"Only One is Good"

         When I was a student at Lakehead University, a minister from a liberal denomination came to give several lectures on Christianity. As I remember it, he was very interesting, but the only item that stuck was his comment on Matthew 19:16-22 (See also Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23). He suggested that Jesus was denying He was God. “Why do you call me good? There is none good but one, that is God.”

For someone who believes Jesus is God, that really grated. I investigated, and found that what Jesus meant the young man to understand was, “Yes, I am good, because yes, I am God.”

In Matthew’s version of the incident, the young man asks Jesus what he needs for eternal life. Jesus quotes #5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of the ten commandments, as well as “love your neighbour as yourself.” He leaves out the command against coveting (#10) because if the man sold everything and gave it all away, that would be taken care of. He also leaves out the commands about worshipping God (#1, 2, 3, and 4), These would all be covered if he did all the rest and followed Jesus.

Taking this Scripture as a whole and looking at the way the ten commandments are woven into the story, there is no doubt that Jesus is subtly assuring us that He is God. It is also a warning about how hard it can be to let go of some things, and prefer the love of Jesus. He assures His followers that they will get a hundred times more, plus eternal life, by following Him.

 

Number	Commandment	Matthew 19	Mark 10	Luke 18
1	No other gods	-	-	-
2	No graven image	-	-	-
3	Honour the Lord’s name	-	-	-
4	Sabbath day	-	-	-
5	Honour parents	✔	✔	✔
6	No murder	✔	✔	✔
7	No adultery	✔	✔	✔
8	No stealing	✔	✔	✔
9	No false witness	✔	✔	✔
10	No coveting	-	-	-
Extra		“Love neighbour”	“No defrauding”	-

"Preserved"

CN Tower at midnight

   On the evening of December 31, 1999, Joy and I drove to the outskirts of Toronto and caught the subway to downtown. From the station, we walked to the Toronto Star parking lot on Lakeshore Boulevard. After about 10 pm, in twos and threes, and fives and sixes, crowds started to flood into the lot. By 11:30, there must have been two thousand people packed in, shoulder-to-shoulder, with hardly room to breathe.  

At the stroke of Y2K midnight, a wave of fireworks burst from the CN Tower above us, and lit up the sky, as the new year and new millennium began. What momentous events we looked forward to, even as more fireworks flashed above the harbour from a nearby barge out on Lake Ontario. What excitement! What applause! How we cheered!

But then the show was over. No follow-up. What do 2000 people do now? They make for the exit. What if that exit is barely two lanes wide? The crush of people became almost unbearable―shoulder-to-shoulder we walked, and front-to-back with strangers pressing against us on all sides. I pulled my wife tight up against me and we balanced as best we could in an uncontrollable river of bodies. One stumble, one fall would mean death.

We got through the exit, the river became a delta, the current eased, and we caught our breath back near our subway stop. A late-night ride, a half hour drive, and we were home, safe in bed by two in the morning. God is good. That’s His character. He was especially good to us that night and we are deeply grateful. How close were we to disaster? Too close! I read of identical tragedies where deaths occurred at sports events or in burning hotels or restaurants. I now know what it means. I now avoid anywhere I might meet huge uncontrolled crowds.

A similar event also occurred in the Bible, but with much more serious consequences. Read 2 Kings 7:1-2, 16-20. Back in the days of Elisha, the Arameans were besieging Samaria and they had the city completely sealed up; people were starving. Elisha prophesied a huge supply of barley and fine flour for the next day—the king’s advisor mocked and basically said, even God couldn’t do it! When the siege was lifted and the news of the huge food supply spread through the city, the crush of people trying to get out destroyed him. He was trampled to death in the city gate.

For some reason, I keep coming back to Pascal’s wager. Why was the advisor so adamant against the prophecy? If we look at probabilities, he might have said the apparent probability of plentiful food was 1% and no food was 99%. But, like modern-day atheists, he should still have covered that low probability. Why leave that 1% gap? Investigate! Be really sure! God can step in and override all probabilities! This advisor made a gigantic mistake and lost his life.

Who digs pits?

I once owned a book on Biblical demonology; I never read it but the title, sitting there on my bookshelf like a little demon itself, so subtly oppressed me that I eventually had to just throw it out. The subject of digging pits is a little bit in that category— some pit stories in Bible times were really bad. For instance, Joseph was dropped into a pit before his brothers sold him as a slave, into Egypt. [Gen.37:24] Then there was Benaiah, one of David’s mighty men, who went down into a pit to kill a lion they had trapped there. [2 Sam.23:20] A third example is Jeremiah who was lowered into a muddy pit by order of King Zedekiah; the only way Ebed-Melek could get him out was to lower ropes and rags; Jeremiah put them under his arms and Ebed-Melek was able to drag him out of the muck. [Jer.38:11]

There is quite a variety of words used in Scripture for pits, some literal, but many metaphorical. Sometimes the Hebrew word means a cistern, dungeon, fountain, or well [953 and 875]. Sometimes it means corruption, destruction, ditch, or grave [7845]. Throughout the Bible there are over 70 references to pits. We don’t want to get into all the metaphorical meanings. We just want to see why anyone would be digging a pit.

There are three occasions when Jesus comments on literal pits. The first is a sheep falling into a pit [Mat.12:11]; the second is blind people leading other blind people and both falling into a pit [Mat.15:14]; the third is a

An ancient winepress

landowner who plants a vineyard and digs a pit for a winepress [Mark 12:1]. Only the latter explains why a pit would be dug, but our introduction indicates some other reasons. Pits were dug for water catchment, including cisterns—a great deal of Palestine is rainless for months on end. Pits were dug to trap game like antelope, or marauding lions (witness Benaiah’s pit). Pits were dug to catch the juice as grapes were trampled at harvest time.

The worst pits of all were dug for defensive purposes. Julius Caesar used these in Gaul 75 years earlier. In his case vicious sharpened stakes (now called punji sticks) were mounted in the pit to impale hapless attacking warriors.

Some of these pits could be inconvenient but some were deadly. A deep cistern (Jeremiah), a trapping pit (Benaiah), or a defensive pit were the worst. In fact, there was a penalty for digging an unprotected pit. Exodus 21:33 says, “If anyone uncovers a pit or digs one and fails to cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the one who opened the pit must pay the owner for the loss and take the dead animal in exchange.” And Psalm 7:15 talks about someone who digs a hole but the trouble and violence they cause “comes down on their own heads.”

There were hundreds of winepresses and cisterns around the country—so the danger was real. From my own teenage days, I remember an abandoned shallow well in an abandoned field. The wooden cover was starting to rot and it could have been deadly if you came on it in the dark unawares. And this is Jesus’ main point—pits are dangerous. We must be aware and avoid them.

        Today following bad leaders and believing false doctrine is just like falling into a pit. Be careful not to fall into the pit of ‘spiritual punji sticks’. But Jesus can protect you! He is the only One we can trust.