Life & Teachings of Jesus - Day 17

When the rich man asked Jesus how to get into heaven, everyone missed the point of Jesus’s answer. The rich man didn’t need to give away his riches because wealth is inherently bad but because the riches were more important to him than God was.

When Jesus told his disciples it’s hard for a rich man to get into heaven, they basically illustrated his point. Humans have historically equated wealth with righteousness, and for the first-century Jews, wealth meant you had the best animal to sacrifice to God. Surely, that would get the rich man into heaven.

Our culture is no different. We may not purchase animals to kill for God, but we consider talented musicians and charismatic speakers to be examples of righteousness—only to watch them fall. God knows we are all imperfect humans. All he asks of us is our heart.