Mark 10:17-31

10:17-25 | All three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) tell the story of the rich young ruler, but Mark’s Gospel provides additional details. By asking whether he would inherit eternal life, the man was asking what he must do to participate in the final resurrection, perhaps ultimately wondering whether in resurrected reality he would be able to keep his property holdings.

10:17 | The young man (Matt. 19:20) was perhaps in his mid-thirties. Luke describes him as a ruler, a person of prominence (Luke 18:18). In the ancient Middle East, it was considered undignified for a man to run; however, this one threw his respectability to the wind, rushed to Jesus, and fell on his knees before Him. The man recognized that he was missing something important – eternal life – but he did not understand that salvation is about what God does for sinners rather than what they do for God.

10:18 | Jesus did not rebuke the man for calling Him good, but He wanted the young ruler to move beyond flattery and recognize that if Jesus really is good, then He is also God. The only way to God is through Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).

10:19 | God’s commandments are a tutor to bring people to Himself (Gal. 3:24), so Jesus cited five of the last six Commandments to help the man see how short of God’s perfection his actions had fallen. The young ruler had already broken the first commandment by elevating riches in to a Godlike place in his life (James 2:10-11).

10:20-21 | Although no one can flawlessly keep all the commandments for even one day, let alone a lifetime, Jesus did not correct the ruler’s claim. Still, Jesus wanted him to see that his “goodness” could not compare to God’s perfection, so He pointed out the one glaring fault that kept the man from accepting God’s offer of eternal life.

10:21-22 | Because Jesus loved this man, he called him to the truth of uncompromising discipleship: only in leaving behind all that mattered to him – both the wealth and the social position that came with it – would he gain eternal life. The term translated sad means more literally, “to cloud up.” While the young man felt emotionally torn, his decision proved the object of his devotion (Matt. 6:20-21).

10:22-24 | The young ruler’s problem was not riches themselves but that he trusted in such things, believing that life with God could somehow be bought. If only he had looked beyond his great possessions, he would have seen the real possession of those who believer: eternal life.

10:25-27 | No one can enter heaven by virtue of his or her good works; that is as absurd as a camel, loaded down with goods, passing through the eye of a needle. Yet through His love and grace, God accomplishes what sinners cannot do on their own. Salvation is all grace, all God.

10:28-31 | Peter commended himself and his fellow apostles for doing what the rich young man had refused to do: they had left all and followed Jesus. Jesus answered that God would reward them beyond all proportion to their supposed sacrifice. No one who gives up anything to follow Jesus really misses out on anything in the end.