The disciples were taken aback.
Confused might be a better word.
All their lives, they assumed that if a person had wealth, it was a sign that God was pleased with them. Health and wealth meant you and God were on excellent terms. Sickness and poverty were the Lord's punishments when you sinned.
And then, this young, politically powerful, financially well-off guy comes to Jesus and asks, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v18)
Jesus gives him the standard, expected response about following the commandments, but the rich young man feels the need for something more:
“I have kept all these from my youth.”
Seeing that his original question was sincere and not just another attempt to trap him in some kind of blasphemy, Jesus then lays out a plan of action that, for this wealthy man, sounds a lot like "Take up your cross":
“You still lack one thing: Sell all you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Apparently, this crosses some kind of line, and the guy's face drops as he turns and walks away.
This leads to Jesus saying the line about it being easier for a camel to thread its body through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven.
That's when the collective jaw of the disciples goes slack and they sputter, "But, but, but...if the rich...the people who God obviously favors, can't enter the Kingdom . . . what hope in the world does ANYbody have??!?"
Jesus tempers their panic with this bit of truth:
“What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
* * * * * * *
Truth is...Jesus doesn't ask everybody who wants to follow him to take a vow of poverty. That was for that particular man at that particular time. It's all about priorities. If anything is more important to me than following Jesus, am I really following him at all?
Besides, my entrance into heaven doesn't depend on what I do, but on what Jesus has already done.
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