Luke 18 tells us about the rich young ruler. We’re all familiar with that story right? This dude comes up to Jesus saying, ‘Hey, what does it take to get in to heaven?’. Jesus responds with ‘Follow the commandments.’ The dude says, ‘No problem, got that covered.’ Then Jesus drops the bomb shell. ‘Then go and sell all that you own, give it away to the poor and then come follow me.’ The story says the young man walks away because he was wealthy and was simply unwilling to give that up.

We are the rich young ruler. Not in the way that you might think however.

I know lots of people that would, in the blink of any eye, give away all that they own to chase after a dream. That’s me. I’ve sacrificed so much to be able to do what I do. I did it willingly and I would do it again in a second! Why? Because I trust that God will bless the struggle, bless the suffering and that in the end, the realization of seeing a dream come to pass will be beautiful and worth ever bit of it.

Wouldn’t you agree? Wouldn’t it be worth the risk? I think you’re probably with me on that. This is where we get high and mighty on the poor rich young ruler guy.

The problem? We are that guy in a different way. We will give away whatever we need to to realize the dream. BUT, we are unwilling to give GRACE.

I think about my journey and I wonder if my conversation with Jesus might go something like this:

Me: ‘Hey Jesus! I’ve given up everything to follow You!’
Jesus: ‘That’s great! I’ve seen all that you’ve done for me. But what about grace?’
Me: ‘Ummm. What?’
Jesus: ‘Yea grace. You know, the huge gift I’ve given you… Why don’t you extend to others the same gift I’ve extended to you?’

We are willing to give everyhing away but grace. Anything but that! We work in the church and love the local church but when it comes to certain kinds of sinners, we are unwilling to be the local church. I say unwilling because it’s not like we can’t. We just choose not to. Why CAN treat homosexuals with dignity. We just don’t. We CAN love the unloveable. We just choose not to. We think that somehow by loving people we are accepting the sin or condoning the action. The scary thing for all of us is that by doing that we are taking for granted the incredible grace that has been given to us.

Reality check… We are unlovable, unworthy, broken, sick, despicable people in God’s eyes. That is, until grace enters the picture. What if we individually and the as the church were grace for others? What if we actually gave away that?