“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is
good—except God alone.”
You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you
shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false
testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I
was a boy.”
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.”
Mark
10:17-21
“He’s a good man.”
I’ve said that many times about
people who have come up in conversation.
I’ve heard lots of other people say it to me about people they
know. But what does that really
mean? As I think about it now, I think
when I say it, I usually am describing more of a feeling I get about my
experience of that person. My experience
of that person has been good. But
really, what does it really mean to display the fruit of goodness in the way
that we live?
Jesus brings clarity to this issue
in a conversation found in three of the four Gospels. Jesus picks up on what seems to be an
unimportant part of the man’s question to make an important point – a point
that will make it clear what we must do to display goodness.
The man addresses Jesus as “Good Teacher.” Jesus asks in reply, “Why to you call me good
– only God is good?” Some have actually
suggested that this is denying his divinity, but I think the exact opposite is
true. I think Jesus is trying to lead
the man to realize that he is in fact divine.
To illustrate, let me use a different imaginary conversation.
A man named George approaches his
Doctor, and says, “Hey Dr. James…”
Dr. James replies, “Why do you call
me Dr?”
George thinks for a moment. When looking for a doctor, he did a search on
the internet and Dr. Kendrick James came up in the results, so he called to
make an appointment. But he realizes, he
doesn’t really know if this man he has entrusted his health to is actually a
medical doctor.
“Come to think of it,” George
answers, “I don’t really know. Are you actually a doctor?”
Dr. James walks over to the
wall. “So glad you asked… here’s all of
my degrees, including my medical degree from Johns Hopkins.”
Something similar is happening in
Jesus’s conversation with the man in the above passage and there’s some really
important teaching here. First, Jesus
points out, “only God is good.” If there
is goodness in anyone, it comes from God.
Second, after pointing out that only God is good, Jesus goes on to walk
him through six of the Ten Commandments.
It was a long time before I noticed that the six Jesus mentions are the
six that have to do with loving people.
God ahead and check above. I’ll
be here when you come back.
The man responds to Jesus by
confirming he has kept these six commandments since childhood. Jesus doesn’t dispute that. Instead, he points to other four Commandments
that have to do with loving God without actually listing them. He says, ““One thing you lack; Go, sell
everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
“Then, come follow me,” is the key
phrase here. Jesus establishes that
goodness only comes from God, that the man has made money his God, and so he
must give that up and follow Jesus to inherit eternal life and goodness. In effect, Jesus is saying, “to be good,
follow me because I am good because I am God,”
My goodness and your goodness do not come from us. They come from the God who created us and
called us good. Our goodness grows and
blooms from following the Spirit of God within us. Next time, we’ll talk about those “blooms” or
fruit of goodness.
Prayer: God, you
alone are good. We thank you that you
have created us, redeemed us, and sustain us for sharing in your goodness. Grow your good fruit in us. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for lawmakers at every level as they seek to make changes in our laws that will
allow healing of the deep divisions in our country right now.
Song: Israel &
New Breed - You Are Good
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