A young person must see that in order to serve God, he has to set aside, sell, or give up everything before he can follow the Lord. When the Lord called the twelve apostles, they happily and instantly followed Him. They did not linger for a moment. They gave up their boats, their nets, and everything to follow the Lord. We find such men in the early days, and we find such men in China today. Like Peter, James, and John, these ones hear the Lord’s calling, and they follow the Lord instantly and absolutely. We have to thank the Lord for this. Yet if there are men who, like the young ruler, find it difficult to respond to the Lord or to give up everything to follow Him, thank the Lord, there is still a way. The way lies in this: What is impossible to men is possible to God.
Here we find a right combination: Thirteen people were called by the Lord. Eleven gave up everything instantly and absolutely, one was false, and the other one was unwilling. Of the thirteen, eleven were good, one was false—Judas, and the remaining one, the thirteenth one, was the young ruler. We should not think that when the Lord’s word goes out that only one person will genuinely follow the Lord. On the contrary, the Bible shows us that only one was afraid to follow Him.
Please remember that as long as we take a firm stand and the church also takes a firm stand before God, we do not have to worry whether there are too many young rulers. We should realize that men like the young ruler are rare cases. Not everyone in the church is a Judas. In the same way, not everyone in the church is a young ruler. Of the thirteen, eleven were absolute. When God’s word is released, and the place is right and the audience proper, it is rare to find one who will not follow the Lord in an absolute way.
Let us now turn to the story of Zaccheus. Zaccheus was a Jew, yet he worked for the Roman government. Humanly speaking, he was a traitor because he collaborated with the Roman Empire to extort from his own countrymen. He was a tax collector appointed by the Roman government; he was a Jew in his own Jewish land, yet he was collecting taxes from his own countrymen for the Romans, the very ones who had overrun his native land.
Zaccheus was not a very moral person. He was not as noble as the young ruler, who had kept the commandments from his youth. He was a tax collector who worked for foreigners. The tax collectors of that day, like all tax collectors, were greedy men. They always tried to get more money from the people. At that time two groups of people were very much despised by the Jews. One was sinners, and the other was tax collectors. These names carried the same stigma as that of a hooligan today; they suggested men of bad reputation. But on that day the Lord Jesus came and passed through. Here was a man with great power. He was drawing many people to Himself. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). It was the Father who drew Zaccheus to the Lord.
Zaccheus was drawn to the Lord. He wanted to see Jesus. Because he was too short, he had to climb up a sycamore tree. Yet before he saw the Lord, the Lord saw him first. When the Lord saw him, He did not preach to him a sermon. He did not say, “You should confess your sins and repent.” He did not tell him, “You should not have extorted from others,” or “You should not have sinned or become greedy.” Neither did the Lord tell him to sell all that he had, give to the poor, and follow Him. The Lord did not pass on any teaching to him. He only said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay in your house” (Luke 19:5). Please pay attention to the fact that the Lord did not exhort him in any way. He did not give him any teaching on work as He did in chapters five through seven of Matthew. He did not speak about the doctrine of regeneration of John 3, the teaching on the living water of John 4, the teaching on light of John 8, or the teaching on the one grain that fell into the ground of John 12. The Lord did not preach to Zaccheus at all. He did not exhort him in any way. It was just a personal touch, a personal encounter. Here was a heart that was after the Lord. Here was a person who had chosen Him. In fact, as far as doctrine was concerned, Zaccheus did not know anything.