I am the rich young man
Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Posted by Drew
“At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”[Mark 10:22]
After about three hours of sitting next to one another without really acknowledging the other’s existence, we finally made eye contact as this older woman was working on a Sudoku. I had already completed that particular one in my copy of the in-flight magazine, so I offered any help I could. Seems fitting that this is about as far as I was willing to help her — completing a Sudoku.
Not five minutes into the conversation, she was inviting me to stay at her house north of Boise with her husband and two children who hadn’t grown up and moved away. Now that’s what we call hospitality. We got to talking about what we do and where we go to church. I told her about the Near West Vineyard and she told me about her LDS church.
It started there.
I wondered to myself what I would say to someone like her. Being from Chicago, I don’t meet many Mormons. I know how to talk about Jesus to the hurting, I know how to talk about Jesus to those gripped by sin, I even know how to talk about Jesus to Jewish people. I haven’t the slightest idea how to talk to someone who already knows Jesus and yet the Jesus they know is tainted by what I believe to be false doctrine — false enough that it is in my eyes heresy (a word I rarely throw out there except in mocking others use of it).
Here is a woman who by all intents and purposes is just like me, except probably more loving, more hospitable, more generous, possibly even more devout. And, she’s devoted to Jesus. How do I tell this woman that I think she is believing a lie? What do I do?
No really, I’m asking. What do I do?
I’m such a part of this post-modern what-is-right-for-you-might-not- be-right-for-me world that I fear that even though she believes falsities about the character and nature of God, the true identity of Jesus, and our place in the hierarchy of God’s Kingdom, I have no right to tell her otherwise. This is her life, it’s her faith, and what is right for me might not be right for her.
This isn’t how Jesus did it, though, with people who lived lives with an incorrect focus, with a false hope, and along a misguided path. Take, for instance, the rich young man found in Mark 10:17-31. Here, we find a man who has obeyed the Ten Commandments earnestly. He’s lived a life worthy of being a son of God. And, he wants to know how to inherit eternal life. He even comes to Jesus to ask. What more could you want?
Yet, Jesus (being one with God) knows his true heart and commands of him something in a very pointed manner. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” [Mark 10:21] At this, the man goes away sad, because he is very rich and doesn’t want to do this. He’s just chosen money over Jesus. He’s just chosen condemnation over eternal life. He’s just chosen legalism over relationship.
(A quick note: I just heard Tri Robinson speak at Vineyard Boise and he said that when you have someone firing only two cylinders [i.e. they truly believe in only two persons of the Trinity -- like say God and Jesus, but not the Spirit], the end result is legalism, every time. I liked his insight on this.)
Though this man is “good” through and through (at least by earthly standards), he chooses not to follow Jesus. He’s put his faith in something else, and Jesus will ultimately have no part of him.
Jesus didn’t look at this man, knowing his sin, and say, “Well, he’s really good otherwise, I couldn’t possibly hold this love of money thing against him. Besides, what’s right for me might not be right for him.” No, Jesus revealed exactly what this man’s sin was, and the man chose the sin over Christ.
Knowing people everywhere who are enslaved to their sins and choosing them over Jesus, what right do I have to act differently than Christ and shy away from confronting their sin? Yet, I know people who have chosen a life separate from the life that Jesus teaches is the only path to inherit the Kingdom (that is, through Him alone), and I will never tell them anything about their deceit because I believe that they are good people and I don’t have the right.
I can almost hear Jesus saying to me after I list all the things that I have done right in this world, “Go, confront the sin in the lives of the people you love and bring these people to me.” Of course, I will walk away sad.
After my flight landed, I went to my hotel in Salt Lake City for the night, then got up the next morning and went to Temple Square, where the LDS church is headquartered. The place was littered with people gardening the landscape, being a steward of the earth just as God commanded and serving humbly just as God commanded, and I saw them with eyes that were renewed with burden towards the lost.
These people are lost and they don’t even know it.
I can’t explain to you the weight on my heart while I walked around Temple Square praying over the buildings and the people, asking God to change it all and bring these people back to Him — the real Him. I’ve never really felt a burden for a particular people group before.
But, maybe this is God pointing out where He wants me to minister, who He wants me to bring to Him. God doesn’t make mistakes in your life. He brings you up just as He intends so that you will be able to advance His Kingdom is a specific way. I guess this is why I find myself being so white (seriously, check out Stuff White People Like — I’m described by over half of these things to a T). The Mormons in Salt Lake City are about the whitest people you know (with all due respect to The Whitest Kids U’Know). I’d fit right in.
So, maybe God is calling me to Salt Lake City. I think I’d be okay with that, because the city itself is just beautiful (as is evidenced by the first half of my pictures from day one of my trip). I at least feel the burden of God’s heart towards the Mormons who live there, which is certainly a start.
wow. this is such a good story. i totally know what you mean, about the feeling of “not having the right” to share the Gospel with certain types of people, especially ones with beliefs close to the truth, but wrong enough that their eternity is in jeopardy. sometimes i fear that they will just say, “well that’s what i believe,” but it seems obvious that there is a disconnect somewhere, and i fear being unable to articulate a crucial, heaven-or-hell disagreement clearly.
i really love this post. thank you for being so real and transparent about your weakness, and about what the Lord is speaking to you through it. it is so cool to see what He is sharing with you, and it is so inspiring to me.
i pray that there would be so much of His love inside of you for these people, that it would squeeze out any fear. i pray He would give you courage and make you bold in His love.
keep it up, brother.
Yeah, it’s tough. I think one piece of advice from experience is to just start talking and rely less on your brain. Really. If God wants to use you to speak to someone, you’ve got to first open your mouth. I’ve found that by taking a step in that direction…following my heart/spirit/gut…God really shows up. Doesn’t matter what faith people are, or nationality, etc.
Glad to see you’re letting God speak into this, tho. I’ll keep praying that your spiritual kick in the pants gets better
I’m kind of confused. I am LDS (or Mormon as the world dubs us) and I really do take offense when people of other faiths say I don’t believe in Jesus Christ. I’ve been told it’s because of our concept of the Trinity, but I always thought every church had their own concept of the Trinity, some closer than others.
Perhaps you could make a list of what it is about our Faith that makes you believe we don’t believe in Christ, or the Christ that you believe in.
We believe and teach the Bible in our Sunday Services and also Early Morning Seminary classes for High School Students (ps, you don’t have to be a member to attend either.) Lots of people say we’re not Christian because we don’t believe in the Bible, that we made up our own Bible. We usually preach out of the King James Bible, so if that’s a bad thing, I’m sorry. If one truly wanted to get the full meaning of the scriptures I guess you would have to read the original Greek, or better yet, the Aramaic it was written in first, though I doubt any copies survive today.
And I always though that by their fruits ye shall know them. You admited the woman in the plain was probably “more loving, more hospitable, more generous, possibly even more devout.”
I have many friends from High School who went to other churches and they were good people, doing what they believed God wanted them to do. I never once looked down on them for not adhering to the doctrines of my church. They are very devout people who believe in the same Jesus I do, the one who suffered in the Garden and hung on the cross for my sins. The one who said to the rich young man, “come follow me.”
Sorry if this is so long, I’m just tired of people trying to tell me what I believe in when I know what I believe in.
Hope I didn’t offend anyone.
Trish
Hi Trish,
I’m sorry if I offended you or anyone else. Just as you hope you didn’t offend anyone, I do the same with you, though I probably failed with that. My friend Bob says that it would probably be hard to hear someone who you associate with disassociate with you — like if you claim that you’re in a relationship with someone, and they claim otherwise.
But in reality, it was the LDS church that made the disassociation. Back in the day, they saw a Great Apostasy in the church that caused Christians to stray from the original teachings of the Bible. Joseph Smith’s revelation began the reworking of ideas that he believed had been changed from Jesus’s original intent. Soon, vastly different interpretations and even alterations of what I hold to be an accurate text (the Protestant Christian Bible) were developed and entire books were added to the canon (such as the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price). I do not hold these writings to be on par with canon at all, and the things they teach about Jesus I do not believe.
Trish, I do think we have to agree that we have different ideas about the nature of Christ, humanity, and God. And these different ideas aren’t on the level of adiaphora (that is, they aren’t things that matter little to faith) — they are essential definitions of who and what we are worshiping.
The different denominations that have developed within the standard Christian church has typically been based on adiaphora, in my opinion — things like the way in which people are baptized, the importance of the gifts of the Spirit, et cetera. However, doctrines such as the Trinity are taken very seriously, and don’t really differ from denomination to denomination. Throughout history, when someone has taught things that were out of line with the traditional view of the Trinity, they were called out for teaching heresy. If these teachings weren’t corrected, the church and this individual had to realize that they were teaching about different things, and the church disassociated with them.
So no, I would not agree that every church has their own concept of the Trinity.
Of the many things I believe we do not share in our understanding about the nature of reality (and there are quite a few), I don’t understand the Scriptural basis for the LDS view of the spirit realm in which we were all spirits living with God prior to our birth on earth and that this present earthly reality is merely a test of how well we demonstrate obedience to God while outside of His presence. To me, it doesn’t just seem like extra-biblical teaching, or even a-biblical teaching, but actually anti-biblical teaching. It holds a strange, god-like view of humanity that I cannot support and it places a burden of salvation on mankind where I believe Christ alone is sufficient. The LDS plan of salvation is great in that it challenges people to live lives filled with good deeds, but I believe it strays from the church’s understanding of salvation by saying that these works are necessary to return to God’s presence.
In Christ alone my hope is found.
Which takes me to this wonderful woman on the plane. Yes, her good deeds point to the fact that she was made in God’s image. But, they don’t tell me anything about her salvation. I know many, many people who reject God entirely, even mock Him, but who are extraordinary human beings filled with love for humanity. Christians love because we have been loved by Christ and thus share this with the world, we aren’t loved by Christ because we first love the world.
I hope this helps you understand my viewpoint, Trish. I’ve just tried to highlight a few understandings of our salvation that I don’t believe we share. It’s not that I’m rejecting you from my group of “Christians” (if anything, it’s quite the opposite), it’s just that I believe we worship a significantly different God.
In love,
Drew
there are many things we dont know lets spend more time getting to know god and less time worrying about others king solomon said those believe in God their life is predestion we know mormans believe in god theres a reason for their religion i am a saved addict and i see that they loved like jesus and with what paul tells that CANT be wrong lets worry bout people that dont know god being an addict i know what its like to be judged and its definately not of god we have no idea why he does what he does
maryland,
i agree with your assessment that there are many thing we do not know; a large (and often overlooked part) of theology is mystery – God is invisible, Jesus was here only for 30 years some 2000 years ago, and the Spirit is, well, spirit. if the whole 3 persons / 1 being doesn’t mystify us, then we clearly are not understanding what is being said. and if mystery is a large part of our religion and practice, it makes the parts that we do know all the more important.
i’m unfamiliar with the reference you are making to King Solomon and predestination – could you point me to the verse?
i am more than happy that God has set you free from your addictions, and more than upset that you received judgment from anyone. Christ came for this very purpose – to set the captives free, to destroy the works of sin and no longer make sin inevitable. i know that there is no greater joy in heaven than when one repents and seeks God.
what is at stake here is not the work that Mormons do, but the Jesus that they proclaim.
make no mistake, i will not mince words, dilute my claim, or hedge my bets: i believe the Jesus the Mormons worship to be wholly dissimilar from the One i do. it is not a matter of numbers, as if the billions of Christians throughout two millennia automatically justify my claim. nor is it a matter of institution, doctrine, or rhetoric – it is a matter of definition. outside of claiming either Jesus to be true or real, we – Christians and Mormons – are describing two different people.
Mormons contend that such a definition is not a deal-breaker, but I disagree – there is no synthesis to be had, no compromise of identity. Jesus is either fully human and fully divine, or He is nothing; He either died on the cross in shame for the full weight of our sins or He was a fairy tale.
this comes down to what you said – they believe in God. belief in God itself is not a litmus test, a proof of any sort: even the demons believe (James 2:19). to further drive home this point, in Mark 1:24 (as well as Mk. 3:11 and Mk. 5:7) Jesus performs an exorcism and the demon acknowledges that Jesus is God.
God the Father, in some limited sense, is one-third of the equation. The Lord our God, the Lord is one – and anything less is someone else.
so you see, maryland, we are trying to reach those people who do not know God.