Today's main idea: Jesus welcomes those who depend on him and calls us to follow him with our whole lives. He can give the life we cannot secure for ourselves.
Read Slowly
Main reading: Matthew 19:13–30
Watch who comes to Jesus, who walks away, and what each person is depending on. Listen for the movement from the young man's question about eternal life to Jesus' promise of eternal life at the end.
In Day 22, Jesus gave life where no one else could. Today, he teaches that being saved also depends on God's power. He calls us to entrust our lives to him, including the things we find hardest to release.
Jesus Welcomes the Children Others Try to Turn Away
People bring children to Jesus so that he can lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuke the people bringing them. Jesus intervenes, tells the disciples to let the children come, and lays his hands on them.
His words give the children a place among those who belong to God's kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is God's rule, which Jesus brings and invites people to enter. These children matter to him, and he makes room for them.
Earlier, in Matthew 18:1–4, Jesus placed a child among the disciples when they asked who was greatest. He taught them to humble themselves like that child. Here, their treatment of actual children shows how much they still need to learn. Humility must shape whom they welcome, as well as how they think about themselves.
The children also prepare us for the next scene. They receive Jesus' attention while the wealthy man will struggle to receive his direction. Matthew places these encounters together, helping us see the difference between dependence and the desire to remain in control.1
We can respond in both directions. We can come to Jesus admitting our need, and we can make it easier for someone else to come. Listening patiently to a child's question about God is one small way to honor the welcome Jesus gives here.
Remember: Knowing Jesus should make me humble enough to receive his help and attentive enough to welcome those he welcomes.
Jesus Takes Our Question About Life Deeper
A young man asks Jesus what good deed he must do to have eternal life. He wants life with God that lasts beyond death. Jesus directs his attention to the One who is good, God himself, and tells him to keep the commandments.
When the man asks which ones, Jesus names commands about how we treat people: preserving life, faithfulness in marriage, honesty, respect for parents, and love for our neighbor. The man says that he has kept them. Yet he still asks what he lacks.
Jesus takes obedience seriously. The next part of the conversation will show how deeply those commands reach. A claim to love our neighbor meets a real test when helping that neighbor costs something we want to keep.
This is a searching moment for us too. We may feel confident about the wrong things we have avoided while overlooking the good we are withholding. I may have taken nothing from another person, yet remain unwilling to share when I have enough and they are in need.
Jesus knows how to move a conversation from our general opinion of ourselves to a specific choice. When his words expose a gap in my obedience, I can listen and let him lead me into change.
Remember: Jesus helps me see the truth about my heart by bringing his words into the choices I actually make.
Jesus Calls Him to Release His Wealth and Follow
Jesus tells the man to sell what he owns, give to the poor, and follow him. He also promises treasure in heaven. The invitation reaches into both the man's possessions and his future.
Jesus' word about being perfect answers the man's question about what he lacks. Here it presses toward complete devotion to God. The man's willingness to obey reaches a limit when Jesus asks for his wealth. Giving to the poor would put love for his neighbor into action; following Jesus would place his life under Jesus' direction.2
The young man goes away sorrowful because he has great possessions. His wealth has become something he chooses over following Jesus. He came asking about life, but when Jesus calls him, he holds on to what he already has.
This encounter gives a human face to Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6:19–24. There, Jesus connects our treasure with our heart and says that we cannot serve both God and money. Here, the conflict becomes a decision made by one person standing before him.
Mark adds a tender detail in Mark 10:21: Jesus looks at the man and loves him as he gives this instruction. The difficult call comes from someone who loves him. Jesus sees the hold that wealth has on this man and invites him into life as his follower.
That helps us listen when Jesus challenges something precious to us. His love gives us reason to take his direction seriously. For us, this can mean making a generous gift we have delayed, giving up dishonest income, or accepting a less comfortable life so that we can obey him.
Remember: Because Jesus loves me, I can trust him with the very thing I am afraid to surrender.
Jesus Gives Hope Where Human Ability Ends
After the man leaves, Jesus tells the disciples how difficult it is for a rich person to enter God's kingdom. He gives them an impossible picture: a camel passing through the tiny opening of a needle.
The disciples are astonished and ask who can be saved. Their question reaches beyond this one man. If a person with so much cannot secure a place in God's kingdom, where can anyone find hope?
Jesus places that hope in God. Human power cannot accomplish salvation. God can do what people cannot do for themselves.
This gives us the answer to the young man's opening question. Eternal life depends on God's saving work. We come to Jesus in need, and faith means trusting him enough to follow where he leads.
This also teaches us how to pray for someone whose resistance seems settled. We can speak truth, show love, and keep asking God to work in that person's heart. The limits of our persuasion are a reason to depend on God.
The same is true when we recognize a stubborn attachment in ourselves. We can tell God honestly that we need his help to obey. Jesus gives us reason to seek that help rather than decide that change is beyond hope.
Remember: When I reach the limit of what I can change, I can still turn to the God who can save.
Jesus Sees the Cost of Following Him
Peter points out that the disciples have left everything and followed Jesus. He asks what they will receive. The young man has just refused the invitation they accepted, and Peter wants to understand what their decision will mean.
Jesus answers by directing them toward the new world, when he, the Son of Man, will sit on his glorious throne. He is the King who will rule in God's renewed creation. He promises these followers twelve thrones, with responsibility for judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then Jesus widens the promise to everyone who has suffered loss for his name. He names houses, family relationships, and land. He knows that following him can affect the things that make a person's life feel secure and familiar.
His promise of a hundredfold expresses the abundance of what he gives. The hope reaches its fullness in his renewed world and the eternal life his people inherit. Jesus asks his followers to weigh the cost of obedience in light of that future.
Peter can trust that Jesus sees what he has left behind. We can trust him with the cost we face too. When honesty costs an opportunity or faithfulness brings rejection, his promise gives us a reason to keep following.
Jesus ends by saying that many who are first will be last, and the last first. This brings us back to the children and the wealthy man. The order people assume is important will be overturned in his kingdom. Even the disciples must receive his generous promise with humility.
Remember: Jesus sees what following him costs, and I can trust him to make faithfulness worth it.
What We Learn About Jesus
Jesus welcomes children and corrects those who keep them away. His attention teaches us to value people who are easily overlooked.
He sees where our obedience stops and calls us to follow him there too. His love reaches deeply enough to challenge the things that control our choices.
He directs our hope toward God's power to save. He also speaks as the coming King, promising eternal life and a place in his renewed world to those who follow him.
How the Reading Fits Together
The passage moves through three encounters: children are brought to Jesus, a wealthy young man approaches him, and the disciples ask about their own future. Each encounter teaches us something about receiving God's kingdom.
The children are welcomed. The young man discovers that following Jesus will cost him something he wants to keep. The disciples hear both a promise for their costly obedience and a warning against assuming that their present standing determines their place in the kingdom.
Eternal life connects the young man's first question to Jesus' final promise. Between them stands the invitation to follow Jesus and the declaration that salvation is possible with God. Knowing Jesus leads us to depend on God's goodness, receive his correction, and trust his promise enough to obey.
Take a Moment with Jesus
- Who might I overlook or hurry past whom Jesus would welcome, and how could I make room for that person?
- What possession, source of income, or personal comfort becomes hardest to release when it conflicts with obeying Jesus?
- Where do I need God's help to follow Jesus, and how does his promise about the future speak to the cost I am facing?
Prayer
Jesus, thank you for welcoming those who come to you in need. Show me what I am holding more tightly than I am trusting you. Forgive my resistance, and help me obey when generosity or faithfulness costs me something. I depend on your power to save and change me. Teach me to welcome others and to trust you with my future. Amen.
One Thing to Do
Choose one possession you have been reluctant to share or one optional purchase you can give up. Use it, or the money set aside for it, to meet a specific need for someone else this week. As you act, ask Jesus to help you trust him more than what you are giving away.
Carry This with You
Jesus welcomes me in my need and loves me enough to call for my whole life. I can trust him with what I release and with what comes next.
Sources Consulted
Source citations
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Douglas Sean O'Donnell, Matthew commentary, “The Last Shall Be First”, The Gospel Coalition. On the placement of the children beside the wealthy man and its connection with Jesus' earlier teaching on humility. ↩
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Allen Ross, Wealth and the Kingdom of Heaven, Bible.org. On complete devotion, love for one's neighbor, and the invitation to follow Jesus at the center of the command to give. ↩
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