Today, we’ll be taking a Catechism pop quiz. Maybe some of you had an anxious flashback from adolescence. But don’t worry, this quiz won’t be graded. It will be important for your faith, though. I’ll give you some examples, and you tell me if they broke the First Commandment. If you don’t remember, God’s First Commandment for us is, “You shall have no other gods.”
Example one: This man climbs to a mountain temple to pray at the feet of a giant Buddha statue. Example two: This woman joins thousands of others in worshiping an elephant-head statue of the Hindu god, Ganesha. Example three: This Muslim man travels a thousand mile pilgrimage to Mecca to worship Allah with thousands of other Muslims at the sacred Kaaba.
All three break the first commandment, right? They all worship “gods” other than the one true God. That’s how most people describe idol worship, right? Worship, sacrifice, or prayer to an image of wood, stone, or metal. And certainly, that is idolatry. But idol worship is more than that.
Martin Luther’s explains the first commandment, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” That gives us valuable understanding of what idolatry really is. Idolatry is more complex than just bowing to a golden statue. Idolatry is loving or trusting in any false god more than the true God. Idol worship can be subtle. So subtle even that we don’t always realize it when Satan cons us into trusting lifeless idols that can’t save us. Anything can become an idol.
What about Achan? Didn’t he love the spoils of war more than God’s commands? How about us? Even if we don’t worship wood or stone, do we always display “A First Commandment Faith” and fear, love, and trust in God above all things? God’s law shows us our idolatry. But thankfully, God’s gospel shows us how even idol worshipers like us can inherit eternal life.
Luke’s gospel introduces us to another example: a rich young ruler. That’s really all we know about him. He was a ruler, he was young, and he was wealthy. Mark’s gospel says this rich young ruler “ran up to (Jesus) and fell on his knees before him.” Picture him, on his knees at Jesus’ feet, gasping out the question that weighed heavily on his mind and heart — “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus, as God, knew the idols that plagued this young ruler’s heart long before he met him. So in love, Jesus works to tear down the idols this young ruler worshiped and trusted in.
He came to the right place for answers, but his question reveals the preconceived notions he also brought to Jesus. “What must I do…” Matthew records him saying, “What good thing must I do?” He thought he could pay for eternal life, earn it by being good enough, or by doing some good thing. This man who was wealthy enough to buy whatever he wanted, thought he could buy eternal life with his works.
So Jesus holds up the mirror of God’s law in the 10 Commandments, and invites him to check and see how his perfection was coming along, because perfection was the only thing that could earn him eternal life. If he was being honest, he had failed miserably to perfectly love his neighbor. But he couldn’t see the truth of his sinfulness because he’d been blinded by the glow of the shiny, self-righteous idol he worshiped. It’s clear that he loved and trusted in himself above God. He coolly responds, “All these I have kept since I was a boy.”
Makes you want to shout, “Dude, he’s Jesus! He knows your sins! He sees your heart! You’re not fooling anyone!” But in that rich young ruler we see the self-righteous idolatry that plagues us too. No matter how many times we hear, “It is by grace you have been saved…not by works,” everyone’s sinful nature still tries to convince them, “This is America. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, be independent, and save yourself.”
Maybe you’re thinking, “Not me. I’ve got a ‘By Grace Alone’ tattoo.” But has your motivation to worship or study God’s Word ever been, “Now God owes me one”? Maybe you’ve never said that explicitly. But when something bad happens, do you ever get angry with God or demand that he fix it? That’s Satan subtly working an idolatrous mindset in us that thinks, A.) I’m not that bad and B.) God owes me since I’m not that bad. If we think we don’t need God’s grace, and ignore the reality of our depravity, that’s idolatry. We fear, love, and trust in ourselves.
The rich young ruler worshiped the idol of self-righteousness, but that wasn’t all. “When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Do you see what Jesus is doing? He answered his initial question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tells him if he wants to earn eternal life, he has to keep all the commandments. Not just love for neighbor, but a First Commandment Faith that loves God above everything else. Jesus has to break this young man’s heart, because his idolatry had him headed straight for hell.
And the young man weeps. Not tears of joy because he’d finally answered the question. No, the rich young ruler’s jaw dropped, head bowed as he slowly walks away. He thought he’d kept the law perfectly. Jesus makes him realize he never made it past commandment one. He loved his wealth more than God. “When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.”
He couldn’t drag himself away from the wealth that he loved and trusted in the most. As Jesus watches the young ruler sadly walk away, he teaches those around him, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Now, note this because it’s important: Jesus doesn’t say, “How impossible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” He says it’s hard. Not because wealth only comes with unbelief, or because wealth is sin. It’s hard because, like this rich young ruler, the wealthy have so many idols to compete against God when it comes to what they love, and trust above all else. A strong stock portfolio can blur the need for spiritual strength in Christ. A person who has everything they want might not see how much they need Jesus. It can be difficult to fear, love, and trust in God above everything else when there’s so much “everything else.”
That said, even if you don’t consider yourself “rich,” Jesus is still warning you. Really, Jesus says, “How hard it is for those who have possessions to enter the kingdom of God.” Last I checked, we all have possessions. Maybe you don’t consider yourself monetarily wealthy, but God gives us “riches” in other areas too. Rich in family life, socially rich, richly talented, intellectually rich. Like wealth or self-righteousness can become idols, so can friends, or family, or work, or sleep, or acceptance, or approval, or logic. Anything a person fears, loves, and trusts in more than God becomes an idol, a lifeless god which endangers your faith.
Luther said, “A god means that from which we expect all good and in which we are to take refuge in all distress.” Think about the last time you had trouble with life. What did you run to? Where did you find your refuge? TV? Internet? Alcohol? Drugs? Your mind? Your spouse? Your kids? In sex? In gossip? In your bank account? Or did you find refuge in the God who is called “our refuge and strength?” Is there an idol Satan has you worshiping without even realizing it?
Sadly, we take refuge in so many things besides God when we need help. We expect all good and happiness to come from things, rather than God. We latch on to those things because we know them. They’re comfortable. They make us feel secure because we can see them, and wrap them around us like a security blanket. It’s hard to give up what we know and love for something we can’t see, like treasure in Heaven. We fixate on here and now. And in the here and now, we’re surrounded by potential idols.
“If it’s hard for those with possessions to enter the kingdom of God, how can we make it? With so many idols to distract us from the one true God, how do we stand a chance?” In guilt and shame, our hearts cry out like Jesus’ followers, “Who then can be saved?”
By themselves? No one. It’s impossible. If we rely on our perfection as unholy people, it’s impossible. If we rely on our wealth or our possessions of any of the other lifeless idol that can do nothing to save us, it’s impossible. No matter how much we squeeze, twist, bend, or pivot, it’s impossible for idolatrous sinners like us to work our way through Heaven’s door. Our idolatry leaves us walking away from Jesus, broken hearted, burdened by the impossibility of earning eternal life. As Jesus says, it’s as impossible as squeezing a 2,000 pound, 7 foot tall camel through a hole just big enough for a piece of thread. That’d only be possible through…a miracle.
But it’s in that moment of greatest despair, in recognizing that it’s impossible to save ourselves that Jesus calls out after us. “What is impossible with men, is possible with God.” You see, we’re not good enough to earn Heaven. But Jesus was. Jesus, the only one who truly had a First Commandment Faith. The one who never fails us. The miracle we needed.
We have a Savior who perfectly feared, loved, and trusted in his Father above everything else, because we can’t. We have a Savior who perfectly loved his neighbor, because we can’t. We have a Savior whose sole thought and purpose in everything was to give us eternal life. Through faith in Christ connecting us to the impossible forgiveness that he won for us, your eternity is not just possible. It’s certain. Eternal life is yours.
Let’s try that quiz again. Idol worshiper? Yes. But when Jesus covers that idol worshiper, that’s God’s own child. What is impossible with men, is possible with God.