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(Parallels: Mat_19:16-30; Mar_10:17-31.)
Good Teacher.—It is not hard to sketch a somewhat vivid portrait of the youthful speaker. He is as little lacking in emotion and enthusiasm, as in fluency of speech and demonstration of honor before Jesus. He is better than the common dependers on works [Werkheiligen, lit., work-saints] of that time, under whose self-righteousness there flowed not seldom a current of hypocrisy, but he stands far below to God-fearing men of the Old Testament, in whose hearts, along with the strictest conscientiousness, there ever remained alive the feeling of the necessity of atonement. What he seeks is not grace but reward;—the eternal life in which he, probably a member of the sect of the Pharisees, believes, he will earn by his own virtue. Yet still an obscure feeling is ever saying to him that the treasure of his good works is not yet great enough; to his righteousness he wishes to add something more, altogether extraordinary, in order then to be able to be sure of the perfect certainty of his salvation. Before the Saviour departs, he wishes for once to hear from Him the answer to this great question of life. Thus does he stand before us as a man full of good intentions, but without deep self-knowledge; who takes pleasure in the law of God, but at the same time also has complacency in himself, whose words not only express his thoughts, but in a certain sense anticipate them; more worthy of love than of envy,—a curious mixture of honesty and of pitiable self-deceit. Not until he is considered from this point of view, is it possible wholly to understand the wisdom and love with which the Saviour treats him. He is in a certain sense the Nicodemus character of the Synoptics, comp. Joh_3:2, although his history, alas, ends less satisfactorily than that of this teacher in Israel.
Luk_18:19. Why callest thou me good?—Luke simply follows Mark, in giving this answer of our Lord. Respecting the famous various reading in Matt. ad loc. see Lange. We for our part are of the opinion that in Matthew the Recepta must be retained, and that the reading of Lachmann and Tischendorf has no higher value than that of an old interpretamentum. The grounds for this persuasion do not belong here, but as respects the Marcionitic reading of the second part of the answer in Luke: ὁ ãὰñ ἀãáèὸò åἷò ἐóôéí , ὁ Èåὸò ὁ ðáôÞñ , it is nothing but a gloss, which does not even bear a strongly Marcionitic character.—As to the rest, we scarcely need to remark that the Saviour by this answer: ïὐäåὶò ἀãáè ., ê . ô . ë ., is as far from indirectly expressing His own Godhead (the old Dogmatici), as He is from decidedly denying it (the later Rationalists). He contents Himself with declining an epithet which in this mouth would have had no meaning whatever, even as He previously also did not wish from every one to be greeted as the Messiah. Thus does He here give on the one hand an example of modest humility, which contrasts not a little with the self-praise of the young man, and on the other hand He points him, if he will really do what is good, to the highest ideal of perfection.
Luk_18:20. The commandments.—The Saviour names the commandments of the second table, because when the rich man had once seen his lack of love to his neighbor, the conclusion as to his lack of love to God could not be difficult. According to Mark and Luke, the ìὴ ìïé÷åýóῃò stands first, with internal probability, if we direct our regard to the youth of the questioner. According to the statement of Luke, the Saviour names only five commandments, the ìὴ ἀðïóôåñÞóç ̣ ò of Mark and the ἀãáð . ôὸí ðëçó . óïõ ὡò óåáõô . of Matthew, being wanting.
Luk_18:21. All these.—In vain hitherto has the Saviour endeavored to draw the attention of the young man to the contrast between his duty and his own ability. The youth is still so taken up with his own virtue, that he thinks that he is able to point courageously to his whole past life, although at the same time, in the obscure foreboding that he may yet perhaps come short, he adds (Matthew): ôß ἔôé ὑóôåñῶ . The answer of the Saviour does not confirm the truth of his declaration, but only tells him what he, in case it is really so with him, has yet to do.
Luk_18:22. Distribute.— ÄéÜäïò , see the notes on the text. By the peculiar form of the injunction, the salutary strictness of the command becomes evident. He must not only sell his treasure, never to see it again;—even that perhaps in an heroic and high-wrought moment might have been possible;—but to distribute the precious wealth with his own hand, piece by piece, among the poor, and thus see the source of his earthly joy, pride, hope, as it were, drop by drop dry up. “Distribue, ipse id magnam lœtitiam afferre solet piis.” Bengel. Only when he has in this way killed his selfishness even to the root, may he view himself as perfect in love. Then is the Master ready to give him his recompense and highest good, the place of a disciple, His cross, His heavenly treasure.
Luk_18:23. Very sorrowful.— Ðåñßëõðïò : Matthew, ëõðïýìåíïò ; Mark, óôõãíÜóáò , ëõðïýìåíïò . These are all expressions which show that the answer of Jesus produces an intense impression upon the young man. No wonder, it was also very fitting to cure him forever of his foolish self-conceit. Up to this moment, he had thought that the external observance of the manifold commandments might open for him the way to heaven, while he yet had left the commune vinculum, the highest principle of all the requirements of God, until now unconsidered. And now it appears that his selfishness is mightier than his seemingly noble love, and that he his life through had already transgressed the first commandment, inasmuch as he offered base worship to Mammon. He becomes aware that to his fabric of virtue even the foundation is yet wanting, and still he had already been hoping to be able to put the capstone on his perfected work. The chasm which lies between knowing and willing, and between willing and doing, becomes to him now plain; he goes away, and it is not impossible that he afterwards returns again; but even though he saw Jesus no more, he has received an instruction which he his whole life long can no more forget. He knows now what is lacking to him, and even though the look of sadness which the Saviour let fall upon the departing one had been a look of irrevocable farewell, yet the lasting loss of this young man would still have been to the rest a gain, on account of the heart-Searching instructions and warnings which Jesus connected with this occurrence.
Luk_18:24. How hardly.—See on Mat_19:17-29; Mar_10:17-30. That the Saviour here teaches, it is true, a relative but by no means absolute impossibility that the rich man should be saved, shows again how far He, in the gospel of Luke, is removed from all Ebionitic contempt of riches. Only when money has us, instead of our possessing the money, does it close against us the entrance to the kingdom of heaven. Comp. besides the well-known golden tractate of Clemens Alexandrinus, Quis dives salvetur, also Pœdagogus, lib. iii. Luke 6. The double form in which Mark (Luk_10:23-24) communicates the saying of our Lord, is especially adapted to explain more exactly His actual meaning.
Luk_18:25. A camel.—See Lange on Mat_19:24, and Lightfoot, ad loc. Beyond doubt there here hovers before the Saviour’s soul, in particular, the image of the many rich and mighty in His day, whose earthly temper hindered them from receiving Him, while He in the rich young man saw a type of thousands, to whom the disciples in their Chiliastic dreams had already conceded a place of honor in the kingdom of heaven, but with reference to whom it was soon to appear that they, on account of their love to earthly goods, were not fit for the kingdom of God.
Luk_18:26. Who then can be saved?—As well this scene with the ruler, as also this earnest utterance of the Saviour, has taught the disciples to cast a deeper look into their own heart. They feel now that not earthly good in itself closes the entrance into the kingdom of heaven, but that it does so only when one hangs his heart upon it, and that one therefore, even without being in possession of riches, may yet be shut out as a rich man. In the living consciousness that even the poorest may have something of this earthly-mindedness which causes the ἄñ÷ùí to go sorrowful away, they now all, instead of surprise at others, feel concern about themselves, and venture the great question, which the Saviour answers with His compassionate look and a comforting word. Comp. Job_42:2; Jer_32:17; Zec_8:6.
Luk_18:18. Peter said.—According to all three Evangelists, it is Peter with whom first, in the place of concern, there follows not only recovered composure, but even self-complacency. Very characteristic is it, but at the same time amiable, that he here does not place himself exclusively first, but utters it as the collective consciousness of the apostolic circle, that all more or less had done what had proved too hard for the ἄñ÷ùí . The peculiar form of his utterance in Luke, “we have left ôὰ ἴäéá . that which is ours,” brings the greater difficulty of the sacrifice made still more strongly into view. Instead of the fear of not being able to be saved, there now springs up within them the hope of extraordinary reward; and it is entirely unmistakable that in this whole utterance, an egoistic love of reward expresses itself, of which it is even more easily conceivable how it could arise in the heart of Peter, than how it could be approved by Jesus. Before, however, we find difficulty in this latter fact, let us notice first that the assertion of Peter was no idle vaunt, but pure truth; that the Saviour Himself had just before attached to the renunciation of earthly good the possession of the heavenly treasure, and that with Peter the craving of reward did not exclude love, but was most intimately connected therewith; and secondly, that our Lord not only approves the hope of recompense, inasmuch as He promises to it the richest satisfaction, but also tempers it and sanctifies it, by the immediately following parable, Mat_21:1-16.
Luk_18:29. Verily I say unto you.—Luke gives the answer of the Saviour less precisely and less in detail than Matthew and Mark, yet with all, the chief thoughts are the same, in which, however, we have to consider that the strictly Israelitish form in which the hope of hundredfold reward is uttered in Matt. Luk_19:28, is less prominent in the Hellenistic gospel of Luke.
Luk_18:30. Receive back, ἀðïëÜâῃ .—See notes on the text. A still stronger form than in Matthew, and a fitting expression to intimate that he receives what belongs to him as a reward. Afterwards the Saviour expressed the same thought in another form, Luk_22:25-30. The clause: “Many last shall be first,” which Matthew and Mark subjoin here, Luke had already given, Luk_13:30. As a proverb, its frequent repetition is easily intelligible.
In this time, and in the world to come life everlasting.—This passage is one of those in which the distinction between the common Synoptic and the Johannean signification of the word æùὴ áἰþíéïò appears most strongly marked. Here, also, as, e.g., Mat_19:29; Mat_25:46, and elsewhere, it is something absolutely of the other world.
2. In the Pauline gospel of Luke also, the history of the rich young man occupies a prominent place, inasmuch as this word serves as a palpable proof of the absolute impossibility of being justified by the works of the law. When the Saviour says to a sinner, in view of the requirements of the law: Do this and thou shalt live, this is done for the very purpose of awakening, by the despair of fulfilling such a requirement, the consciousness of deep sinfulness, and the slumbering longing for grace. In this respect also, the history of the rich young man is a rarely equalled type of the pædagogic wisdom of our Lord, and at the same time a key to the Pauline declaration, Rom_7:7-24.
3. For the apologetics of the Evangelical history, it is of moment to compare the form in which this occurrence is related in the gospel of the Hebrews. Comp. on this the happy remark of Neander, L. J. ad loc., and respecting this whole narrative, the dissertation of K. Wimmer, Stud. u. Krit. 1845, i. p. 115.
4. The evangelical idea of the sinlessness of our Lord is in no way endangered by the negative: ôß ìå ëÝãåéò ἀãáèüí . “The declaration is the expression of the same humble subordination to God, penetrated by which Jesus also, although knowing Himself one with the Father, yet designates the Father as the One sending Him, teaching Him, sanctifying Him, glorifying Him,—in one word, as the greater. Ever, indeed, is the Father the original source, as of all being, so of all goodness; the absolutely Good, in His holiness ever the same, while in contrast with Him even the Son, as Man, is one developing in goodness and holiness, perfecting Himself through prayers, conflicts, sorrows, and suffering, unto Divine glory.” Ullmann.
5. The whole history of the rich young man is a powerful testimony to the spirit of the first commandment in the Decalogue. Evidently the Saviour was not concerned with the wealth of the ἄñ÷ùí in itself,—for some misfortune or other might then have easily freed him from his possessions; but He wished to detach him from the idol to which his heart was bound. If his idol had been something else, e.g., ambition, the Saviour would not have given him this commandment; he would have fulfilled it without trouble, nay, perhaps would even have boasted of his beneficence; but since his weak side is the love of money, the commandment of self-denial approaches him precisely in this relatively accidental form, that it may become evident to. him how only he who can renounce that which is highest, is on the way to gain that which is best. Hard was the requirement, but it was the severity of love.
[After all, our Lord only required of this young man what the apostles, as Peter declares, had already done; and even worldly wisdom does not now venture to dispute that the preëminent honor which they have gained to all ages of the world thereby, has of itself been a hundred times over worth the sacrifice. What emperor in Christendom would dare for a moment to compare his dignity with that of an apostle, or an evangelist, or even the helper of an apostle? And certainly we may believe that the young ruler, who could have made a still greater sacrifice, and whom Jesus, even at His first and only meeting with him, came to regard with so peculiar an affection, was fitted to occupy no mean place in the kingdom of God. So true is it, that even as respects this world, he missed the opportunity of placing himself on such an eminence, as no potentate of his age ever came within sight of.—C. C. S.]
6. The promise of manifold reward for the sacrifice made for the kingdom of heaven, had already been given to the disciples in another form, Luk_6:23; Luk_12:35-37. Here, In particular, must be considered how the Saviour, after He had promised them more than the most glowing imagination could expect, makes haste to oppose every narrow self-seeking and false rest in their soul. He takes from them therewith at once the fancy of their being the only ones so highly distinguished. In an entirely general way He promises for all following times to all a hundredfold recompense who should renounce anything for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. They should not lack companions of the high fortune which they desired above all things. But that they might not now too early rest upon their laurels, they are on the other hand disquieted by the thought: Those who are now the first, may afterwards very possibly become the last. How thoroughly in earnest, moreover, the Saviour was as to this promise of the hundredfold recompense even in this life, appears from the history of the kingdom of God in all times, comp. e.g., what Paul offered for its sake and afterwards gained. Or consider the French refugees who for the cause of truth and reformation left their native country, and even yet in their posterity are visibly and wonderfully blest! [What blood more honorable in our country than the blood of the Huguenots?—C. C. S.]
7. The whole instruction of our Lord, as well concerning the dangers of riches as concerning the rich recompense of that which is offered up for Him, acquires an additional and peculiar importance if we consider that this was uttered in the presence of Judas, only a few days before the germinating in him of the dark plan of betrayal.
[8. We must bear in mind that while as yet the might of Christian love had scarcely begun to be felt in the world, riches were to their possessors a temptation to hard-hearted voluptuousness in a degree scarcely possible now. In Christendom, imperfect as it is, even a worldly man, in spite of himself, is forced in some measure to take a Christian view of his wealth. This does not, by any means, remove the danger of riches, but it increases the probability, in each particular case, that those dangers will be surmounted.—C. C. S.]
Starke:—Canstein:—Our first and chiefest question should be concerning everlasting life.—Brentius:—The law is spiritual, and requires internal and external obedience.—In religion nature and grace must be well distinguished.—Let man be taught to distinguish well the general and the special calling of God.—Hedinger:—Woe to you, ye rich, Luk_6:24; 1Ti_6:9; Jam_5:1.—Bibl. Wirt:—Let not thy mouth water too much after worldly goods, because they are more a hindrance than a help to salvation, Pro_30:8.—Rising concern for salvation must be regarded and welcomed as a messenger of grace.—Hedinger:—All lost, all gained.—Brentius:—The lust of reward here cleaves even, it seems, to the best dispositions.—To the children and servants of God belongs all the good which the kingdom of grace and glory possesses; what would they more? 1Co_3:21-23.
Palmer:—What lack I yet? 1. What answer our own heart would be glad to give; 2. what the Lord answers thereto.—Of the unhappy contradiction in which so many men are involved with themselves.—W. Hofacker:—Good labor brings noble recompense.—C. J. Nitzsch:—No one is good saving God alone: 1. In what sense the expression is meant; 2. how in the light of it Jesus Himself appears to us; 3. whether, then, where it holds good, there yet can be any well-grounded confidence in our neighbor.
Footnotes:
Luk_18:22.— ÄéÜäïò . The simple äüò , which A., D., L., M., Ä ., and some others have, and also Lachmann, is taken from the parallels.
Luk_18:22.—According to B., D., ἐí ôïῖò ïὐñáíïῖò . [Cod. Sin., ἐí ïὐñáíïῖò .] The singular of the Recepta is from Matthew and Mark.
Luk_18:24.—E. V.: “saw that he was very sorrowful.” [ Ἰäὼí äὲ áὐôüí ὁ Ἰ . åἶðåí , according to B., Cod. Sin., L. Accepted by Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford.—C. C. S.]
Luk_18:24.— Åἰòðïñåýïíôáé [according to B., L. Cod. Sin. has åἰòåëåýóïíôáé .—C. C. S.]
Luk_18:28.— Ôὰ ἴäéá (without ðÜíôá ), according to Griesbach, Lachmann, [Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford,] on the authority of B., L., 157. ÐÜíôá is taken from the parallels.