Would We Have Said It?

No More Delay: What Are You Waiting For | Day 6

“Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” Mark 10:21-22, NIV

Grace and peace to you this morning. Most of us can name one person who lovingly told us something true that we did not want to hear. We remember where we were standing. We may even remember being angry about it for a while. And years later, that person is on the short list of people we are most grateful for, precisely because we know they love us and had our spiritual best interest in mind.

What Jesus Did on That Road

Mark gives us a man in motion. “As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” (Mark 10:17, NIV). Everything about that picture is promising. He ran. He knelt. He asked about eternity rather than about his health or his household. Jesus pointed him to the commandments, and the man answered that he had kept every one of them since he was a boy. He was not being sarcastic. He believed his account was in order and wanted to know what else could be added to it.

Then Jesus said the one thing that would end the conversation. “Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” (Mark 10:21-22, NIV).

Mark records only this one meeting between them, and it is a short one. What we are told is that the man came with a question about his own goodness, and Jesus did not answer the question he asked. By his response, it becomes clear something in his life mattered to him more than the invitation Jesus was offering. Jesus named it plainly: his wealth. That was the actual obstacle, and Jesus went to it directly. Mark also tells us why, and the words come before the hard sentence rather than after it. Jesus looked at him and loved him. This was not a bargain, and no one is asked to buy eternal life. It was Jesus exposing what already ruled the man’s heart, at a moment before the cross when the man had no finished gospel yet to stand on, only the choice set before him. And when the man’s face fell, Jesus did not take it back, did not offer him something easier, and did not apologize for the discomfort. He had said the thing that man most needed to hear, and he said it knowing it might end the conversation.

This directness was not unique to one hard conversation. It was there from his very first words in Galilee. “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:14-15, NIV). No introductory season. The time has come, and here is the good news, announced plainly on the first day.

Many of us have stood in a smaller version of that moment. Someone we love is making a choice we know is pulling them away from God, and we say nothing, because saying it might turn into a conflict we do not want. So we lower the standard a little. We tell ourselves it is not our place, or that the timing is wrong, or that we are being gracious. But our silence is not always grace. Sometimes it is tolerance dressed up as love, and the person we care about is left in something we could have spoken into. That is worth seeing plainly, and it is also worth setting down this morning. Jesus carried the guilt of every conversation we let pass, and that guilt is gone. What he did not do was remove the calling to speak carefully and in love. Forgiveness frees us from the fear that has kept us silent. It does not free us from speaking wisely.

The Courage We Do Not Manufacture

The disciples watched that man leave and did the arithmetic out loud. If someone that devout could not manage it, who could? “The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.’” (Mark 10:26-27, NIV).

That answer belongs to us this morning, and it is the gladdest sentence in the chapter. We are not the man walking away sad. The impossible thing has already been done, and it was not done by our courage, our clarity, or our record of speaking up when it counted. The one thing we lacked was handled completely by someone who never hesitated over us. Jesus said so on the same road, to the same disciples. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45, NIV). He asked one man to hand over everything, and then he went to Jerusalem and handed over everything himself, for people who could never have paid it.

That is why boldness in the Christian life is a gift rather than a personality trait, and why the timid among us are not disqualified. Paul told Timothy, who was no stranger to hesitation, where courage of this kind actually comes from. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7, NIV). Notice that power and love arrive together in the same breath. They are not competing instincts to be balanced against each other. The love is what makes the power safe, and it is the reason we ask for both rather than trying to work up nerve on our own.

All of it rests on Jesus Christ, who looked at a stranger on a road and loved him enough to tell him the truth, who was bold every hour we have been silent, and who gave his life as the ransom that settled the account we could not settle. He is the pattern we follow, and he is also the substitute who stood where we could not. Our salvation was never resting on whether we matched his courage, because his righteousness is already credited to us, and the same Spirit who filled him is the one we can ask for a single sentence today.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you for loving people enough to tell them the truth, and for loving me that way as well. Thank you for the boldness you showed on every road I would have avoided, and for giving your life as the ransom I could never have paid. I know my own hesitation well. Thank you that you do not measure me by the times I stayed quiet.

Holy Spirit, you do not make me timid. Give me power and love together, so that what I say is true and the way I say it is kind. Put one person on my heart today and give me the words for them, and let me leave everything that follows in your hands. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Think again of the person who once told you the truth you did not want to hear, and how differently you see them now. Somewhere today there is someone who may look back on you the same way. It does not have to be dramatic, and it does not have to be perfect. And whatever comes of it, the boldest thing ever said over you was spoken by Christ himself, who looked at you and loved you and did not wait. Tomorrow we look at what Jesus told his followers to do when the message is not received, and why moving on to the next person is not the same as giving up on the last one.

To God be the glory.

Pray, praise, and give thanks, for God is good and His mercy endures forever.

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