Tuesday, 20^th week in ordinary time – 18^th August 2026 – Matthew 19:23-30

Although today’s Gospel appears to start a new narrative, it actually forms a single, cohesive literary unit with the previous passage.  Don’t divide the text. Today’s Gospel is the direct continuation of the rich man’s story.

Right at the center of Matthew 19 is a man trapped in a performance mindset, asking what I call, the ultimate transactional question: “What good thing must I DO to get eternal life?” He wants to DO SOMETHING to enter into eternal life. He sought the one exclusive ‘good work’ that would give him eternal life. But Jesus doesn’t play our performance games. He bypasses the man’s religious resume and hits him exactly where his identity was anchored, saying, “Sell it all, give it away, and follow me.”  

At the time of Jesus, culture taught this young man that his ‘bank account’ was proof of his anointing. If you were Jewish and you had wealth, everybody assumed you had God’s favour. They were standing on Proverbs 10:22, believing that “the blessing of the Lord makes you rich and adds no sorrow to it.”

This young man is looking at his life thinking, “I’m keeping the commandments, and I’m stacking the blessings, I must be winning with God!” He thought his net worth was a reflection of his spiritual worth. But he didn’t realize that you can have the appearance of a blessing and still be completely bankrupt on the inside!

So, what’s the real issue here? The problem wasn’t his desire for salvation; it was his obsession with obtaining it. He didn’t want a gift; he wanted a transaction! He wanted to treat the Almighty like a vending machine where you put in a good deed and pull-out eternal life. That’s exactly why he asks Jesus, “What must I DO?” He was stuck in a mindset where you try to earn what can only be received. He wanted to write the check for his own salvation so he could stay in control!

For Jesus, the commandments had a vertical and horizontal dimension of love. It was not so much in the doing rather than in the being, that salvation could be obtained. Salvation is not obtained by performing a unique or special deed, nor is it a ‘claim’ made by virtue of religious appropriation. Salvation is a free gift! Here in lies the mistake of this rich young man.

The Pharisees were sitting there so smug, thinking their DNA was their passport to heaven. They thought just being born a Jew or keeping a religious checklist was enough to buy their salvation. They were so busy ‘doing church’ that they forgot how to ‘be the church’! They were performing the rules but completely missing the relationship.

To expose this absolute foolishness, Jesus drops the truth on them by using a wild, unforgettable, culture-shock exaggeration. He takes a common idiom of the day and blows it up to show just how impossible it is to hustle your way into heaven on human effort. He basically says, “You think you’re big enough to earn this? Let me show you how small your human effort really is.”

The Persians also had a similar exaggeration when they spoke of an ‘elephant passing through the eye of the needle.’ The people at the time of Jesus simply picked a more familiar animal to compliment this oriental exaggeration.

The point that Jesus makes by using an exaggeration of a camel passing through the eye of the needle is simply this; it is foolish to believe that one can DO something to win salvation, for salvation is a free gift of God. The rich young man wanted to do something to gain eternal life, a proposition juxtaposed with greater possibility of a camel entering into the eye of a needle.

Understand now the confusion and perplexity of the question posed by the disciples who ask Jesus, ‘who then will be saved’? If a rich man whose wealth was believed to be an indication of God’s blessing is not assured of salvation, then who will? What then are the criteria for salvation?

Jesus challenged their Jewish mind-set, along with that of the rich young man. They would have to accept the concept of salvation as taught by Jesus; you can’t earn salvation with your money or deeds; and while such a thought seemed ‘impossible for mortals, it was not so for God’ (verse 26).

For two centuries, scholars have tried to provide different explanations to this text. It has been proposed that there actually existed gate called ‘needle gate’. Others have suggested a rock face, narrow enough for only a human and not a camel to pass. The message derived from such thinking leads one to believe that the message of Christ is a call to a life unencumbered by earthly baggage, a letting go of riches. But that is not the case.

The question of the rich young man is clear, “what do I do to inherit eternal life.” The answer of Jesus is that it is not found in our doing but in being; for salvation cannot be bought and even our riches which were believed to be a blessing from God, are worthless. The impossibility of the situation, reflected by the disciple’s question, “who then will be saved?” is answered by Jesus. Hard as it may be for man to comprehend, God makes all things possible!

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