LEAVE AND CLEAVE
Luke 18
“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
The man asked a very important question, one so important that he wants Jesus to make it as clear as possible. He already knew the standard answer: keep the commandments. The fact that he still asked the question tells us that he thinks there is more to it.
Jesus’ first response is to ask him to consider who he is speaking to. Don’t simply address me with words that you do not take seriously. If you are calling me “good” know that you are putting me on par with God. At the same time, Jesus forces him to think again as to what it means to be good and whether his keeping of the commandments qualify him to be good.
The man’s response was to say “I know all that and I have done all that”. In the parallel passage in Matthew 19, the man asked, “What do I still lack?” and Jesus dropped the bomb on him.
“One thing you lack” is also (as we understand the Gospel) “Only one thing you need”: follow me, but follow me without caveats. Don’t allow anything to hold you back because I am truly the good teacher, the good master, the good shepherd. You will not lose out but instead you will receive much more and beyond that, you will have eternal life.
There is no two-stage salvation where you can say the sinner’s prayer and leave it at that, and then if you want more, then you follow Jesus as a disciple. Jesus makes it clear that there is only 1 step: follow him. It is likely that for many of us the test is not “to sell all our possessions and give to the poor”, but it will be some other expression of “love one another” and “love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” and “love your neighbour as yourself”, where you let go in order to embrace—leave and cleave.
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”