Session 7
Matthew 19:16-30
Memory Verse: Matthew 19:26
When people brought some children to Jesus for a blessing, His disciples tried to stop them. But Jesus rebuked His followers, telling them to let the children come to Him because they represented what kingdom life should look like (Matt. 19:14). Right after that, a young and wealthy Jewish leader gave Jesus the perfect object lesson. He came seeking eternal life (v. 16), but he walked away grieving once Jesus exposed his true self-centered values. Jesus told His disciples that entering the kingdom requires humble, childlike faith (vv. 23-24), not wealth or influence. He added that all those who surrender the things they hold dear to follow Him would be rewarded in eternity (vv. 27-29).
As you dig into this session’s verses, think about what “eternal life” means to you. How does the life Jesus has granted you affect the way you live each day? Ask God to show you ways to remind adults that salvation is impossible to obtain by human merit and comes totally by God’s grace. Use the truths of this lesson to provide a biblical perspective on wealth and possessions, including how materialistic values can stand in the way of people becoming followers of Jesus.
An ideology once prevalent in America is something called the “Protestant work ethic.” In its genuine expression, a strong work ethic is a logical progression from one’s relationship with God. It is an abuse of this tradition, however, to think that work is the means of a right relationship with God rather than an expression of it. The reasoning of some people is, the harder you work, the better chance of earning God’s favor. (PSG, p. 63)
After skipping ahead to Matthew 28 for Easter, we return to Matthew 18, where Jesus concluded His long and extensive Galilean ministry. It was almost time for the annual Feast of Tabernacles in the fall, approximately six months before Jesus’s crucifixion in Jerusalem.
According to Matthew 19:1, Jesus “departed from Galilee and went to the region of Judea across the Jordan.” What Matthew doesn’t record is the three-month period of Jesus’s Judean ministry between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Dedication in the winter (John 10:22). Only John’s Gospel (John 7:11-10:39) and Luke’s Gospel (Luke 10:1-13:21) record these events in Judea. John recorded that Jesus’s ministry in Judea ended with the Feast of Dedication when He was asked to state plainly if He was the Messiah or not. Because Jesus called God “my Father” and claimed to be one with the Father, the Jews who heard Him tried to stone Him or arrest Him. But Jesus “escaped” and “departed again across the Jordan” (John 10:22-40).
This escape put Jesus in the area of Perea on the east side of the Jordan, an area controlled by Herod Antipas (Luke 13:31-32). Luke recorded several instances of Jesus’s teaching, sharing parables, and healing in Perea (13:22-18:14), and John added the account of Jesus raising Lazarus.
After Caiaphas (the high priest) and other religious leaders heard about Jesus raising Lazarus, they were fearful that “everyone will believe in him,” so they began their plans to kill Him. Meanwhile, Jesus headed north to a small town called Ephraim (John 11:45-54), after which He traveled through Samaria and back up to Galilee (Luke 17:11).
As Passover neared, crowds traveled from Galilee to Jerusalem for the holy day and the week-long Festival of Unleavened Bread that followed it. To make this journey from Galilee in the north to Judea in the south, Jews crossed over the Jordan River to the east into the territory of Perea and moved south to avoid Samaria. Luke picked up the southern journey in Perea, sharing that Jesus visited several small towns on His way toward Jerusalem (Luke 13:22). Luke also recorded much of this early travel in Perea in
Luke 13:23-18:14.
At this point, the narratives recounted in Matthew 19:1-12 and Mark 10:1-12 coalesce. All three Synoptic Gospels (Matt. 19:13; Mark 10:13; Luke 18:15) begin to match toward the end of Jesus’s Perean ministry. This takes readers to the opening of this session, a story about the path to eternal life found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Read Matthew 19:16-30 in your Bible. How would you describe what the young ruler thought would give him eternal life? (PSG, p. 64)
EXPLORE THE TEXT
16 Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?” 17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; 19 honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself. 20 “I have kept all these,” the young man told him. “What do I still lack?” 21 “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had
many possessions.
Matthew opened this narrative with the phrase just then. The someone who approached Jesus is identified in verse 20 as a “young man” (possibly in his 20s to 40s). Luke 18:18 also labeled him a “ruler,” perhaps in a synagogue like Jairus (Mark 5:22). Each of the Synoptic Gospels state that the man was wealthy (Matt. 19:22; Mark 10:22; Luke 18:23). Combining all these descriptions explains why this account is often referred to as that of “The Rich Young Ruler.”
The man addressed Jesus as Teacher, a form of respect. Mark noted that he also knelt before Jesus (Mark 10:17). The man’s first question concerned eternal life. The way the man formulated his question, What good must I do?, reveals that he believed salvation could be earned by merit.
Jesus’s first response to the young man’s question was a question of His own: Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus then continued, there is only one who is good. Jesus was not denying His own deity by this statement. Instead, He was reminding the man that God already had defined what was good. Thus the man should not have needed to ask what he needed to do. The answer was to obey God’s revelation.
Likewise, when Jesus told the man to keep the commandments, He was not affirming salvation by works. As the dialogue moves forward, it will become clear that Jesus verified that the young man had not kept God’s commandments in spite of his claims to the contrary.
When the man asked his second question (Which ones?), he should have known the correct answer would have been “all of them.” However, since the rabbis counted 613 commandments in the Pentateuch, his question perhaps was reasonable. Jesus answered by listing the sixth through the ninth commandments, along with the fifth commandment. Each one highlights ethical duties and human relationships
(Ex. 20:12-16; Deut. 5:16-20). Jesus placed the commandment to honor one’s parents out of order, giving it special attention and emphasis. To these commands Jesus appended Leviticus 19:18.
The man claimed to have kept all these commandments since childhood. The word all comes first in his statement, giving it emphasis and including all of the law’s expectations. But he realized he needed something more in his life, so he asked a third question: What do I still lack?
Perfect refers to a complete commitment to God’s will. This is what the man believed he wanted, so Jesus put His finger on his fatal flaw. The man needed to sell your belongings and give to the poor. The young man’s response showed that he had fallen short of the first commandment on other gods and the tenth commandment on covetousness. He also failed to love his neighbor as himself.
Jesus was not giving the man a task to earn salvation, but He did confront a major hindrance to eternal life. In the end, the man loved his many possessions more than obtaining eternal life. Unlike disciples like Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew who had left everything to follow Jesus, this man walked
away grieving.
EXPLORE THE TEXT
23 Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to 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 utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?” 26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
The encounter with the wealthy young man provided a teachable moment for Jesus’s disciples. Truly I tell you emphasizes that Jesus was about to share something important, something that needed to be listened to carefully (see Matt. 5:18).
Jesus said it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, but it’s not impossible. Enter the kingdom of heaven is another way of referring to salvation (5:20; 7:21; 18:3). The words again I tell you show that Jesus’s saying in verse 24 is a basic repetition of verse 23.
In verse 24, Jesus used hyperbole to illustrate a ridiculous situation-a camel, the largest of the animals in the Middle East, trying to go through the eye of a needle, the smallest opening in a commonly used item. People sometimes suggest that Jesus was referring to a very low, narrow gate that a camel would have to get on its knees to crawl through. This is an attempt to make an impossible situation seem difficult, but doable. However, no such gate existed and trying to interpret Jesus’s words in this way actually reverses His point. Jesus wanted to emphasize the utter uselessness of trying to squeeze a camel through a needle.
Personal wealth, or any other merit an individual might be tempted to trust, will never get anyone into heaven. But what is impossible for humans to do on their own can be accomplished through God’s power (as verse 26 will make clear). The phrase kingdom of God is rare in Matthew’s Gospel. He uses it only three times: here, in 12:28, and in 21:31,43. But it is the equivalent to his preferred term “kingdom of heaven” in the previous verse.
The disciples clearly understood Jesus’s meaning and were utterly astonished by it. Elsewhere in his Gospel, Matthew noted that crowds were astonished at Jesus’s teaching (7:28; 13:54; 22:33). The imperfect tense of the verbs in those passages indicates that the people were left in a continuing state of astonishment. To this sense of amazement Matthew added the word utterly, which also can be translated “exceedingly.”
Their shock at Jesus’s pronouncement is understandable within historical context. In the theology of that day, wealth and prosperity were taken as signs of God’s blessing for a pious life. Ancient Jewish scholars would point to passages like Deuteronomy 7:12-13; 28:1-14; Proverbs 10:22; 22:4; and the example of Job (Job 1:1-3) to validate their arguments. So, it ran counter to all conventional wisdom for Jesus to say that rich people would struggle to enter the kingdom.
In light of this new idea, the disciples wanted to know then who can be saved? As they understood Jesus’s statement the answer would have been “No one.” The disciples’ word saved is the fifth term used to refer to salvation in this narrative. The rich ruler used “eternal life” (v. 16), to which Jesus responded with the shorter form “life” (v. 17). Jesus then used the phrases “to be perfect” (v. 21), “kingdom of heaven” (v. 23) and “kingdom of God” (v. 24). The Greek word for can in the disciples’ question (dynatai) literally means “power.” So, it can be rendered, “Who has the power to be saved?”
Matthew said that Jesus looked at them, which means that He fixed His gaze on them as He declared two things. First, He emphasized the total impossibility of humans to save themselves (with man this is impossible). Second, He stated that God is not limited by humanity’s limitations (with God all things
are possible).
The word but marks the contrast between what people cannot do and what God can do. This declaration was not new, and the disciples should have known it from God’s interaction with Abraham (Gen. 18:14), Job’s reply to the Lord (Job 42:1-2), or Jeremiah’s confession of God’s power (Jer. 32:17).
EXPLORE THE TEXT
27 Then Peter responded to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you. So what will there be for us?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits 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 fields because of my name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the
last first.”
As usual, Peter spoke up for the disciples (Matt. 14:28; 15:15; 16:16,22; 17:4; 18:21). Having heard Jesus tell the man to sell his possessions, Peter pointed out that the apostles had done just that: We have left everything and followed you. In Greek, we is placed first for emphasis. Peter’s follow-up-what will there be for us?-may seem presumptuous, but it was a natural question arising out of his (and the other disciples’) confusion or uncertainty.
Again Jesus began His announcement with truly I tell you, as in verse 23, to stress its importance. The phrase renewal of all things refers to the cosmic renewal of the whole creation (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; Rev. 21:1). At that time, the Son of Man, Jesus’s favorite title for Himself, will sit on his glorious throne. Drawn from Daniel 7 and Psalm 110, this image does not merely describe the throne itself, but also the glory of the reigning Christ. Additionally, Jesus promised that His apostles will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
The word judging can mean “having authority over” and has led to various interpretations. Some think it means each apostle will judge a particular tribe of Israel. Others believe the apostles will judge the
tribes collectively.
Those who believe God has a separate plan for Israel and the church understand this promise to mean that the apostles will have ruling authority over those redeemed from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Those who believe that the promises to Israel are spiritually fulfilled in the church understand this to mean that believers will be involved in the judgment (1 Cor. 6:2-3).
Jesus’s shift to everyone who widened His reference from the apostles to all believers who follow Jesus across the ages. While these other believers won’t sit on thrones judging, they will be rewarded for their sacrifices. Jesus said that those whose loyalty to Him led them to leave houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields . . . will receive a hundred times more. Jesus named seven items. Two of those items referred to possessions-houses and fields-and are plural, indicating that a person might own at least one or both.
The other items referred to the closest of three generations of family relations-brothers and sisters, along with father, mother, and children. Elsewhere, Jesus used hundred times more to refer to a disproportionate, miraculous increase (Matt. 13:8,23). The point is that the reward far exceeds whatever
was sacrificed.
And in addition to that great reward, Jesus’s followers also carry the assurance that they will inherit eternal life. This brings the conversation back to the young ruler’s original question (19:16), which led to this teaching opportunity. Eternal life means a life with no end, but it also involves more than that. It refers to the quality of one’s life, a quality that is fit for eternity and still has an impact on our lives here on earth.
God’s kingdom turns this world’s values upside down. Many who are first now will be last in God’s kingdom. At the same time, many who might be considered last in this present age, will be first in the eternal kingdom. The kingdom is all about faithfulness. Anyone who entrusts their future to Christ now will realize the reward of life with Him in eternity.
Review these points from Apply the Text on page 71 of the Personal Study Guide:
eternal life.
Challenge adults to reconsider their work ethic in terms of faith.
Direct adults to read the first set of questions on page 71 of the PSG. Remind adults that, while hard work is noble and good in many areas of life, it’s not a way to connect with God. Challenge the group to consider how to receive salvation and God’s daily blessings as His gift of grace, not as a payment for hard work.
Close by giving adults an opportunity to pray, assigning one person to open and another to close. Encourage adults to consider their own tendency to “work” for their salvation and blessings, as well as how they might better yield to God, accepting His free gift of grace.
This week, spend time praying for each adult, especially those who may need to speak with you about the Plan of Salvation. Text or call each person, thanking them for being in the group and offering to pray for them. Send a text or email to the larger group, encouraging them to read and reflect on the second set of questions on
page 71 of the PSG. Remind them that anything they give up to follow Jesus is not really lost.
There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. (See John 14:6; Acts 4:12.)
Dig deeper into a doctrine or biblical teaching.
Compare Jesus’s teachings in Matthew 19:16-22 to Matthew 6:19-24. Identify Jesus’s statements in chapter 6 that are represented in the life of the would-be disciple in chapter 19. Reflect on the following: How might possessions become detrimental to a believers’ commitment to follow Jesus? What are some things that God might be calling you to surrender in order to follow Him?