Matt 19:16-30
SS Lesson for 02/16/2025
Devotional Scripture: Luke 12:15-21
The encounter recorded in today’s Scripture occurred only a few weeks before Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. The location was on the eastern side of the Jordan River (Matthew 19:1). This region was also referred to as Perea by Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian. Today’s Scripture text has parallels in Mark 10:17-31 and Luke 18:18-30. The first part of the lesson is our consideration of Jesus’ encounter with an unnamed man whom we refer to as “the rich young ruler.” That designation results from combining descriptions in the three accounts of the synoptic Gospels: the man was rich (Matthew 19:22; Mark 10:22; Luke 18:23), he was young (Matthew 19:22), and he was a ruler (Luke 18:18). Because he is described as being young, it has been suggested that he was probably not a member of the Jewish ruling body known as the Sanhedrin, but a “ruler” of a local synagogue. By the time we get to chapter 19 in the Gospel of Matthew, opinions about Jesus had become polarized (compare John 7:12). Luke 9:51-18:14 records the events that happened between the end of Matthew 18 and the beginning of Matthew 19. This time frame featured several tense and pointed encounters with Pharisees and other individuals. These encounters continued into Matthew 19:1 and beyond as Jesus “left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan.” One such encounter is the subject of today’s text.
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?"
17 So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."
18 He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,'
19 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
19 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good, except God alone.
14 "What is man, that he could be pure, or one born of woman, that he could be righteous? 15 If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, 16 how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks up evil like water!
4 How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
10 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
20 The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?"
21 Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,
8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
13 Hezekiah received the messengers and showed them all that was in his storehouses — the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil — his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. 14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, "What did those men say, and where did they come from?" "From a distant land," Hezekiah replied. "They came from Babylon." 15 The prophet asked, "What did they see in your palace?" "They saw everything in my palace," Hezekiah said. "There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them." 16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord: 17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord.
12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? 7 No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him
28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
A. How to obtain eternal life (16, 17a). The young man who approached Jesus is described by the three synoptic Gospels as rich. Mark does not say anything about his age, but describes him as running up to Jesus and falling on his knees before him. Matthew records here that the young man said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
Here we have a significant problem in comparing the Gospel accounts. Mark and Luke read: Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good? No one is good--except God alone.” But in Matthew “good” does not modify “teacher,” but is made part of the question. And Jesus’ answer is adapted to that wording. Some have suggested that “good” was originally in both places, and the different accounts preserve it in one or the other places; but that is not very convincing (“Good teacher, what good thing”). The determining factor in correlating these two passages is the understanding of the main point of the episode. The rich young man wanted to earn his place in the kingdom, and he was far from the humility of faith that is required (see the blessing of the children). In answering him Jesus was neither claiming to be incompetent to judge what is good, nor denying that he himself was good. Jesus wanted to show him that he did not understand goodness, for it is God’s will that determines what is good. The young man revealed that he wanted something that was apart from God’s will, and that he did not understand the goodness of God. It is probable that the man said, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” and that Jesus said, “Why do you ask me questions regarding what is good?” Matthew’s summary of the exchange with his placement of the word “good” in the answer of Jesus was designed to focus our attention on the central meaning of the exchange, that the man thought he could earn it by doing that extra good deed. Matthew’s way of summarizing the conversation fits well with the normal latitude that the evangelists have in reporting the essence of the events and dialogues in such a way as to clarify the meaning of them. The gospel writers often reword some of the material to make the point very clear to their respective audiences.
The point then is that this young man thought there was some good thing he could do, besides keeping all the commandments, that would guarantee his place in the kingdom. He was not humble and trusting (like the little child), but confident and self-righteous; and he had the wrong idea of what goodness was, as Jesus’ response showed. What he wanted was to earn “eternal life,” that is, a life that is approved by God and that will guarantee access to the kingdom. He thought that Jesus, being a good teacher, would be able to give him that answer of what to do.
But Jesus’ response was first to question his understanding of what is good. This is certainly no confession of sin by Jesus, as some have suggested; rather, Jesus was probing to see if this man understood the standard of goodness. God is good (Jesus was not focusing on himself, or his relation to the Father); that is, the standard of goodness was God and his will. If God is good, then one has to conform to God’s will to do what is good. If anyone wanted to do that which would guarantee eternal life, it would mean finding and doing the will of God. This statement thereby opened the way for the discussion of the commands.
B. Obey the commandments (17b-19). In the exchange that follows Jesus tells the man to obey the commandments. His answer is intended to imply more than what is stated. In the Old Testament the keeping of the commandments was an expression of faith, as it is in the New Testament as well. Jesus was not saying that salvation was by works of obedience; but he was saying that obedience is the genuine evidence of faith. A true believer obeys the commands of God.
But his instruction was also designed to uncover the arrogance and self-righteousness of the young man who thought he had kept all the commands. Thus, Jesus began by listing the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and fifth commandments from Exodus 20; and then he added “love your neighbor” from Leviticus 19:18. The reference to the ten commandments was clear and easy to understand; the inclusion of the command from Leviticus opened up other obligations not specified.
C. The claim to have kept the commands (20). And yet the young man claimed to have done all these things throughout his life. There is a self-righteousness at work here. And yet, it is not a very confident one. The young man’s additional question of what he still lacked shows that he still did not think his obedience was enough to gain salvation. To him there still had to be some good work that was over and above the keeping of the law, and that would give him the certainty of eternal life. In the first century this was a common idea: people who lived by the commandments looked for that one big thing they could do that would assure them of the life to come.
D. How to be perfect (21). Jesus then told the young man that if he wanted to be perfect he would have to sell all and follow him. Jesus was answering the question of the young man concerning what he had to do to find eternal life. The answer, essentially, was to come (by faith) and follow Jesus. But since the wealth was going to be the hindrance, he needed to sell it all and give it to the poor. By selling off his wealth and giving it to the poor the young man would not only be removing a competing element for his devotion to God, but also show that he was being obedient to the law, for loving the neighbor as the law said would require him to do something for those in need. Unfortunately, he had a divided heart--he could keep the external commandments, but he did not want to surrender his life to the Lord and radically change his priorities and practices.
The word “perfection” throughout the Old Testament has the basic idea of undivided loyalty and complete obedience to the will of God. And what Jesus was demanding for entrance into the kingdom was just that, true discipleship, meaning, a complete surrender of the self to Jesus as the Savior. To enter into eternal life requires surrender to the claim of God on the life, explained clearly through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, to obtain eternal life a person must realize his or her sinfulness in not measuring up to the goodness of God (the commandments have not all been kept; we are not perfect), and surrender to the will of God revealed in Jesus Christ (receive Jesus as Savior and Lord).
What is clearly revealed here is that doing the will of God must ultimately find expression in following Jesus. You cannot do God’s will and not follow Christ. That is because throughout the Old Testament the promise of the coming of the Messiah was the will of God. And, apart from allegiance to him by faith, there is no salvation. The rich young man’s compliance with the commandments was worthless, because it did not include surrender to the will of God in Christ Jesus.
E. Deaf to the appeal (22). Given the choice of his money of surrendering to follow Christ, the young man chose his money. For him salvation was impossible, because he was not willing to surrender to the will of God. He was hoping for another good deed to do to cap his obedience to the commandments; but he was not willing to surrender himself and his wealth to follow the Lord.
A. A rich man entering the kingdom (23, 24). Jesus was not saying that there will be no rich people saved--the Old Testament is filled with samples of wealthy people who surrendered to the will of God and remained wealthy and who will have a share in the kingdom. But in the days of Jesus the people had come to accept the teaching that the rich would automatically be in the kingdom, primarily because their richness was seen as a clear evidence of God’s blessing on their life (and poverty was seen as a punishment for sin--the poor were called sinners). But Jesus here made it clear, that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom.
Indeed, as verse 24 says, it is humanly impossible. The saying compares the difficulty to that of a camel going through the eye of a needle. Today, tour guides in Israel/Palestine love to tell tourists that the eye refers to the eye gate, a smaller gate in the big gate, and that a camel has to get down and squeeze through--a sign of humility. But there is no support for that view at all. Jesus’ point is that it is impossible with men--and that is how the disciples understood it.
B. Who can be saved (25)? Jesus’ answer greatly astonished the disciples. It went against the conventional thinking of the day. They asked who could be saved? In this context “saved” is the same as “entering into the kingdom” or “obtaining eternal life.” The disciples reasoned that if the rich people, that is, those who were so blessed by God (and therefore must be the righteous), can hardly get in, then who else could be saved?
C. thing is impossible with God (26). The response of Jesus makes it clear that salvation is by the grace of God: “With man this (salvation for everyone) is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” In other words, God is a God who specializes in the impossible, as history reveals. And salvation is impossible, apart from the work of God. If salvation is possible with God, then people, rich or poor, must seek it from God--and that requires complete self-surrender by faith to his will and plan.
D. The disciples have left all and followed Christ (27). Peter’s response reflects the common notion of deserving or earning God’s favor--they have left all, Peter protested, just as the Lord advised the rich young man. So it did not seem “impossible” for the twelve. And if they have made such a sacrifice, what will they get in return?
E. Jesus explains that the rewards are by grace (28-30). Jesus did not immediately rebuke Peter’s contention, but his answer ultimately showed Peter that he had missed the point. The reward that is to come to them, the twelve, in the day of renewal, as well as for all believers, far surpasses any sacrifice they might have made here. It is not a fair reward, if people were looking for what is fair; it is a reward too great for the sacrifice, because it is by grace.
Jesus looks ahead to his glorious reign at the consummation of the ages (the “renewal” referring to the beginning of the kingdom) and declares that his followers will have a share in that kingdom. The New Testament teaches that believers will rule with Christ on earth (see Rev. 5:9, 10; Luke 22:30; 1 Cor. 6:2). But here Jesus singles out the twelve to sit on twelve thrones judging Israel. Some scholars interpret “Israel” here to mean the Church, symbolized by “Israel,” and that the apostles will have some authority over the whole company of the redeemed. But that view does not do justice to the usage of the terms in the Book of Matthew that clearly distinguishes Israel and the Gentiles. Apparently Jesus was promising that the twelve apostles would judge national Israel at the consummation, probably for its rejection of its Messiah. Clearly, Jesus is the judge who pardons and condemns; but he has chosen to share the administrative duties in his kingdom with those who have proven faithful.
Jesus then extended the promise of rewards to all who made sacrifices to follow him. Here he was referring to the cost of discipleship: some people had to abandon family relationships when they chose to follow Christ, and for them there will be full and abundant compensation in the kingdom. This kind of sacrifice is often hard for westerners to understand, especially in a country where people generally do not care what others believe. But in the days of Jesus when people left the traditions of the family and the teachings of the Pharisees and followed Jesus alone, it often meant a radical break with family (and it still does in families that are rigidly Jewish, and also Islamic). Jesus is not saying that people should abandon their little children and not fulfill their family responsibilities. However, Jesus was declaring that to be his disciple meant a radical change in the priorities in life. And if by following Jesus someone has sacrificed a relationship with a family or family member, that person will find in the Messianic community a far greater family that truly cares for all things spiritual and practical; and that person will also have found eternal life. The language Jesus used here is figurative: abandoning a father does not mean a hundred fathers will replace him, but that there will be an abundant provision from God to compensate for the loss.
Jesus closed his teachings with a proverbial saying--many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. Like so many proverbial sayings, this is open to differing interpretations. But in this context the message has to do with who has a reward in the world to come. It is clear that eternal life (both the salvation and the life in the world to come) is a work of grace; and the common notion that the rich, powerful, and prominent of this day will advance in the kingdom beyond the poor, the weak, and the obscure, is here denied. A rich man on earth is not guaranteed a greater place in the kingdom than a poor man, even if people think the rich are blessed by God; that is a worldly notion of eternal life (remember that the widow who gave a pittance was received by God above those who sounded the trumpet). Those who surrender to the Lord with a childlike trust will find advancement in the kingdom and great reward; but that surrender will involve being willing to relinquish all that this world has provided for the sake of serving Christ.
(Adapted from URL:https://bible.org/seriespage/28-wealth-and-kingdom-heaven-matthew-1916-30)
The episode of the rich young ruler sounds a warning to those who want a Christian faith that will not require a change of lifestyle or a reordering of priorities. Jesus did not and does not command every seeking sinner to sell everything and give the money away. Jesus did so to the rich young ruler because Jesus knew what the man valued. Anything we put before God in our hearts is an idol and must be dealt with in the same decisive manner. The young man wanted to ensure he had “checked all the boxes” to obtain eternal life. He sincerely believed he was on the cusp of meeting the requirements. If there was even one thing left undone, one box remaining unchecked, then surely Jesus would tell him what that was. And Jesus did! Ultimately, the man’s problem was that something other than God was on the throne of his heart (compare 2 Timothy 4:10). “Rich” is a relative term. The wealth of Solomon is legendary (1 Kings 3:13; 10:23). But none of the countless servants he had in his palace would match the efficiency and effectiveness of our “servants” of modern refrigerators, microwave ovens, etc. If he was considered to be rich, then what are we? When our hands produce wealth, do we remember who gave us those hands to do so in the first place (Deuteronomy 8:17-18; compare Daniel 4:28-33)? Paul’s admonition to Timothy still applies: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17; compare Psalm 62:10).