Matthew 19:16-30 – Works, Wealth, and Rewards

Michael Jordan. Wayne Gretzky. Tom Brady. Babe Ruth. Pele. Picasso. Rembrandt. Michelangelo. Shakespeare. Clark Kent. Perfection: we long for it, we idolize it, and we love it. We know it when we see it — whether on the field, the ice, the walls of a museum, the shelf in the library, or in the air above — and we want to have it. Sometimes, we normal people even capture a moment of perfection, and then we usually post it on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or some other such social media nonsense hoping to taste our small slice of eternal glory in our brief 15 seconds of fame. But all such perfection can be easily eclipsed or forgotten, and the rewards are either misplaced, deleted, or sold to a collector. Eventually, we die and leave every reward and all the glory behind. There is, however, one type of perfection for which we can hope to receive an enduring reward upon the day of our death. This perfection and its reward is the subject of the next passage in Matthew’s Gospel. He writes,

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

Matthew 19:16

This question, however misguided as it is, is one to which we all want an answer. Even those of us who have grown up in a church receiving solid Biblical teaching still want to know the answer to this question. We may have even been paying close attention to Jesus’s teachings in the Gospels, as well as everything in the rest of the Bible, and know there is nothing we can do to attain eternal life, but nothing seems to eliminate the temptation we feel on a daily basis to wonder if we are doing enough so as to be worthy of eternal life. Jesus understood this temptation, but instead of responding with a set of goals and expectations, Jesus answers the question with a question. Matthew writes,

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

Matthew 19:17a

Instead of telling the man how he could be good, Jesus responds by saying there is only one good person in the whole of creation. If you don’t understand to whom Jesus was referring, maybe Mark’s version of this same conversation can help you see what Jesus was getting at. Mark writes,

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Mark 10:17-18

Jesus tells the questioner that by calling Jesus good they are calling him God. This might seem fairly obvious, but it is extremely practical. If we want to know how to play basketball, hockey, football, baseball, or soccer to perfection, we ask those who have most closely achieved perfection. The same is true of writing, painting, and being a superhero: to be good we always go to those who have most closely achieved perfection for guidance. When it comes to being morally good, we go to God, and since Jesus is God, he is the exact right person to ask when it comes to this question. After making this obvious claim, Jesus then offers what seems to be an unattainable standard as an answer to the man’s question. Jesus said,

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.”

Matthew 19:17b-19

I hope you noticed that Jesus skipped the first four commandments and quoted the last six commandments detailing proper behavior between people. These six commandments make an apparently easy target to hit, but Jesus changed their order from how they were stated in Exodus 20, and I think he did this so that they would appear in order of ascending difficulty: murder and adultery are somewhat easy to avoid; stealing and lying, a bit more difficult; honoring your parents and loving your neighbors probably are probably two of the most difficult of the six to avoid, but even these are not altogether impossible. The man’s response indicates that he thought he had attained moral perfection. Matthew writes,

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

Matthew 19:20

Let’s assume for the moment that this guy had heard Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and he had been able to keep his thoughts and attitudes pure with regard to these six commandments. Doesn’t it strike you as odd that even with his near-perfection, this guy realizes what he has been able to accomplish isn’t enough? Like so many of us, he was living with the false impression that eternal life could be attained by what he did, yet that was still not enough for him, otherwise, he wouldn’t have asked “What do I still lack?”

If we were to make a list of temptations, at the top of the list would be the temptations to murder or hate, commit adultery or lust, steal or envy, lie, dishonor, or demean. But such a list would be incomplete if we didn’t include one of the most overlooked, yet insidious temptations we experience, the temptation to think that eternal life comes to us on the basis of what we do and what we don’t do. While giving into any temptation dooms us to negative consequences, giving into this particular temptation shifts the very foundation of how we perceive reality: we make more of ourselves than we are and, at the same time, we make less of God than he is. Additionally, this specific temptation also invalidates some of the commandments Jesus hasn’t yet mentioned. Matthew writes,

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.

Matthew 19:21-22

The first four commandments, in case you forgot, are

• 1) You shall have no other Gods before me,
• 2) You shall not make and worship a carved image,
• 3) You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain, and
• 4) Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.

With these fresh in your memory, you might be able to see a couple of them in Jesus’s interaction with this guy. First, we have the obvious failure when it comes to the first commandment: when Jesus told him to give away all he had and follow him, he exposed the man’s god. Please don’t misread verse 22: this man went away sorrowfully, not because he had great possessions — his wealth wasn’t the problem: this man left because he was unwilling to worship God instead of his possessions. He had already given into the temptation of thinking he could attain eternal life on his own merit, now he was giving into the temptation to have a different god than the one true God. Exposing this also revealed the fact that he had broken the second commandment by worshipping his possession. He even broke the third commandment when he previously thought there was something he could do to attain eternal life. Whenever we take from God that which is his and grab it for ourselves, or give it to another, we are denigrating the very name of God — his character and reputation — and thus we take the name of the Lord in vain. Even though this guy might have kept commandments six through ten, he broke the foundation of the law by discarding commandments one through three.

Before we move on, however, I think we need to address how this interaction can create tension for modern-day Christians. When Jesus told this guy to give away his wealth some 2,000 years ago, I’m not so sure that Jesus meant for every believer to, at all times and in all places, give away everything they have; that would be inconsistent. God surely warned his people about the consequences of wealth in Deuteronomy 8:11-14, but God still blessed David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and many others of his people with great wealth in the years that followed. And in the New Testament, while Zaccheus gave away much of his wealth after his conversion in Luke 19, we are also told of Barnabas who sold a field and gave the funds he received to meet the needs of the church in Acts 4:34-37, but he apparently didn’t sell all of his fields. We are also told about the death of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11 because they lied about how much they sold the field for, not because they kept any wealth: Peter even told them they had the right to do what they wanted to do with their wealth (Acts 5:4). With these instances in mind, I think it is fair to say that Jesus told the rich young man to dispose of his wealth because it was hindering his relationship with God. Jesus was not condemning wealth, he was condemning the worship of anything other than God.

I realize the previous paragraph might sound like an apologetic for keeping wealth, but it really isn’t. Jesus was making the point that since the rich young man claimed to keep all the commandments, he wasn’t really taking them all into account. He might be doing well by not killing his neighbor (commandment 6), but he was still worshipping the wrong god (commandment 1). This is not a lesson about how much money or stuff we have, it is a lesson about giving in to the temptation of placing more trust in our money and stuff than we do in God. But this just isn’t for the wealthy, the lust for things can consume even the guy whose only possession is a van down by the river or a paddleball game. The jaws of greed and envy don’t need to clench down on wealth and possessions for our love of things to replace God on the throne of our life. This temptation was real for the rich young man 2,000 years ago, and it is still real today, especially with so many teachers preaching a heretical version of the gospel that combines the temptation to think we can do it all on our own with the temptation to long for money and stuff, thinking it is God’s reward for following him. While God’s mercies are new every day, sins are not. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.

After this conversation with the rich young guy, Jesus speaks with his disciples. Matthew writes,

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?”

Matthew 19:23-25

The Keystone Cops are at it again! When the disciples were told that adultery was the only good reason for divorce they said, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry” (Matt. 19:10). At least they were upfront in admitting that they were unable to refrain from giving in to temptation when it came to women; they wanted to be able to dispose of their wives when something better came along. But now, with regard to salvation, I wonder if they know they are giving in to a different temptation thinking that salvation is something they could earn, with the richest having the best chances. But again, this wasn’t just about the money: they thought that if they just had enough time and sufficient resources they could become fully adherent to the legal requirements of the Pharisaical law. They thought they could do it on their own.

Jesus’s next words addressed the concern of both the rich man who walked away and the disciples who questioned who could be saved. Matthew writes,

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

Matthew 19:26

Fulfilling six of the ten commandments is not enough. In fact, having all the money in the world so you might be able to spend all of your time and effort attempting to fulfill all of the ten commandments is not enough. Eternal life is only possible when we follow the only person to ever be morally perfect: Jesus. He leads us through the narrow gate and along the difficult path that runs past the temptation to think we can do it on our own and the temptation to think we can buy our way into eternal life.

Oddly enough, even after this episode with the rich young man Peter, the leader of the Keystone Cops, still asked Jesus the following question. Matthew writes,

27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”

Matthew 19:27

If Peter had been paying attention to Jesus’s words he would have known Jesus was talking about eternal life, but it seems that Peter was still thinking about this life and what was in it for him. But before we judge Peter, let’s be honest and admit that he isn’t the only one who has done this. We are also tempted to think that we can do it on our own; we are also tempted to think that wealth can bring us closer to God; we are also tempted to think that following Jesus will result in material blessings in this life. This entire section of Matthew’s Gospel has Jesus rearranging the disciples’ expectations and values. Jesus doesn’t respond to any of these questions by promising any sort of temporal inheritance, rather Jesus points the disciples to his heavenly kingdom. Matthew writes,

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.

Matthew 19:28-30

We do not follow Jesus because he promises us cool things during our stay on earth, we follow him because he is the author of eternal life. There is a reason Jesus tells his disciples “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13-14). Humans are so earthly-minded that they can barely see the heavenly good. It is easy to spend our time with the things of this world; it is easy to have our eyes set on the treasures of the earth; it is a simple thing to wake up and breathe the air of material blessings. We were created to inhabit this earth, to work it, and enjoy it, but this present world isn’t all there is. Embroiled as we are in the things of this present world, we find it easy to fall into the temptation that this world is all that matters. But, if we choose to mortgage all we see for the eternal home that is, at present, unseen, our rewards will be much greater than we could ever imagine. Sadly, however, only a few will choose such a difficult path. Many will see the shiny temptations on the other side of the wide gates leading to destruction — salvation by works, self-made gods, and wealth as a means to enter heaven as well as a reward for following God — and choose the broad path. This is why we need to pray daily for the Father to lead us through the narrow gate and along the difficult road: left to our own devices, we will always give in to temptation.

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