Matthew 19:16-22
The Rich Young Man
16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
18 "Which ones?" the man inquired.
Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
20 "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Jesus teaches about things we have and things we get pleasures from and what we love...Being happy and gaining pleasure for ourselves is not something Jesus did a lot of teaching on and about...And many of His teachings are hard...
Jesus knew the young man was not being completely honest...Jesus said to him if you want to enter life, obey the commandments...Are there only certain commandments we need to follow?...Can we pick and choose the commandments we want to follow?...The young man ask which of the commandments he had to obey to gain eternal life...
Jesus knew the young man coveted his wealth...He tells the man if you want to be perfect go and sell your possessions...Jesus knows that only God is good and perfect...In fact, Jesus reminded the young man that only God is good a little earlier...Knowing this, Jesus knew the outcome of the imperfect young man's answer...
Man enjoys things and covets different things on earth...We have a choice of what we treasure, but it seems we have vices even though we try to be and do good...As St. Paul says, what a wretched man I am...For I have the desire, to want to do good, but I can't carry it out..The young man could not carry it out either and stay and be with Jesus...We are flawed, we sin...
If seems like pleasures and desires on earth get very much in the way (of our priorities) of eternal life...It seems the young man is just an average young man that most of us can relate to...Whether it be a material possession or an earthly pleasure or desire man has been given by God the freedom of choices...
This young man had kept all of the commandments...Yet, when the young man left, I am sure he was reflecting on what had transpired, with this Man of God...He may have been thinking I can follow Him and learn all about eternal life, but for some reason I am not going to do that...He would realize what he loved, and what were his priorities...The man walked away and rightfully so, very sad..It would be nice if life were easy, but that is not the Way of Life...In eternal life and after we have left earth, possessions mean nothing...