Encountering Eternal Life

In Mark chapter 10 a rich young ruler came seeking eternal life, i.e., the kind of life a rich young man in authority would envision living. Someone who is young and rich and has ruling authority might envision one type of life, but Jesus seems to have other things in mind. First Jesus questions the young man's definition of the word "good". What is good to Jesus? Or perhaps a better question might be, Who is good? Don't you just love how Jesus answers questions with questions? Listen to what He says: "Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is God." First let's define our terms, Jesus seems to be saying. What is it exactly that you mean by these things? Jesus could have just as easily asked: "What do you mean by eternal life?" This is what the young rich man was seeking. LIsten to his question: "What must I do to get eternal life?" Well, Jesus might be asking, what exactly do you mean by eternal life? Are you talking about a life that continues on pretty much as you live it now? If so, then this is not the type of life I can offer you. Eternal life is not just some duration of time in which we live some kind of ideal existence. Eternal life is a person. Read 1 John chapter 1:1-3, see for yourself. Jesus is eternal life. Jesus offers Himself. And to get Him we must not have anything that gets in the way. Listen: "Sell all you have and give it to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven, then come follow me." We can't follow Jesus with stuff dragging behind us. We can't have eternal life while weighed down with our stuff.