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A rich man came to Jesus and knelt before Him (according to Mark’s Gospel) to ask what he could do to enter into life. Jesus loved him and told him to keep the commandments. The young man asked which ones (Matthew’s account) and Jesus quoted several from the Ten Commandments. Then the young man answered that he had done them since he was a youth. At this point, Jesus said, “One thing you lack…”(Mark 10:21). In Matthew 19:21 Jesus said, “If you want to be perfect go and sell all that you have and give the money to the poor and come and follow me.”

At this the man went away sorrowful. Jesus then told His disciples that it was harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

What is the meaning of Jesus’ statements? Is it wrong to own possessions? Why did the young man leave?

According to the account the young man left because Jesus said to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor! But what did Jesus MEAN? Was He saying that we must get rid of all our owned property?

Remember that giving up and renouncing one’s wealth and giving it to the poor was not a new thing. Many people and philosophers over the centuries had done it. Then why did Jesus command it as though it were something new?

What Jesus was saying to him was for him to banish from his heart (mind, soul) all his views about wealth - his excitement and his worries about it. He was to abandon his material anxieties -- the thorns of existence that choke out the seeds of the Kingdom (Matt. 13:22).

It was not the outward act that so many had already done that Jesus wanted. Rather it was something greater and more godly. It was to strip the desires of the “flesh” from one’s mind and heart. To pull up by the root and throw away the things that are enemies to the Kingdom.

The truth is that one can give up all one’s wealth and then increase one’s lusts for it and thoughts of it. Poor people often have just as much if not more lust for material things as rich people. Just being poor doesn’t make one righteous automatically. And just being rich doesn’t make one sinful automatically.

What Jesus wanted was the proper use of wealth. After all, if we have nothing, how can we help out our brother (Matt. 25:31-46)?

The kind of poor Jesus wants in us is to be poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3) and spiritually hungry & thirsty for righteousness (Matt. 5:6).

There are two types of poor - the materially poor and the spiritually poor. When we are spiritually poor we hunger for God. And we must be poor in spirit whether we have material things or not!

There are two types of treasures - good and evil. “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil” (Matt. 12:35 NAS).

Salvation does not depend on outward things. It depends on the inner person whose heart has faith, hope, love, true knowledge, meekness, and truth. Being materially rich cannot stop us from entering the kingdom and being materially poor cannot of itself bring salvation.

Jesus was not so naïve as to think that merely divesting oneself of one’s possessions outwardly would automatically bring us salvation. Like His other teachings He emphasized the heart. “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man” (Matt. 15:11). And “…the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things that defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands do not defile the man” (Matt. 15:18-20 NAS).

It’s the same way regarding physical, material things. Jesus was much more interested in a person’s heart than he was their outward dress, possessions, or state of cleanliness.

What is in your heart?? “Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing in your eyes, O Lord, my strength and my salvation” (Psa. 19:14 Bible in Basic English). It’s the heart!