Last Sunday The Parade magazine inserted in The Denver Post asked the question “Has America Become More Spiritual?” Many churches see the number of folks who are members and who attend worship declining from previous generations. Certainly the Lutheran church has seen that pattern. It seems that about a quarter of Americans say that they are spiritual but not religious. They don’t like organized religion.

And we, with a good evangelical heart, caring about them and their relationship with the Lord may think, or say, “If only they met my Jesus, they would believe and come to church, and the things in their soul would be well.” That may be true, but meeting Jesus can be a very troubling experience!! Meeting Jesus can be disturbing and hard and difficult.

There was a rich young ruler who came to Jesus, running to Him, falling on his knees in front of Him and asked the biggest question in life, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus ran through the commandments, “No murder, no adultery, no stealing.” And this guy, who must have been top notch said, “All these I have kept since my youth.” But then Jesus asked one thing more of him, “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.”

His response to meeting Jesus? “At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” (Sections of Mark 10:17-22) Meeting Jesus made him sad. He didn’t go away well and healed and changed and saved. He went away sad. “Come and meet my Jesus” didn’t prove to be much of an evangelistic program!! And that wasn’t the only time that Jesus turned people off. In John 6 Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains inn Me, and I in him.” (Verses 53-56) And to this meeting of Jesus we find this reaction – “On hearing it, many of His disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’” And a few verses later we read, “From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.” (John 6:60 and 66)

The rich young ruler, the guy in our text who met Jesus and went away sad left because his money was the most important thing in his life. Jesus addressed the one thing that he lacked – a true love for God. Jesus addressed his problem, his barrier for faith and following. He was not saying that giving away his money and giving it to the poor would purchase for him eternal life. He was opening up the eyes of this man to see how poor he really was!! As Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

I want you to meet my Jesus, but it may be unsettling. He may touch something very close to your heart. Money isn’t the only thing that may get in the way of trusting in Jesus. Some people have no time for Jesus, they are busy biking, or hiking, or relaxing, or working, or spending all their time with their club sports. None of those are bad or evil – they are good things, but they can become the priority in life – the things that are more important than Him.

Most of you are Lutherans and have been wisely instructed in the only way of salvation – heaven, eternity – grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone!! “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.” So, it has to trouble you how Christ answers the question of this man. The man asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus points to the commandments?? And then telling him to sell all his goods? We know, or we’d better know the answer. Acts 16 – the jailer asks Paul and Silas – “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” (Verses 30-31) Jesus is so clear when Thomas asks Him, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” And Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:5-6) Or, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

And Jesus says none of that when this man meets Him! Rather it is go, sell, give and follow. I want you to meet my Jesus. And my Jesus wants to meet you. But sometimes that meeting can be painful. We can discover too many things that need to be changed or shunned, rejected or returned. There may be some things about us that are just plain wrong!!

Mary Tyler Moore was on a bunch of shows on TV some years ago. She also battled abusing alcohol. On the Today Show she talked about her alcoholism and then said, “When I look back at it, I am glad that I was an alcoholic.” The interviewer, a little shocked with these words, said, “Glad??” And she said, “Yes. To get over alcoholism, one must learn to face oneself. One discovers that one is not perfect. These are essential discoveries for a life. Despite my alcoholism, through my alcoholism, I made these fundamental discoveries about me.”

Meeting Jesus means that we have to see ourselves for who we are and how much we need to have Him in our lives. He doesn’t want us to leave sad, but rather filled with joy. We see our great needs, the things that would destroy our lives and our relationship with Him and turn to Him and find true life.

I want you to meet my Jesus because He is filled with love for you. In this reading we have an interesting statement made about Jesus. Before He tells the young man, “One thing you lack…” we read, “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” (Mark 10:21a) It broke the heart of Jesus that after their discussion the man left, just as poor as when he came. My Jesus wants people to turn from everything that would destroy their lives and turn to Him for true life. My Jesus bled and died for every sin, including our sins of messed up priorities and creates the comfort of forgiveness and the assurance that we are His people forever. Look at what Jesus did in the lives of two very wealthy folks – Matthew and Zacchaeus. Matthew was a tax collector, wealthy and possibly quite materialistic. Jesus came to him and called him to follow Him. He met Jesus and he did it. And when Jesus was asked how in the world He could ever ask Matthew to be His follower He said, “It is not then healthy who need a doctor, but the sick…For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12, 13b) And when Jesus went to the house of Zacchaeus and was “the guest of a sinner!”, He said, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (See Luke 19:1-10)

I want you to meet my Jesus because He wants to bring new life and salvation and forgiveness and the promise of eternal life to us. Meeting Jesus with His gifts of favor and mercy bring us the greatest of gifts. In our text the disciples were quite puzzled with the words of Jesus following the sad departure of this man. Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” “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.” To which they say, “Who then can be saved?” And the response of grace is “With man this is impossible, but not with God; with God all things are possible.” (Sections of Mark 10:23-27)

I want you to meet my Jesus, the Jesus of the Scriptures, the Jesus who bled and died for everyone of us here, because He has done the impossible!! In Jesus we are forgiven. We are saved. We will live eternally in heaven. In the movie, Martin Luther, Heretic, Luther is feeling closed in by God. It is like four walls closing in on him. He asks, “Can I be free from sin?” The wall behind says “NO!” “Is there a day of judgment?” The wall in front of him says, “YES!!” “Is God indifferent to sin?” The wall to his left says, “NO!!” “Must I be damned?” The wall to his right says, “Yes!!” Luther took his dilemma with sin seriously. He met Jesus initially and he left sad!!

But soon he met the Jesus who answered with His declaration that Luther had received the gift that was miraculous – He was clothed in the purity of Jesus. His heart found confidence in Him alone. When you meet Jesus you will know that He has done the impossible for you!! In Him we lack no good thing. By His hand that does the impossible we are filled with peace and hope and eternal security.

Come, meet my Jesus. He wants to meet you!! Amen