At that time, a young man came up to Jesus, kneeling and saying, “Good Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you call me good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which?” And Jesus said, “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The young man said to him, “All these I have observed from my youth; what do I still lack?” 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.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.
And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:16-26
Today’s Gospel presents a narrative that can compel us to take a hard look at what we truly value at the core of our lives. The rich young man came to Jesus seeking the goodness He offers: life eternal in His presence. Yet when our Lord tells him what he must do to inherit the gifts He offers, he is not capable of doing so at this time. He is not yet fully invested in receiving the gift being offered, for his heart is set on the things of this world, reminding us of our Lord’s words earlier in the Gospel:
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
—Matthew 6:21
It would be easy to judge the rich young man, believing him to be an entirely negative character to be looked down upon and castigated. Still, Scripture invites us to reflect on our own lives and see where we may miss the mark when we encounter such characters, encouraging us toward personal repentance.
We hear at the beginning of the narrative:
“At that time, a young man came up to Jesus, kneeling and saying, ‘Good Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?’”
The young man is shown kneeling before Jesus, demonstrating through his actions that he is submissive to Christ’s will. This matters because it shows that the young man is not mocking or skeptical of Jesus. Rather, his posture and his question reveal that he truly wants to know what he must do to have eternal life.
Yet, seeing that the good deed is referred to in the singular, we also see that part of his perspective is already skewed. He is looking for the one action he needs to take to receive eternal life, ignoring the reality that salvation comes through how we live the whole of our lives in relation to God, not merely through one action or fleeting moment.
Hearing his question, Jesus responds with humility by asking:
“Why do you call me good? There is one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
This shows us that true humility involves recognizing our dependence upon God, encouraging us to trust in His authority rather than our own efforts.
Once again, Jesus points us toward the glory of the Father. God is the only One who is truly good, and by being addressed as such, Jesus is not saying that this man is wrong. Rather, through His response, He reveals that all authority seen in Him is rooted in the authority He shares in union with the Father.
Just as the man shows humility by falling before Christ, Christ shows us true humility by submitting to the Father’s authority.
Thus, the commandments serve as a framing device, showing that we too are called to submit to the authority of our heavenly Father, for through submitting to Him, we inherit His gift of eternal life.
The commandments are laid out:
“You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
These commandments show us the foundation of our actions, opening the door to their fulfillment as revealed to us by Christ and by the way He relates to us.
The young man then states:
“All these I have observed from my youth; what do I still lack?”
The flaw in the youthful confidence of this rich young man is his belief that he has fully kept all the commandments.
None of us is perfect. God continues to reveal in my own life just how imperfect I am whenever I fail to center my life upon Him. Yet we are also all doing the best we can with the lives God has given us as we navigate sin and its consequences.
For this reason, it would be prideful for any of us to claim that we have perfectly kept the commandments, just as it would be prideful for us to believe that we are irredeemably sinful.
We become perfect in the presence of God, yet we are not fully united with God our Father as we will be at the end of time. God gives us all we need for this union, and in the balance—in the act of searching for Him throughout our lives—we choose to journey toward Him as He fills all that is lacking within us.
Hearing the youthful reply of the rich man, our Lord tells 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.”
The statement, “If you would be perfect,” highlights the flaw in the young man’s claim that he had fully kept the commandments.
Remember, none of us is perfect, for only God is perfect. In the presence of our Lord, we are being perfected, yet apart from Him, none of us can attain perfection.
Further, Christ sees a major factor holding this man back from journeying further toward perfection: his wealth. So He calls the man to sell what he has and give it to the poor, reminding him that his true treasure is found in the presence of God, as represented by heaven, and that this goal is achieved through fully following Jesus, who is our Lord and God.
Yet we hear:
“When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.”
In his sorrow, the man shows that he still desires eternal life, but he is torn between his desire for wealth and his desire to follow Christ.
This tension invites us to reflect on what we might be holding onto that could hinder our own journey with God in the same way.
Jesus takes this interaction as a teaching moment for the disciples, stating:
“Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”
The disciples of the Lord had left behind all they owned and followed Christ. They no longer had much wealth to speak of in their nomadic life, and they strove to follow the commandments as best they could.
This may be my own projection onto the disciples, yet I believe it is worth mentioning because many of us today may resonate with such a response.
Our Lord, in His wisdom, makes clear that, yes, it is very difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He uses the example of a camel passing through the eye of a needle to show just how difficult this would be.
If we hold wealth as our greatest treasure, then we will always fall short of receiving the true and greatest gift: life in God’s presence.
Hearing of this great difficulty, the disciples rightly ask:
“Who then can be saved?”
Our Lord assures us that with God, all things are possible. This should fill us with hope and trust that, despite the difficulty, God’s grace can lead us to eternal life.
All things are possible through God.
Yes, salvation is impossible apart from Him, because the life offered in His loving and saving presence is itself our salvation.
We can believe ourselves to be the most just, law-abiding saints the world has ever seen. Yet if we do not have Christ at the center of our lives, we will always fail to receive the gifts of salvation He continually offers us.
This man has the zeal to keep the Law. He also has the ignorance to believe that he can do so perfectly. Yet this does not negate his initial desire for what Christ offers us all.
He misses the mark by holding his worldly wealth as greater than the wealth found in living eternally in the presence of God.
Let us give him—and all of us—a moment to recognize that this life is a struggle.
Our attention is constantly pulled in countless directions, and in good faith, I believe we are all doing the best we can with what we have in this sinful generation in which we find ourselves.
When we focus only on how difficult life can be, hopelessness can begin to set in. Yet we must not forget that our Lord is not calling us to save ourselves, nor is He asking us to figure out how to live a perfect life on our own.
Rather, He is the One making us perfect, and through His presence in our lives, we see that:
“With God all things are possible.”
Thus, we need the humility to acknowledge what may be holding us back from our Lord and the life He offers us.
Is my job more important than my relationship with God? If so, then I value my career more highly and miss the life God offers me.
If my family is more important to me than my relationship with God, then I have missed the very foundation of the love I am called to share with my family and, once again, have missed God and the gifts He is offering me.
Finding this balance may seem impossible, yet as St. Paul reminds us:
“I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.”
—Philippians 4:13
We are not called to be inherently perfect in our careers, families, hobbies, wealth, or any other aspect of our lives.
Rather, we are called to place God at the center of every aspect of our lives, for in doing so, He gives us all we need to navigate life’s complexities while seeking eternal life in His presence.
We are not called to become perfect on our own, nor are we called to hold ourselves to impossible standards.
We will always fall short when we act apart from God because of our fallibility and fragility.
Rather, we must recognize that our Lord grants us everything we need for eternal life in His presence.
We are called to fall before Him in humility and ask what we need to let go of—what we may be holding as greater than Him—because all of us have parts of our lives that we know, deep down, separate us from Him.
So let us call to mind what may be holding us back from life in God’s presence. As we identify it, let us call out to God for help and verbally offer Him our struggle.
Thank God we are not responsible for figuring salvation out on our own, nor are we responsible for saving ourselves.
Rather, what we are responsible for is choosing to follow Christ and offering to Him all that separates us from the gifts of salvation He continually provides.
For this great gift, to Him be all glory, honor, and worship, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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