Dis∙illusion∙ed about God - Luke 18:18-30

The account of the rich young ruler flows from a previous parable correcting errant self-righteous attitudes of the Pharisees toward sinners like the publican. In conjunction with this correction is another which rights the disciples’ faulty assumptions that demean the spiritual worth of children in God’s Kingdom and God’s work. Our teaching today is followed by an account of the disciples’ blindness toward the price of redemption paid by Jesus and the ability of Jesus to heal such blindness, as He did on the Jericho road. These accounts fulfill Luke’s purpose for this Gospel, to steady the God-lover’s wobbly faith by revealing that the Kingdom of God is possible to see when God removes that which blinds us to its presence.