The lives of two rich men were changed when they met the Lord Jesus.

The first was young, with an enviable reputation and standing among his peers – the sort of man that every mother might have wished her son to be. He came running to Jesus with a question.

“Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18)

The Lord’s reply was totally unexpected. “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” It was clear to everyone that this Teacher was good. He was so unlike the scribes and Pharisees – even His enemies acknowledged that. But there was something quite unacceptable in the young man’s question that the Lord saw and understood.

This young man believed that he was also good. He was morally upright, he knew the commandments and he was sure that he kept them – he always had. But his goodness was not the righteousness that justifies a man before God. Did he sense that? Perhaps, perhaps not. His question was not uncommon at the time, and it was not always asked with the sincerity that it seems to imply.

The other rich man could not have been more different.

He was a tax collector, rich at the expense of his own people and held in reputation only by those who were blinded by the same lust for money. This man did not come to Jesus with a question, but he did want to see Jesus, who He was (Luke 19:3). To his astonished delight, the Lord knew him and even invited Himself to spend that day at his home.

And so it was that two rich men encountered the Lord Jesus Christ.

The young man found himself exposed. His self-righteousness, with just a few words, was laid bare, and he saw, perhaps for the first time, what it was he lived for, and what it was he clung to. He was called to follow the Teacher and to have “treasure in heaven“, but he only wanted to be commended and affirmed in his position of privilege and power. As the Lord was later to say of the Pharisees, “All their works they do to be seen by men” (Matthew 23:5), so it was with this young man. He went away very sorrowful. We do not know his name, and we hear of him no more.

For Zacchaeus, a despised publican who could boast of nothing before the Lord, the encounter could not have been more different. We hear the joyful announcement by God’s Son, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9). The Friend of sinners had found and saved that which was lost. We don’t know what passed between them that day as they talked together, but we hear Zacchaeus speaking as one from whom the chains had been broken and who had now become truly rich.

Yes, this sinful man found peace with God by walking in the steps of faithful Abraham. He had discovered the answer to the question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” – it was to turn away from greed and vanity and to trust in this Teacher sent by God. Zacchaeus was a new man and the Lord Jesus had a new disciple.

As He had watched the rich young man walk sorrowfully away, the Lord remarked, “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” (Luke 18:25). To one of the rich men it did seem impossible that he could ever enter the Kingdom, but in the other we see that, “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

Which of these two men, dear reader, are you most like? Why do I ask? Because we are all rich now, and we too must choose between our present, but passing, wealth and the only Saviour of sinners.

“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37)

(Photo courtesy of Sarah)