By James Riley Strange, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of New Testament, Samford University
Sell Everything You Own
Matthew 19:16–26
Today we read a famous encounter (see also Mark 10:17–30 and Luke 18:18–30). Jesus’ words have challenged believers ever since Jesus said them (see v. 25).
Before we examine the passage two schools of thought on the meaning of the aphorism in verse 24 deserve our attention.
First some scholars have suggested that the word translated “camel” was supposed to be “cable,” the result of a scribe’s misspelling. But it is not likely that Jesus originally talked about a “cable” passing through a needle’s eye. Other early Jewish writings use similar sayings about large animals passing through needles’ eyes.
Second we know of no gate of Jerusalem called the “Eye of the Needle.” One may have existed at Damascus centuries after Jesus. Thus the reading that the “eye of the needle” is a narrow stone opening difficult to pass through is also unlikely.
It is therefore probable that Jesus used hyperbole as He often did (see examples in Matt. 5:29 and 7:3–5 and another camel example in Matt. 23:24).
Outward obedience is not enough. (16–20)
Jewish teachers would have agreed it is not enough simply to obey God’s commands as Jesus established in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:21–48). Jesus’ contemporaries would have recognized Jesus was “building a fence around the Torah.” The idea is that a good teacher says, “God said, ‘Don’t do X,’ but I say, ‘Don’t come close to doing X, and besides, God cares about your intention.’”
We should also note that Jesus’ contemporaries would have found the man’s question illegitimate in the first place for in Jewish teachings eternal life could not be earned. Rather God granted it as part of the covenant with Israel, and Israel kept the law as a response to the grace it received at Sinai.
Furthermore many would have been scandalized by the question, “Which ones?” A person did not pick which commandments to obey. Therefore Jesus apparently is playing the man’s game to his own ends. Notice how He quotes the commandments that deal with human relations (see Ex. 20:1–17) and then brings in one not on the list, but many would agree expressed the heart of the Torah: “Love your neighbor as yourself” from Leviticus 19:18. A lack of such love is the man’s problem. Jesus is already aiming at verse 21.
External obedience grows out of our internal obedience to Christ. (21–22)
In verse 21 most translations have Jesus saying, “If you wish to be perfect …” The word is better translated “complete.” The man did not state he wished either perfection or completion, but Jesus is using subtle admonition: “Your understanding of the commandments is only partial because of your moral immaturity. What you lack is a love of your (destitute) neighbor that makes a real difference.”
Jesus knows the law is full of commandments about care of the poor.
A relationship with God matters, not possessions. (23–26)
Possessions, of course, need not be material. I once heard a lecturer at Samford say, “Why did you become a Christian? Was it to gain inner peace? Well then it is inner peace you want and not God.” Jesus said something similar in Matthew 6:21–24.
We may fall into the same trap this man did. We may seek the deed that will guarantee eternal life (or contentment or intellectual certainty) and so discover what we want is not God or Jesus or to live rightly, but this other thing. May we instead, as this man failed to do, learn to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves for no other reason than because God created us to do so.
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