Matthew 19:13-30

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Introduction

Let the Children Come to Me

13 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” 15 And he laid his hands on them and went away.

The Rich Young Man

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.

This week we pickup again the Gospel of Matthew to conclude chapter 19. This story is one of Jesus’ more widely known stories, and it’s found in all three synoptic Gospels (i.e. Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Most of us who are familiar with this text know it as the story of the Rich Young Ruler. However, in Matthew’s Gospel the central character is simply described as “the young man.” It’s the Gospel of Luke that describes him as a ruler, or a judge, and since the story centers on the fact that he’s wealthy, he’s often been called the Rich Young Ruler.

Let the little children come to me

But before we look at this story of the rich young ruler we begin with verses 13-15. And, at first, these verses can seem out of step, or disconnected from the story of the rich young ruler, but I think if we examine them you’ll see how they actually fit in and even add to the story that follows. I mentioned when we were going through chapter 18 that one of the threads, or themes, that we would see throughout the rest of Matthew would be about Jesus’ analogy of children to his disciples, and we’ll see how Matthew picks this back up in verses 13-15, and then later connects it with the story of the rich young ruler. So read along with me, again, starting there in verse 13,

13 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” 15 And he laid his hands on them and went away.

Now, back in chapter 18 Jesus spent a lot of time comparing his disciples to the humble estate of little children, telling his 12 disciples that unless they were willing to humble themselves and become like little children that they would never enter the kingdom of heaven. If you recall, Jesus said this in response to their own arrogance, after they had argued amongst themselves who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So Jesus spends a lot of time in chapter 18 teaching them about humility and what kind of attitude they should have toward one another, and how they should treat one another.
However, it’s obviously going to take a while for Jesus’ teaching to sink in, so, in verses 13-15, when children are brought to Jesus, the disciples rebuke the people (presumably the parents of the children) to keep the children away from him. But Jesus tells them to let the little children come to him, and not to hinder them, because “for such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Now, these words echo his teaching back in chapter 18. Therefore, what Jesus is saying again, is that if his 12 disciples are willing to look down upon these children then what’s going to keep them doing the same thing to Jesus’ other disciples when he’s gone, followers that he describes as little children?

Children devalued

So, essentially, what Jesus is confronting is the value systems of the world, systems that dominate his disciple’s thinking. And, in these systems, children are typically devalued, and they’re cast aside. This was true at the time of Jesus, and it’s equally true today. Now, at first this might sound strange within our Western context where family and children are sometimes idolized, but typically children are devalued in most areas, particularly, in our context, they’re deprioritized to pursue careers, and other selfish ambitions, they’re shipped off to schools and day care facilities to be taken care of by others. In the United States the modern feminist movement has been incredibly destructive to the family and to children.
Now, don’t get me wrong, circumstances can heavily dictate how we raise our children, but so often parents look forward to putting the burden of raising their children on other people and other institutions, maybe it’s a grandmother, a daycare or a school. I overheard, recently, two stay-at-home mothers lamenting the fact that they had to spend so much time with their children when school had been canceled due to the Coronavirus. They exclaimed how they couldn’t wait until they had their weekdays back. And I can feel a similar tendency within myself when I try to get my children to be quiet, or to exclude them from adult conversations, or try to find a way to entertain them so that they’ll leave me alone.
On a more dramatic scale, how many single mothers are raising their children without the support and protection of a husband and father? How many fathers have all but abandoned their children, coerced only by the law to pay child support. How many men and women have pursued sexual “freedom” at the expense of their child’s life? Nearly a million children are killed in their mother’s womb every year, which is like killing off everyone who cast a vote for president this year in the state of Arkansas.
As fallen people, our priorities, and what we value, are altogether influenced by our sin nature. And it’s this problem that Jesus is confronting in his disciples. They value themselves preeminently, and on their value scale these children are at the bottom, so they immediately attempt to keep them away from Jesus. And I imagine they thought Jesus would have even appreciated it.

Children at arms length

While growing up I was subjected to endless British dramas, and most of the films were set in various eras of British nobility, a time when wealth and honorable titles were valued above all else. Probably one of the most recent, and popular, examples of this film genre is Downton Abbey. There’s this massive country estate that’s home to the aristocratic Crawley family in the early 1900’s. Every episode depicts their lavish lifestyle and the drama that ensues both amongst their own family, and the dozens of servants that live and work on the grounds.
And one of the aspects of life that you’ll notice in all of these films is how the children are kept at arms length. They’re brought out only when they’re all put together, they’re quickly whisked away by the nanny whenever they become fussy or when company arrives. In fact, the children are so estranged from their own family, usually, that they end up feeling like their nanny and butler are more like their mother and father than their own biological parents.

How the Disciples view children

And in the same way this kind of thinking appears to pervade the disciple’s view of these children, and so they feel the need to keep them from bothering Jesus, but instead Jesus tells them, “let the little children come to me and do not hinder them.” And then proceeds to use them as an object lesson, again, for his disciples, just as he did back at the beginning of chapter 18. He’s teaching them that they must not have this attitude among themselves, that they must not despise these little ones. Instead, they must become like little children, and ready to receive such children, “for such belongs to the kingdom of heaven.” They are not to despise them like the world does, because eventually the world is going to despise them like it does little children, and they better be ready for it. In the kingdom of heaven the spiritually unimportant, the dependent, the vulnerable are to be welcomed.

The Rich Young Ruler

And continuing to recognize this theme will help us understand the story of the rich young ruler that follows, because, remember, while the world typically attributes very little value to children, it tends to exalt and admire the wealthy and powerful. So, not only does the world’s value system influence how the disciples react to these children, but it will impact how they view this rich young ruler.
Now, let’s read verses 16-17 again,

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.”

So a man approaches Jesus and asks him what good deed he must do to have eternal life, but before Jesus answers his question, he tells the man that he’s wrongly assumed that anyone could be good enough to inherit eternal life. In other words, the man’s question assumes that he’s capable of performing a good deed worthy of eternal life. So Jesus says, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There’s only one who is good.” And if there is only one who is good, that is God, then how do you expect to inherit eternal life by your good deeds? Jesus is pointing out that not even the best of human efforts at “doing good” are enough to inherit eternal life. (R.T. France, Matthew Commentary, p. 733)

Good deeds vs bad deeds

However, this is precisely what most people believe isn’t it? Not much has changed. Most likely, if you were to ask your unbelieving friends or coworkers why they think they’ll go to heaven, their answer will almost always boil down to their good deeds outweighing their bad deeds. And it’s the same reason why this rich young ruler asks, essentially, what must he to do to qualify for heaven.
Now, I don’t get the impression that this man gets Jesus’ point, and nor does Jesus seem to expect that he will, at least not yet, so he answers his question by saying,

If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

And then the man says 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.”

Jesus essentially sums up a conventional Jewish understanding of what it would have meant to do good. He seems to choose the parts of the 10 commandments that would be most outwardly observable by others, creating what you might call a checklist for the young man.
And then the man says 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.

Treasure in heaven

If there’s any other verse in the Bible that gets at the heart of what Jesus is saying here, it’s a text from his Sermon on the Mount, back in chapter 6, specifically verses 21, he says,

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Our hearts alway follow what we treasure. We treasure things with our hearts. So, if what you treasure is here on earth, you’ll never be able to leave it behind to follow Christ. Which is precisely the dilemma that this rich young ruler faced. He was willing to discipline his flesh to conform outwardly to God’s law (he looked religious), but he wasn’t willing to follow Jesus, as if he could somehow do the one without doing the other. And the reason he couldn’t follow Jesus was because his allegiance was divided, on one hand he appeared to desire eternal life, but on the other he was unwilling to let go of his possessions.
In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, shortly after he taught about how our hearts follow our treasure he concluded by saying,

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

God was not this man’s master, this man was not devoted to God, he appeared to be on the outside, but in reality he was devoted to his possessions. And Jesus exposes this when he tells him to sell all that he has to follow him, and the man, sadly, refuses. We’re told that “he went away sorrowful, [because] he had great possessions.” In other words, he’s unwilling to let go of his earthly possessions for the sake of following Jesus, Jesus is asking too much. One commentator said, “The young man’s request for some “good thing” to do has brought him face to face with goodness at a level which will prove too high for him.” (R.T. France, Matthew Commentary, p. 734)

Idolatry

And it’s sadly ironic, really, that this man even claimed to have kept all of God’s commandments, because after Jesus reveals the man’s devotion to his possessions you realize he’s broken the first of the ten commandments.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

For the rich young ruler, his earthly possessions had become an idol, an idol that ultimately hindered him from coming to God. He finds himself unable to part with his wealth, even for the sake of having eternal life!

The danger of wealth

And many of us overlook this danger, especially in the United States where wealth is far more accessible to us than probably any other time in history. And in one sense it’s true that to have wealth isn’t inherently sinful, in fact, those with wealth are instructed to be generous, so there’s even an assumption that some of us will be wealthier than others, and that there’s nothing inherently wrong about that, assuming we haven’t acquired that wealth through sinful means.
However, it’s also very clear that wealth can be incredibly dangerous, as it’s been illustrated here. Our hearts are incredibly prone to become attached to what we have, or to what we posses. And it’s often subtle at first, and we usually don’t notice it until we’re faced with an unwillingness to give up our possessions or our money. We’re prone to hold onto things and to setup our kingdoms here on earth, to seek security in our earthly wealth. It’s incredibly dangerous! Therefore, we should always be on guard, always watchful over our own hearts, because, as Jesus put it, in his parable of the soils back in chapter 13, he says,

22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

The Apostle Paul would later warn Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:9-10,

those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

I see this most often reflected in my own life when I’m unwilling to help a fellow Christian in need with my own checking account. I justify it for an infinite amount of reasons, I tell myself that it’s someone else’s responsibility, like the government, or someone else who knows that person better than I do, that I need the money for something else more important. However, I know in my heart, that, sometimes, I simply don’t want to sacrifice what I have for the sake of my neighbor. And my unwillingness to give can be a symptom of a far more dangerous problem, a symptom of a heart that clings too tightly to earthly possessions. And a heart that holds fast to earthly things will never hold fast to Christ.

Camel and the eye of a needle

And so Jesus warns his disciples there in verse 23,

“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.”

His point is clear, riches can hinder a person from entering the kingdom of heaven, like a camel through the eye of a needle.

Favoring the rich

And listen to how the disciples react,

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.”

Notice what they say, “Who then can be saved?” As though a rich man would have had a better shot at eternal life than anyone else!
We see the world’s value system at work again in the disciples. In their minds, if there was ever a promising candidate for the kingdom of heaven, this wealthy judge was it. Much like it is today, it was generally assumed that wealth was a sign of God’s favor, so when Jesus indicated that the young man’s wealth was an obstable to his own salvation the disciples were shocked, and they exclaim, “Who then can be saved?” If not this rich young ruler, then who?
Here’s Jesus, at first, welcoming small children, telling his disciples not to hinder them from coming to him, but then when he’s approached by a rich young ruler the man is turned away. Immediately, we see a contrast between these children and this rich young ruler. I can only imagine how excited and flattered the disciples were at the possibility that he might join their ranks. Yet they saw no value in children being brought to Jesus.

Smugness and entitlement (closing)

Then in verse 27 Peter smugly says,

“See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”

It’s hard to listen to what he says, how smug he sounds when he points out how much better they are than the young man who wouldn’t leave everything behind to follow Jesus. It makes you wonder if some of the disciples in the group were embarrassed to be associated with his comment. And not only is he smug but he’s presumptuous, “What then will we have?”, as if God owes them anything. And while on one hand it’s easy to point out their immaturity and sin, I wonder how often we behave in such ways. One of the hallmarks of my generation at least is certainly entitlement.
Yet, Jesus refrains from rebuking Peter at first and says,

“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.

Jesus’ compassion and generosity in this passage is incredible. This is what the rich young ruler was giving up to hold onto his temporal, earthly possessions.
But then in verse 30 Jesus responds to Peter and his disciples smug comment,

30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

In other words, those whom Peter and the disciples might naturally expect to be first will be last, and who they might expect to be last, will be first. In fact, Jesus’ parable right after this, in chapter 20, will address his disciple’s sense of entitlement. But until then, let’s pray.

Prayer

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