in their faith, but is always, right? That's the one not willing to be like the child. Okay, so that's a little bit of what was going on in that childlike discussion. So they're continuing their journey. They've encountered Jesus again being in this loving position, blessing children, embracing children, no doubt, hugging infants and blessing them and speaking good into their lives, um, but also imparting a lesson to his disciples. Like, it's your time right now to learn. Your master's with you, your rabbi's with you. Sit back, keep quiet, and learn. And along this journey, someone comes out along the way, runs out to meet Jesus, and is dying to ask Jesus a question. Mark chapter 10, verse 17. Let's read this together. As he went out on the way, a man ran to meet him and knelt in front of him. He asked him, saying, Good rabbi, what should I do to inherit eternal life? So when we look at this in Mark, we'll also be flipping over a little bit to Matthew's parallel version. We find out that this is this particular individual is a wealthy young nobleman. So this is someone who, by all intents, purposes, and from this world's view, has everything together. All right, they're religious, uh, they're observant religious, right? So they take their religion seriously, because we're gonna find out, but they also have means, all right, and they have uh stock, right? They come from a good family. So I mean, I mean, this is like this is the package. I come from uh a line of family, I'm noble, I'm wealthy, and I'm actually religious, and I really take my religion seriously. It really matters to me. Like, I mean, this seems like everything you could want, right? So this particular individual is told, hey, the holy man, Jesus of Nazareth, he's passing through on his way to Jerusalem, on his way to the festival. He's the one that John the Baptist was talking about. He's the one John the Baptist was indicating. He's coming our way even now. And so this young man who Luke, in his version, refers to as, quote, a certain ruler, which probably would imply maybe even that he was head of a synagogue. So you've got rich, wealthy, of a noble line, president of his congregation, right? He wastes no time to go out and see Jesus. So he leaves where he's at, he sprints to catch up with the good rabbi from Nazareth, and he poses a very vexing question that he no doubt has had for a while and that he probably has asked other teachers. And so as Jesus and the company of Galileans traveling with him are setting out to cross the fords of the Jordan, the young man comes running and he works his way through the entourage until he finds the one called Jesus. Falling on his knees before him, a posture of reverence. Uh, this would indicate again that this guy isn't setting out to trap Jesus. This isn't an opponent of Jesus. This isn't someone who is uh trying to design and trap Jesus in his words or trying to uh prove Jesus is false. This would indicate that he's sincere, that he has respect, that he has manners, that he knows he's in the presence of a revered prophet, teacher, rabbi, holy man. Uh, and he says, Good rabbi, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? His question again is neither rhetorical, nor is it a cleverly worded trap. We are to understand the text in the manner that he honestly is wrestling with this issue, essentially, of destiny, of merit, of punishment. He's sincerely seeking God and he wants to know how he could be sure to attain the resurrection from the dead. In a first century mindset, that's what that question is really asking about eternal life. How can I be certain that I will attain the resurrection of the dead? How can I be certain that when the time has come to its conclusion, I will be resurrected, I will be found in the kingdom, I will be part of the world to come. And Jesus was probably not the first rabbi he had asked. First century Judaisms had conflicting views about the afterlife, had conflicting views about the resurrection, and had different views about how one participated in it, or how one attained it, or who could attain it or participate in it. The broad view, virtually assured, everyone got in, right? And then there was the most narrow view that said it was only reserved for the most righteous who were of a very certain ethnic line. Other opinions, such as those of the Sadducees, denied the existence of the afterlife and the resurrection altogether, right? So there were all kinds, just like today, there were all kinds of opinions. That's uh that's a very important thing uh that you should know about the first century world. There was not a single type of Judaism or a single type of religion of the first century. It was just as diverse, it was just as on the spectrum of conservative and liberal and uh permissive and restrictive and broad and narrow as it is today. All right, you could find anything and everything, and anything and everything was debated. And so this particular young man, he had thoroughly searched his Torah, he had thoroughly searched the Word of God, he had thoroughly searched the scriptures, the prophets, the writings, and he was vexed, he was worried, he had anxiety. How can I know for sure that I will have a portion in the world to come? So, what is Jesus' response to this man with anxiety? Well, let's see. Jesus' response, let's read his first part of the response. Mark chapter 10, verse 18. Let's read. Jesus said to him, Why did you call me good? There is no one good but one which is God. So according to Mark and Luke, the young man addressed Jesus as good teacher, good rabbi. In Matthew's version, he said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life? The question tells about the man's quest and also reveals some of his assumptions. The man had concluded that the words of the Torah are the word of God for him, that they were not adequate to assure him of the resurrection. Now, this is the most important part, and this is really the crux at what Jesus is going to respond to him about. This is important that you get. Get it now because it's going to be important, because this is going to be part of what the main thing Jesus comes back to him with. He doesn't believe that he has enough in the Word of God. He doesn't believe what the Word of God gives him is enough to know. And so he's seeking something more. And so he looks to Jesus to give him that improvement upon the scriptures, to give him that which is not found in God's word. And so he hoped that this good teacher might add some kind of good thing which might assure him of the resurrection and the world to come. The rabbi Jesus challenges him by saying, like all good rabbis, when you ask a rabbi a question, he's not going to answer your question. He's going to respond with a question. Probably reveal a not so good habit of mine, but one of my guilty pleasures in life is occasionally, occasionally, I've been known to enjoy a little bit of family guy, just a little bit. And one of the scenes in there is the little baby Stewie goes to a rabbi to ask him a question. And Stewie, of course, becomes frustrated because he asks the rabbi a question, and all the rabbi does is ask him a question back. And to the point where Stewie says, Do all you do is ask me questions back? And the rabbi says, Why do you think I always ask you questions back? But so Jesus says, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. And then he adds in Matthew's version 19, verse 17, Why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good. Jesus' enigmatic answer employs some common rabbinic terminology regarding God, about the good, and about the Torah or the Word of God. So Jesus is taking something that was very common in the first century. It's terminology about who God is, it's terminology about the good in quotation marks, Hatov in Hebrew, and about the Torah, or for us the Word of God, the scriptures. In the daily prayer of Jesus' day, there was a prayer known as the Amida. And in that prayer, God is called the good. Hatov. That's why Jesus responds that way. He's actually quoting a prayer that he would have prayed three times a day. Why do you call me the good? Right? He is the good and his name is the good. Upon hearing good news, the Mishnah tells us that the appropriate blessing is to say, Baruchata and I elheinu mele koalam, hatov vahimatev. Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the universe, who is good and who is the doer of the good. On seeing rain or hearing good news, a person is to say, Again, Blessed are you, God, for you are the good and the doer of the good. First century Judaism, God is the good, and goodness derives only from God. And in addition, the Torah, the scriptures, the revealed Bible, the revealed word of God is also called by that same exact title. So from Tractate Avado Azara, the scripture tells us, quoting Psalm 34, 14, turn from evil and do Hatov, do the good. By the word good nothing is meant but Torah, Scripture, as it is written in Proverbs 4, verse 2, for I have given you a good teaching, a good Torah. Do not forsake my Torah. Tractate Menachut. Let the good come and receive the good from the good for the good, and receive the good. This refers to the Torah, the scriptures. Again, quoting Proverbs 4, 2, for I have given you a good teaching. From the good, this refers to the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written in Psalm 145, verse 9, the Lord is good. So the rich young man made the mistake of assuming that Jesus had some kind of special knowledge or special formula or something in addition to the revealed scriptures to impart? Did he hope that Jesus might have a particular prayer to pray or partake of a particular ritual which would guarantee eternal life? Did he anticipate that Jesus would have some new revelation to add to the scriptures? In that respect, he hoped that Jesus had more to offer than the revealed will and wisdom of God, that is, the scriptures. He had hoped that the good teacher had some good thing that he might do other than the good Torah, which was given by the good one. But Jesus immediately recognizes the folly of the man's assumption. His reply refuted the notion that he might have some further revelation to the scriptures. Why do you call me good? He asks. The statement, no one is good except God, really means this. Do not ask me what to do, ask God. Do not assume that I have something to add to what God has already said. And Jesus went on to identify the good by citing the commandments. Now, when Jesus goes on to cite the commandments here in both Matthew and in Mark's version, he doesn't list all of the commandments and he doesn't rank them in any particular order of importance, nor does he mean to limit it to just that list. He is just giving you a few of them as a representative of the whole of Scripture. It's as if Jesus is replying, the Torah, the Scriptures, the very word of God that is sufficient. So this is a very common practice of the rabbis, is you will quote a portion to represent the whole. So when Jesus kind of quotes a handful of commandments, again, he isn't just saying just these commandments. He isn't putting them in any kind of priority list, he isn't just limiting it to those, nor is he just limiting it to the commandments. He's saying, he's drawing you to the idea that the word of God, the scriptures, right? That's what he's doing. The issue concerns the definition of the good. God has given his word precisely to define righteousness. And Jesus, the word made flesh, is loyal to the word, and he stands behind it. And one who seeks eternal life should look accordingly only to the word of God. Okay? So let's keep flowing with this. So we'll better understand Jesus' answer. We'll flip over to Matthew's version because he gives a little bit of a different detail. Matthew chapter 19, verses 17 through 18. Let's read these words of Jesus together. But if you desire to enter life, keep the commandments. The man said to him, What are they? So Jesus provides the man with a brief list of commandments to illustrate that he was not speaking of new commandments or even any particular subset of the Torah's commandments. The few mentioned are not the only ones that he thought were important. Again, they represent the whole of the entire council of the Word of God. A very common rabbinic technique to allow a portion to represent the whole. And in many ways, this is what the Ten Commandments do, right? In the Ten Commandments, you have the whole of Scripture. You're even taught that in the catechism, right? That if that's why it's in our catechism, that's why we teach it as one of the six chief parts of the faith. That in that, right, or even in these six chief parts, it contains the whole. Let them hear it. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, if they don't listen to their Bible, if they don't listen to the word of God, they're not even going to be persuaded if someone rises from the dead. As in the parable, Jesus pointed the rich young man to the sufficiency of the word of God. The same theological answer appears when the sage asks Jesus, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus basically says, Do what's in the Torah, do what's in the scriptures. In other words, what does your Bible say? Now at first glance. At first glance, especially for us, especially for us of a reformation bent. This may seem to contradict Paul's theology that no one earns salvation by doing anything. But it does not, nor does it discount God's grace, his forgiveness, or his mercy. Jesus did not anticipate that the rich young man might attain a state of sinless perfection and earn his salvation by leaving there that day and going and obeying the word of God fully. He merely answered the question, What must I do? Jesus' answer is this. This is Jesus' answer in first century rabbinic talk. In our language, Jesus' answer is this. God has already told you in his word, and his word is sufficient. And certainly, certainly, that is the case. The call to keep the commandments reveals both God's holy standard and our inability to fulfill it perfectly. Jesus upholds the enduring value and sufficiency of God's word, inviting the young man and all who seek life to immerse themselves into the scriptures. At the same time, those same scriptures remind us that all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God. Those same scriptures that Jesus is saying are all sufficient and that tell us exactly what we need to know, tell us that no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. And in this way, Jesus' words are not a call to a legalistic striving, but rather they are a gracious invitation to turn to the scriptures and to trust in the mercy and grace of God and acted most fully in the word made flesh. The law exposes our need and it drives us to the feet of Jesus, for he is the one who offers eternal life as the gift. Thus salvation is by grace through faith, yet the commandment remains a lamp for our feet, showing us who God is and forming the shape of the life we are freely given in Him. A grace that leads us not away from God's word, but deeper into it. So all Jesus was doing was turning the man back to the word of God, because the word of God is sufficient, because the word of God contains both God's law and God's gospel. And in both the law and the gospel, that young man will find all that is sufficient for eternal life. Because in the law and the gospel of the Holy Scriptures, he will find none other than the word made flesh, the one who is good. He will find his Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. And then love this verse because it kind of is a nice wrap-up with the way we began with Jesus with children. Let's read this together. He answered and said to him, Rabbi, I have kept all these from my youth. Jesus looked at him and loved him. Love that phrase. Jesus looked at him and loved him. That lets us know the man was sincere. Jesus saw in this man the heart of a true seeker. He looks at him and loves him. That is to say, the context of the Greek there, it was by means of some gesture. Jesus did some physical gesture that indicated affection for him. This man pleased him both in his question and his answer, when he both seriously inquired concerning attaining eternal life, and when he seriously professed that he had committed himself to God's word with all care and circumspection. Jesus might have indicated his delight in the man's sincerity by kissing him on the top of his head as he knelt, for the sages and rabbis would often bestow upon their disciples a kiss on the top of their head to indicate approval or affirmation or affection. But oh, how Jesus loves the sincere heart and the sincere seeker. And so there you have another powerful image of just love from Jesus for the one who has the seeking heart. But we will grab that next week.