Why Call Me Good?
Jesus said, “Why Do You Call Me Good?” Was He really suggesting that He wasn’t?
Some well-intentioned scholars seeking to uphold their anti-supernatural bias have stripped Christ of His divine status. They prefer a Jesus that is non-threatening and is some-like us, just better. Of course, they attempt to justify this by citing the New Testament even as they refuse its claims. One such text is found in Mark 10:17 ff. The passage is found in parallel sections in both Matthew and Luke. In all of the Synoptic gospel accounts, we have the inquirer addressing Jesus as “good teacher.” Jesus replies with a question that has provided ammunition to the critical minds in their assault upon the gospel. Jesus said, “Why do you call me, Good? There is only One who is good, that is God.” It is here precisely that the scholars insist that Jesus explicitly denies His status as God. Well, this is the apparent meaning till one understands the nature of the question. It is a rhetorical question designed to make one ponder “Whom, indeed?” the young ruler is approaching. By Jesus saying that God alone is good, is not to suggest that He, Himself, is not good. But that if He is the dispenser of eternal life, then he must be something more than a mere man, no matter how much of a good teacher he was. To inherit eternal life by following Him, the young ruler needs to renounce all and devote his life to the pursuit of Christ and His will. To follow a mere man is never considered a means of attaining life in the eschaton. Of course, Jesus is that good teacher that pronounced forgiveness of sins (Mark 2) which led the religious leaders to ask, “who can forgive sins, save God?” As with this similar encounter with Jesus as manifesting the prerogatives of God, we see that He is more than a man. The way Christ addressed the young ruler is designed to prove that Jesus is truly the dispenser of eternal life, that He is eminently worth the sacrifice of all things, that indeed, He is the good teacher, but more importantly: He is the good God.
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