One day while Jesus was walking with his disciples, a rich young man came to him and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus looked at him and began to recite the commandments. The young man said, “Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Then Jesus looked at him and loved him, and said, “One thing you lack, go and sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Hearing this the young man was saddened because he had great wealth and he walked away. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter, the kingdom of God.” The disciples were stunned, Jesus said again, (Mark 10:24-25: (NIV) “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! v.25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When Jesus told them a second time about the difficulty of entering the kingdom, the disciples were even more stunned, and someone asked, “Who then can be saved?”
This story is found in Mark 10:17-31. A cursory reading of this story might lead you to believe, as some probably do, that a person’s wealth is a deterrent to being saved. Reading carefully, you’ll notice Jesus didn’t say wealth alone was the problem, only that wealth made it more difficult. In the case of this rich young man, Jesus did indeed offer him a way to gain what he said he was seeking, eternal life. The young man’s faithfulness in keeping the commandments that Jesus had begun to recite may have been the reason the scripture says Jesus looked at him and loved him, meaning he felt a connection towards him. Jesus himself had done the same from the time he was a child. Jesus told him to sell everything he had and give to the poor. He told him doing this would gain him treasure in heaven. But he didn’t stop there; at no other time outside of the calling of the twelve, do we read Jesus saying, “Follow me.”
Neither the young man, nor the disciples knew the extent of what Jesus had just offered him. Unfortunately, he could not bring himself to part with his material possessions which we are told were considerable and he went away sad. Drawing on their understanding of the Law in what we today term the Old Testament; it should not be surprising that the disciples may have concluded that wealth meant having found favor in God’s eyes when you consider, Abraham, King David, Solomon, and Job. All these men and others were wealthy and blessed immeasurably in their lifetimes. Even in their times, the Pharisees and the priestly class lived far better than any of them. Jesus knew from the look of ‘amazement’ on their faces when he told them about the difficulty of the rich going into the kingdom that they didn’t fully grasp what he was saying. The second time he made the statement, he addressed them as ‘children’ referencing their status as disciples meaning “students” as though they had missed a valuable point. He proceeded to break apart his previous statement by adding a metaphor as an example. Jesus told them, entering “the kingdom of God is hard”, period. He added the metaphor of the impossibility of a camel going through the eye of a needle to draw their attention to one group of human beings, rich people.
The disciples had failed to consider that Jesus had offered the rich young man the same training they were receiving, but he declined to take it (Mark 10:21-22). One can imagine their thoughts on how they would fare if it were “impossible” for the rich. As doubts began to creep into their conversations, someone finally asked:
“Who then can be saved?”
Regardless of what they were thinking, Jesus then clarified his answer and their question by saying this: ”with man, it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” And of course, he wasn’t talking about camels.
But the story doesn’t end there, because Peter said, “We have left everything to follow you!” Mark 10:29-30 (NIV). Peter spoke the truth. Jesus, who had nothing, asked them who had very little to leave even that behind and to join him in his ministry to tell the world of the Good News that was coming. Jesus answered him and all the disciples with an unexpected answer: (1) he told them of the benefits of gaining even more than they left behind. ”Truly I tell you, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel v.30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields”—(2) and something they wouldn’t fully realize until after his death and resurrection–“along with persecution, and in the age to come eternal life.”
That is what the young man asked for and that is what Jesus offered. Sometimes, leaving everything means gaining even more!