One Thing You Lack

Read

Matthew 19 moves through three encounters: Pharisees testing Jesus on divorce, parents bringing children to him, and a young man who comes with a question about eternal life. The third encounter is the heart of the chapter — one of the most honest and unresolved conversations in the gospel.

Jesus is now in Judea, heading toward Jerusalem. The shadow of the cross that has been gathering since chapter 16 is getting closer.

Read the chapter through before the walk-through.

Walk-through

On divorce (verses 1–12)

Pharisees arrive with a test question: is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause? The question is pointed because there was a genuine debate among Jewish teachers — some allowed divorce for almost any reason, others only for serious cause.

Jesus does not enter the debate. He goes behind it to the beginning:

"Haven't you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?' So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don't let man tear apart."

Matthew 19:4–6

The question was about what Moses permitted. Jesus asks what God designed. From the beginning, the intention was a joining so complete that it becomes one flesh. Moses permitted divorce because of hardness of heart — not because it was the design, but as an accommodation to human failure. Jesus points back to the design.

The disciples react: if that is the standard, it's better not to marry. Jesus acknowledges this is demanding — not everyone can receive it. There are those who remain unmarried for different reasons, including those who choose singleness for the sake of the Kingdom. Both paths — marriage and celibacy — are honoured.

For NTF readers who have experienced divorce: this passage describes the design and the standard, not a verdict on the past. Jesus is addressing a question about what marriage is supposed to be, not pronouncing condemnation on those whose marriages have broken.

Let the children come (verses 13–15)

People bring children to Jesus to have him lay hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuke them — presumably thinking Jesus is too busy for this.

But Jesus said, "Allow the little children, and don't forbid them to come to me; for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to ones like these."

Matthew 19:14

The disciples keep missing this. Chapter 18 put a child in the middle of them and told them greatness looks like that. They have already forgotten. Jesus corrects them again: the Kingdom belongs to such as these. He lays hands on the children and leaves.

One thing you lack (verses 16–22)

A young man approaches and asks: what good thing shall I do to have eternal life? It is a sincere question, not a trap.

Jesus redirects the framing — why ask me about what is good? One is good, and that is God — then gives the practical answer: keep the commandments. He lists them: don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear false witness, honour your parents, love your neighbour.

The young man's answer is remarkable:

The young man said to him, "All these things I have observed from my youth. What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

Matthew 19:20–21

What do I still lack? He is not being proud. He genuinely has kept the commandments — and he can feel that something is still missing. It is an honest and searching question. He is the kind of person you would want in your community.

Jesus does not question his sincerity or dispute the list. He goes straight to the one thing. Not a rule or a doctrine — an action and an invitation: go, sell, give, come, follow. The one thing this young man lacks is not a piece of knowledge. It is willingness to release what his identity and security are built on, and to come.

The young man went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Matthew does not tell us what happened after. Jesus does not run after him. The door was open; the invitation was given; he went away. That is where the story ends.

The camel and the needle (verses 23–30)

Jesus turns to his disciples:

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into God's Kingdom." When the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" And looking at them, Jesus said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Matthew 19:24–26

The disciples' astonishment is significant. In their world, wealth was understood as a sign of God's blessing — the prosperous were assumed to have favour. If the blessed cannot enter, who can? The question is genuine and searching.

Jesus does not soften the camel image. Wealth is not a minor spiritual complication. Its power to anchor identity, to substitute for dependence on God, to make the invitation to come, follow me feel like a loss rather than a gain — that power is real and it is formidable. The young man's sorrow was not weakness. It was an honest response to a genuinely costly invitation.

But the door is not closed: with God all things are possible. What is impossible for a person to engineer through self-effort — releasing the hold of wealth, becoming like a child, entering the Kingdom — God can do. The impossibility is real. So is the possibility.

Peter asks: we have left everything and followed you — what will we have? Jesus promises that those who have left home, family, or land for his sake will receive much more, and inherit eternal life. But the chapter closes with a warning Peter and the other disciples need to hear as much as the young man did:

"But many will be last who are first; and first who are last."

Matthew 19:30

The ones who have left everything and followed are in danger of a different version of the same problem: assuming their sacrifices have secured their position. The Kingdom does not work by accumulated merit, from any starting point.

Take with you

The rich young man is not a villain. He is someone who has done the religious work faithfully and honestly senses that something is still missing. His question — what do I still lack? — is one of the best questions in the gospel. He came to the right person and got the right answer.

He could not receive it. Not yet. The story ends without resolution.

That ending is part of the teaching. Jesus does not lower the invitation to make it easier to accept. He does not negotiate with the young man's attachment. He states what is required and lets the person respond. The invitation remains open; the sorrow is real; the outcome is in the young man's hands.

With God all things are possible. The same young man who walked away sorrowful is not beyond the reach of what God can do in a person. The question is not settled just because the conversation ended.