We continue our Hard Sayings of Jesus this week and we arrive at a conversation between a man and Jesus. A man that will later be known as the Rich Young Ruler. A man who has a question for Jesus. He asks Jesus who at this moment he believes to be a good teacher. And his question is what must I do to inherit eternal life? And we will see a theme from this man that his life and his eternity are all based on his performance in his mind. And Jesus holds off on his answer and he doubles down on the idea that this man’s performance or any performance at all could be good enough. Even Jesus takes this man and points him to the Father. This phrase has puzzled readers for centuries, but Jesus knows that in Judaism only God was seen as good and not even a rabbi would be called good teacher. This goes along with the theme of Mark which is Jesus and his Messianic Secret. He is always telling people to go and tell no one about what Jesus did for them. Jesus knows this man’s heart and he starts to rattle off some of the 10 Commandments. Much to our surprise this man tells Jesus that he has kept them from his youth. He obviously has not heard Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which we have discussed over the past two weeks. On first read this man seems to be overflowing with pride, but I think and again these are my thoughts that this man is sincere in his response. He has been living a life obedient to his understanding of the Law. And we will see this has been the burden of his life. He equates his performance with his eternity. He is missing the whole point of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.