Matthew 19

¹⁶ And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” ¹⁷ And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸ He said to him, “Which ones?” And 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 mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁰ The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” ²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ²² When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. ²³ And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” ²⁶ But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” ²⁷ Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” ²⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰ But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

 

In Emmanuel Carrère’s book, The Kingdom, he writes something that one rarely hears. He writes that he identifies with the rich young ruler of our text. Carrère writes that he still feels the pull of the Christian message that, as he puts it, “to really win I’d have to lose.” Even so, other voices in his head win out. After reflecting on his great success and his great intelligence and his great wealth, he writes, “Nevertheless, I think that the little voice of the Gospel is right. And like the rich young man, I walk away, sad and pensive, for I have great wealth.”[1]

Say what you will about this, but at least Carrère is exhibiting a degree of honesty rarely seen in our day. There are numbers of Christians who sing loudly in church, put money in the plate, and serve in various capacities, who, if they were placed in this story, would likewise walk away sad with the rich young man instead of giving it all away to stay with Jesus.

How about you? How about me?

Craig Keener observes that “Greek traditions also reported aristocratic young men who wanted to study under a famous teacher but were too spoiled to carry out what the teacher demanded.”[2] Am I too spoiled to follow Jesus? Are you? What is clear is this: the young man in our text certainly was. Let us watch his exchange with Jesus.

Jesus shifts the man’s focus from performance to person.

In the initial movements of Jesus’ exchange with this man, we see Jesus shifting His focus from performance to person, that is, from the man’s own performance to the person of Jesus Himself.

¹⁶ And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

There is a strong emphasis on performance in the assumptions undergirding the man’s questions. “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” This is the question of a man accustomed to earning what he has through effort, through merit, through performance. The assumption is that there are deeds he might do that would earn him eternal life.

Such is the nature of humanity! “What good deed must I do” is part of our spiritual and psychological DNA. We understand merit. We understand payment. We understand earning. All of which, of course, are about us. All of which, of course, keep our focus ultimately on ourselves. All of which, of course, elevate the “me,” the “I.”

Jesus’ response, then, is surprising but not impenetrable.

^17a-c And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.”

It is surprising in that He strikes out at one of the man’s premises while avoiding the man’s actual question. Yet, it would seem clear that what Jesus is ultimately trying to do is shift the man’s focus. Specifically, He is shifting the man’s focus from performance to person, that is, from his own performance to the person of Jesus.

This is critical to the ultimate end that Jesus is leading the man toward in this conversation. It is also critical for us. So long as we are preoccupied with and fixated upon ourselves and our own performance, we will never focus our attention where it needs to be: upon Jesus.

It is also argued by many that what Jesus is doing here is giving an indirect nod to a spiritual reality that the man also needs ultimately to see and embrace. The “only one who is good” is God. Therefore, by pointing out this fact with the question, “Why do you ask me about what is good?” (in Mark and Luke’s version Jesus asks, “Why do you call me good?”), what Jesus is actually doing is opening up the startling possibility to the man that there is a connection between this one that the man calls “teacher” and God Himself!

In other words, there is a focus-shift that needs to happen in the man’s mind as well as an identity-shift. The focus-shift involves where the man’s attention needs to be: Jesus instead of Himself. The identity-shift involves a shift in how the man understands Jesus: as God and not merely as a teacher.

Jesus shifts the man’s focus from assumed righteousness to avoided reality.

There is another shift that Jesus eventuates in this exchange, and it has to do with the reality of the man’s own heart. He does this by taking the man deeper into his own assumed righteousness.

¹⁷ And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” ^18a-b He said to him, “Which ones?”

Let us not pass by this little question too quickly: “Which ones?” Here we get another glimpse into the young man’s psyche. He is a bargainer. Notice that he does not assume that Jesus’ reference to keeping “the commandments” includes all of them. Instead, he seems to want to establish the minimum. “Which ones?” He assumes that he can earn eternal life and he assumes that he can reach favorable terms on that which he wants to earn. He also seems to want the lowest price possible. “Which ones? How many?” In other words, “How few?”

Jesus answers the man without rebuke, but let us make no mistake: Jesus is perfectly aware of what is going on in this man’s heart. He indulges the man’s question for specifics.

^18c-g And 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 mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

These commandments involve the horizontal, the relationship between human beings, and not the vertical, our relationship with God. They are commandments from the “second table of the decalogue.” The young man is elated.

²⁰ The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”

There is presumption here. There is misguided confidence here. There is misunderstanding here. Has he truly indeed “kept” even these commandments, much less all? Is he as righteous as he seems to think? Then, he grasps for the ring: “What do I still lack?” In other words, “Is the deal done? Can we sign on the dotted line? Can I take hold of the prize now?”

But then Jesus brings the true reality of the man’s own heart to light in a stunning turn.

²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

There is a lot happening here! For one thing, Jesus is showing the man the reality that he focuses on the bare minimum of obedience instead of the maximum: whatever else the man thinks he has done for his fellow man (i.e., “All these I have kept.”) he has not done all he could do. Seen in another light, Jesus is simply answering the man’s question, “What do I still lack?” The answer? A lot! The man has yet to reach the end of himself. For yet another thing, Jesus is showing the man that his initial greeting of Jesus as “teacher” was, in reality, an empty formality, a nicety with no real substance, for when Jesus teaches him the man will not accept it. Yet again, Jesus appears to be creating a kind of crisis moment for the man, a crisis that could have led him to throw himself in desperation at the feet of Jesus but that instead leads him to a more tragic response:

²² When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Here we are told for the first time that the man is a “young man.” Craig Keener notes that “‘young man’ places him between twenty–four and forty years of age.”[3] Whatever his age, he is not so old that he does not need to learn some very valuable lessons! But how tragic. He “went away” and was “sorrowful” as he did so.

Ultimately, the price was too much and the teacher asked too much. Ultimately, the young man was unwilling to give all that he had, even for eternal life! Frank Stagg writes:

The rich young ruler was far from eternal life even though he sincerely sought it…Actually he was a bargainer, seriously seeking eternal life, but as a bargainer he was unwilling to pay more than he thought it was worth…[4]

But what if the young man had indeed sold and given away all that he possessed? Would that night have been a staggering step of faith in Christ? For the young man would have then had to say, “If I am going to be able to live now, Jesus, it will depend upon you! You are now all I have!” His assumed righteousness would have been shattered and the avoided reality of his need for Christ would have been embraced.

This is what Jesus was calling the man too: utter dependence on Him, faith in Him, the commitment to being a disciple.

Jesus shifts the disciples’ focus from the earth to the Kingdom.

There is yet one more shift that Jesus ushers in, and this one has to do with his disciples. As the young man walks away from Jesus, He turns now to His disciples. They too need to learn from the teacher.

²³ And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”

The disciples are astonished because, in many ways, they shared the same assumptions of the rich young ruler when it came to merit and to wealth. “The disciples’ world is understandably rocked,” writes Michael Card. “In their minds, the rich are at the head of the line to the kingdom of God. Wealthy people were wealthy because, after all, God had blessed them.”[5] But the disciples too needed to understand what the rich young man would not: that merit will damn you whereas only God can save you.

The question of the disciples in verse 25—“Who then can be saved?”—should have been the question of the rich young ruler instead of walking away: “What does this mean, Jesus? Is salvation beyond me? How do I do this?”

²⁶ But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Jesus, in saying this, shifts the disciples’ focus from the earth to the Kingdom, from human merit and failure to the ultimate rule of God: “with God all things are possible.” Salvation, eternal life is of God. Hope for eternal life happens when our despair collides with the greatness of God.

Peter, ever the opportunist, decides to proclaim that, unlike they rich young ruler, they “have left everything” to follow Jesus. Jesus certainly could have leaned into Peter’s claim had He wanted, but, instead, He decides to draw Peter and the other disciples into a glorious vision of the Kingdom.

²⁷ Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” ²⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰ But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

This entire episode is a brilliant case study in Jesus getting to the heart of the matter and bringing about fundamental shifts in how those who approached Him viewed Him and the reality of the Kingdom. It is a revelation of the nature of both discipleship and faith. It is a reorientation of the human assumption of merit-based salvation to the Kingdom reality of salvation by grace through faith. It is a tantalizing and scandalous and beautiful unveiling of the fact that this Jesus is no mere teacher and that salvation is no mere transaction and the Kingdom is no mere treasure. He is greater. Salvation is of God. The Kingdom is the reign and rule of the God who saves.

 

[1] Emmanuel Carrère. The Kingdom. Translated by John Lambert. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2017), p.259.

[2] Craig Keener, The IVP Bible Background New Testament, New Testament (Downers Grove, IL:  InterVarsity Press, 1993), p.97.

[3] Craig Keener, p.97.

[4] Frank Stagg, “Matthew.” The Broadman Bible Commentary. Gen. ed., Clifton J. Allen. Vol.8 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1969), p.190–191.

[5] Michael Card. Matthew. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013), p.174.