Chapter 19

Four phoney facades.

Verses 1-9, the exposure of the facade of the Pharisees.

Verses 1-2, the credit card of the Messiah presented.

Verse 1— “And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan:

Verse 2 — “And a great multitude followed him; and he healed them there.” “Finishing these sayings” refers to the dissertation in Matthew 18 which was given in Capernaum, the home town of Peter. The ministry which is covered in chapter 19 takes place in Perea, that country on the other side of the Jordan which today we call Trans Jordania. Jesus took the routine trip, by-passing Samaria, going through Perea to go from north to south. The great multitudes which followed referred to needy people when it came to the matter of health who knew of His ministry or they recognised Him for what He was and knew that He could solve their problems. In each case He did, and in so doing He once again presents His credit card of His Messiahship. The purpose of healing once again was to focus attention on the message, Jesus was not simply healing for the purpose of healing. And in verse three this leads to the phoney question which is going to lead to the exposure of the facade of the Pharisees.

Verse 3 — the phoney question. “And the Pharisees also came unto him.” The Pharisees have moved out of their way and their reason is because of the great amount of healing which is being conducted in Perea. These same Pharisees are going to be exposed in Matthew chapter 23. They are hypocrites, they are full of all sorts of phoney fronts, and the come to Him now tempting; “tempting him.” The word “tempting” means to test for the purpose of discovering good or evil and the context here indicates that they tested Him in order to find a weak spot on which to criticise Him. So the word “tempting” means they are testing, looking for a weak spot and then they are going to pounce. In other words, the word “tempting” connotes an attempt to discredit the Lord Jesus Christ and they are going to ask Him a question which is loaded. If He answers it one way it will discredit Him through one system, if He answers it another way they will discredit Him through another system. No matter how He answers this question the question is designed to discredit Him.

“and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” “Is it lawful” means, is it permitted by a specific law, the Mosaic law. The word to “put away” means to divorce. Is it lawful to divorce a wife for any cause? The Greek does not say “for any cause” .We have the preposition kata, which denotes norm or standard, and it says, “is the criterion for divorce anything?” This is a loaded question. The Pharisees were very brilliant men. They were accustomed to discrediting people and they maintained their power by such discreditation.

What kind of a question was this?

1. If Jesus answers by implying that one can divorce for any reason of incompatibility or dissatisfaction the Pharisees will contend that Jesus abuses the law.

2. If Jesus answers by restricting divorce the Pharisees will accuse Him of disregarding the law.

3. This entire passage is built around Deuteronomy 24:1-4.

Deut. 24:1 — “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes [he is dissatisfied with her], because he hath found some uncleanness in her:” This doesn’t means that she didn’t take a bath twice a day! Uncleanness is a technical word defined by many parts of the Mosaic law, such as Leviticus chapter 5; 7:21; 10:10; 11:1-47; 13:11-59; Numbers 9:1-22; Deuteronomy 23:10,14. There are literally hundreds of verses that define uncleanness. Uncleanness can mean everything from touching a corpse to adultery. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of ways in which a person can become unclean under the Mosaic law. Generally they are divided into two categories: ceremonial and moral. Deuteronomy 24:1 was designed for the moral reason. And in Israel what they did if they wanted to get rid of a wife, for example, was they would get her to run an errand where there had been a corpse in the house, and as soon as she walked through the door he was down at the priest getting a divorce. It was used as an “out” for the man, an excuse, an abuse. The divorce rate became fantastic. But the intent of the scripture here was moral uncleanness, not ceremonial; “then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.”

This passage in Matthew chapter 19 was built around this one passage in Deuteronomy. The Pharisees had it in mind when they asked the question; Jesus had it in mind when He answered the question. There are many reasons for divorce and only a couple of reasons why divorced people can get remarried. But there is just one reason that Jesus handles and the reason He only mentions one is because He is ripping the false face off of the Pharisees. They are phoneys and He exposes them. They tried to trap Him and He clobbered them. This is not the only passage on divorce, it is a passage on divorce. The passage here in Deut. 24 refers to moral uncleanness but they twisted it into ceremonial uncleanness.

4. Divorce had become quite common in Israel because of the uncleanness gimmick — using ceremonial instead of moral uncleanness.

5. Through the old sin nature the law was being abused.

6. The trap: If Jesus takes a liberal view of divorce the Pharisees will condemn Him for distorting the law. If Jesus takes a strict view, no divorce, they will condemn Him for rejecting Deuteronomy 24.

Verses 4-6, the divine dissertation on the divine institution.

Verse 4 — “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female.” This is a quotation from Genesis 1:27, and the very creation of man and woman indicates the divine institution of marriage. Jesus goes back to the point that when creation occurred male and female were created obviously for the purpose of moving on the race, for recreation, and other things, but marriage was instituted right from the beginning. Jesus by-passes Deuteronomy 24 for the moment, He goes right back to the Garden.

Verse 5 — Now He is going to go to Genesis chapter two. “And he said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh?” — Genesis 2:24, to show that there is no place for mother. Get-rid-of-mother was given before mother existed, there were no in-laws. When God said to the man and his wife, “You shall cleave to each other,” separation from home, “for this cause shall a man leave father and mother,” leave them. You have to live your own life and with a mother or a father, or both, hovering over, it can’t be done. There were no in-laws at this time and yet one of the greatest enemies of marriage is interference by the in-laws. Illustration: According to statistics, easily the major reason for divorce in the USA in 1964 was in-law problems. So Jesus anticipates the greatest jeopardy to marriage; “and cleave.” The word “cleave” means to glue together; “and they twain [two] shall be one flesh [divine institution #2].”

Verse 6 — an application. “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.” So He says, Let’s forget Deuteronomy 24 for the moment and go back and examine the divine institution. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” And that anticipates Deuteronomy 24. And by His next statement He says that Deuteronomy was not to be abused. It was to be used but not abused. They abused it by going to ceremonial uncleanness. In other words, any excuse to break out. It was to be used for moral uncleanness, something that violates “they twain/one flesh” principle. So He puts Deuteronomy immediately in its proper perspective by this statement. And yet this is where the Pharisees thought they had Him. The uncleanness gimmick was, in fact, “pulling asunder.”

Verse 7 — the trap closes. “They say unto him,” they think they have Him, “Why did Moses command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?” By using the passages in Genesis one and two what has Jesus said? Jesus said, No divorce, and the Pharisees understood that. Now the Pharisees come up and say in effect, Aha! You don’t believe in Moses. Jesus took the strict view and when He did the question arises: are there exceptions to the strict view? There are. Why doesn’t He develop the exception? Because He is dealing with a principle, not with the exceptions to the principle. This is not a dissertation on divorce but it is dealing with a principle of marriage, not the exceptions. (The exceptions are stated in 1 Corinthians 7) Jesus is answering the question of the Pharisees and He knows the trap, but He is going to rip off the facade of their hypocrisy. He gave the strict answer because it carries out the principle of divine institution #2. And then they close the trap when they see that Jesus has taken this strict view that divorce was not authorised at all. Jesus is simply giving the concept of divine institution #2 without stating its exceptions. In trapping Jesus what do the Pharisees think? They think He is a mere man and because they do they now look on Him as a trapped man.

Verse 8 — “He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” The phrase “from the beginning it was not so” He has already said when He quoted from the Genesis passages. What does “from the beginning” mean? To show that you didn’t start with divorce, you started with the marriage.

Why is divorce a legitimate thing? Because of the hardness of the heart. The reason that divorce is necessary as an adjunct under certain circumstances, is not because of ceremonial uncleanness and not because of moral uncleanness, it is because of the hardness of the heart [the mind]. Hardness refers to negative volition. The thing that makes a marriage go right, and without it no marriage is ever right, is that there must be positive volition on the part of both parties, and positive volition is mental attitude love. Hardness of heart is negative volition. You can’t build a marriage on love if there is negative volition. The reason for divorce is because of negative volition on the part of one or the other in the marriage. The most miserable thing in the world is probably two negative volitions living together.

Verse 9 — the divine institution came before divorce, so there is a principle here: divorce is secondary to the principle, not primary. For that reason Jesus could not take a truly liberal view of divorce because divorce is necessary and divorce sets up a series of exceptions to the principle which make it necessary but the institution existed before the exception. He now gives an exception to the rule. One exception, but it isn’t the only one.

“But I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery.” That is the end of the verse and the rest of the verse we find in the King James version is not found in the original at all, cross it out. Some legalist in the 3rd century added it! What Jesus says breaks up the uncleanness gimmick. In other words, uncleanness in Deuteronomy 24:1 means what? Fornication. Why fornication? What causes fornication? Hardness of heart, negative volition.

Verse 10 — The scribes and the Pharisees have left the scene and Jesus, taking the same subject matter and adding to it, now has to deal with the disciples. They have been listening with their mouths open and this is not unusual when one first gets the information found in this particular passage. Now the disciples demonstrate their foolishness in the matter because they decide that in view of what Jesus said to the Pharisees it is better not to get married at all. They decided this on a rather unusual basis: in view of all the problems connected with marriage, instead of going through all the rat race of divorce, better to not having been married at all. So Jesus is now going to deal with that. The disciples have two facades, the first being to draw erroneous conclusions from true doctrine — verse 10; the second is the tendency to ignore, to misunderstand or to discourage young people — verse 13. The reaction of the disciples — “His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good [profitable] to marry.” In other words, this is the old story of some people hearing what they want to hear. So this leads now to …

The dissertation on the gift of celibacy, verses 11-12.

Verse 11 — Jesus is now going to show them that it is better for some people not to get married but that on the whole the divine institution stands. “But he said unto them, But all men cannot receive this saying [the doctrine of the first nine verses], save [except] they to whom it is given.” This particular doctrine which Jesus has been giving has to do with people who are divorced. The doctrine of abstaining from marriage or the principle that the single status is the best has to be reviewed here, and Jesus does so under three categories in verse twelve. We have three types of people who should abstain from marriage and the word “eunuch” is used. The word “eunuch” as used here does not have the same connotation as in the past. In the past the word was used for someone who for many reasons did not have normal sexual libido. Today the word has an entirely different connotation.

There are three kinds of people who should not get married, who do not need to get married, who would not profit from marriage, who would find marriage distasteful. These are people who should never even consider marriage in the first place.

Verse 12 — the congenital eunuch, the first of the three. “For there are some eunuchs, which were born from their mother’s womb.” These are those who are born without normal libido or sexual drive. This is not to be confused with impotence which is something that occurs later on through loss of health or mental blocks, and so on. This is a congenital condition mentioned here. These people should never consider marriage in the first place. Obviously as believers God has a plan for their life. The second category, introduced again by the words “some eunuchs” refers to the emasculated eunuch — “some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men.” These are those whose sexual drive has been removed by castration and they, too, should not consider marriage. Then the third category which comes under the gift of celibacy. There is a gift of celibacy on God’s plan where certain people whose activities are of such a concentrated nature that marriage would be a tremendous drag. The best illustration is the apostle Paul. He had the gift of celibacy — “some eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” God has provided the gift of celibacy to both sexes in order that certain functions which are absolutely necessary might be performed.

Verse 13 — the disciples’ perfidious compassion. “Then there were brought unto him little children.” This time the child represents the principle of child evangelism and training the child, rather than as we saw before where the child stood for an analogy, a training aid; “that he should put his hand upon them.” This is a sign of blessing because they recognise Him as God, they have just believed in Him or want more information, and they were most anxious to have the Son of God place His hand upon their head. This to them is personal blessing and they are identified with Him; “and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.” Once more the disciples have put on a phoney front. They are guilty of discouraging young people. This is, of course, the problem of many adults today. They forget how they were when they were young people, and there are some who had such a tremendously difficult childhood that they did not have time to be children. But one way or another the problem is that the children are discouraged; the disciples rebuke them, they censor, they reprove them. The people who brought the children were reproved for bothering Jesus with all of these “little kids.” The principle is that without doctrine it is always impossible to help young people, legalism always drives them away.

Verse 14 — the divine rebuke. “But Jesus said, Suffer [let them alone, relax them] the little children.” In other words, have such an attitude toward them that they will be relaxed toward you, don’t discourage them; “and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” The word “such” means of such kind, i.e. they have trusted me, they have accepted me, and they want blessing and be in my presence, for of such a category is the kingdom of heaven. They are believers, so they are not so little that they cannot make a decision for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 15 — He blesses the little children. “And he laid His hands upon them.” This is His divine identification with them; “and departed thence [departed from one place to another].” The laying of the hands here has to do with blessing: identification with Him. Jesus would not leave until He had blesses the little children.

Verses 16-24, the facade of the rich young ruler. We are going to study a very important principle: the most difficult people to reach are religious and self-righteous people on the one hand and rich people on the other. We now have a case of a man who is not only rich but self-righteous as well. The most difficult people to reach are rich people because they have a tendency to depend upon their wealth and their power and influence, and self-righteous people because self-righteous people depend upon their good works. The most insufferable combination in all of humanity is the combination of the religious and rich person — stuffed with self-righteousness and madly in love with his own life.

Verse 16 — “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master.” The word “good” means good of intrinsic value and this word can only be used of God or something that comes from God. “Master.” Everyone who was a believer called Jesus “Lord.” This man called Jesus “Master” because he was an unbeliever, and he simply recognises Jesus as an academic and as one who speaks with authority. He called Him good, good of intrinsic value, and this word should only be used of God, but he doesn’t recognise Him as God.

Then he uses the interrogative pronoun, “what.” He is going to ask a question but the question is really in his eyes rhetorical, though Jesus will answer it. It is rhetorical to him because as far as he is concerned he is already saved and there is no possible way for him to lose his salvation. He thinks that he is saved because of his good deeds because all of his life he has been keeping the law. He is a stickler for the law, he has been keeping the ten commandments, and as far as he is concerned he is saved, he just wants Jesus to tell everyone he is saved. He comes with tremendous ego and with a false confidence, “What good thing shall I do.” He immediately gives his concept of salvation. He believes that you can be saved by good things [human good]. He is depending upon his own good works for salvation, he is not depending upon the work of God, divine good. When he says, “What shall I do,” this is an aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense means works in time, human good; the active voice: this man is doing it himself, doing for salvation instead of believing; the subjunctive mood indicates his volition in the matter, he has rejected the cross.

“that” introduces a result clause — “I may have eternal life?” This man wants eternal life on the basis of what he can do rather than on the basis of what Christ has done. This is an interesting principle because behind it we have this: the rich young ruler is first of all an unbeliever. He has a plan for salvation which includes religion — keeping the law, self-righteousness and trying to keep the law, dependence upon his riches which is a part of his philosophy — but he is an imperfect being. An imperfect being can only come up with an imperfect plan and the best plan that he could devise is only good in time, never in eternity. Whereas Christ is God, and as God He is perfect and therefore His plan is perfect and permanent resulting in eternal life. So here is the one facing the saviour and he is asking the saviour to say he is saved, but the saviour can’t say that because this man has rejected Him and has accepted the law and keeping the law as the way of salvation.

Verse 17 — the twofold answer designed to convict him. “And he said unto him, Why callest me thou good?” The first part of this answer deals with the person of Christ. Here He is once again trying to focus attention on the person of Christ. When He asks the man this question, “Why callest thou me good [of intrinsic value]?” He is trying to alert him to the fact that he used the word and, Do you mean it? Do you mean that I am God? Of course he doesn’t. It was just a form of address with him. Jesus is drawing out the man to determine if he is implying that Jesus is God. Hence Jesus is emphasising the uniqueness of His person, and the uniqueness of His person leads to the uniqueness of His work; “there is none good but one, that is, God,” so obviously Jesus is trying to direct his attention to the fact, Do you accept me as God? Of course, he doesn’t.

Verse 17 — The second answer deals with the work of Christ. “If thou wilt enter into eternal life.” This is a first class condition of assumption: assuming that you desire to “keep the commandments.” Jesus puts it to him this way because He knows that the rich young ruler has rejected Him, that the rich young ruler has accepted the philosophy of salvation by works. So He gives him the command to keep the commandments because He knows that this is exactly what the rich young ruler is doing, and He is going to take the commandments and trap him with them. He already knows that this man has decided that he will be saved by keeping the law, keeping the commandments. Note: Romans 3:20 — “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by means of the law is the knowledge of sin.” You can’t possibly be saved by keeping the law, and yet this is the attitude of the rich young ruler. But why did Jesus say to this young man. Keep the commandments? And He put the word “commandments” in the plural to distinguish from the true way of salvation as found in 1 John 3:23, which says, “This is the commandment [singular] of God that we believe in his Son, Jesus Christ.” So the commandment of God to the human race is to believe on His Son Jesus Christ. But Jesus is going to trap this man with his own way of salvation. He is going to take this man’s position and show that it has holes in it.

Verse 18 — “He saith unto him, Which?” So here is Mr Confidence asking for it! He is so sure of himself that he believes he can’t possibly lose on this one and he wants everyone else to know how good he is. He is ready to take on anyone in the field of self-confidence and self-righteousness.

“Jesus said” — Jesus takes four negative commandments and He deliberately picked commandments that he kept to start him nodding his head. He is dealing with a self-righteous person who doesn’t overtly step out of line in any way — “Thou shalt do not murder [the sixth commandment], Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness.”

Verse 19 — Jesus goes back to the fifth commandment and now begins to hang him. There are two commandments that are going to trap this man. “Honour thy father and thy mother,” and he hasn’t done it. The Greek says, Keep on honouring, present active imperative. And there is a reason for it, because the rich young ruler is guilty of the corbon gimmick (Matthew 15). This man is so much in love with money that he will not help his parents; “and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This is not one of the ten commandments, this is given in Leviticus 19:18, 34. The first half says you’ll love God with all your might and the second half says you’ll love your fellow man. And Jesus only takes the last half of it because the rich young ruler does not love his fellow man. “As thyself” is the problem. Remember James 2:10, If you are guilty of one point you are guilty of all. He has offended in one point, he is caught. To maintain his facade of self-righteousness this rich young ruler is going to have to tell a lie now.

Verse 20 — “The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” The rich young ruler contended that he kept all of the commandments from the age of accountability, and Jesus is going to prove that he has not kept one.

Verse 21 — “Jesus said unto him, If thou be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.” And this is hitting him where he is weak because he is going to hang on to his last dollar if it is the last thing he ever does; “and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” The word “come” is a call to faith, and “come” is non-meritorious. Jesus is inviting him to believe in Himself. Then he uses something else, “follow me.” “Follow” is again faith; “me” refers to Christ. This needs explanation, so look at verse 28 — “Ye which have followed me in regeneration.” This does not mean to live a good life, etc. So when Jesus said, Come follow me, it means to be born again, and you can only be born again by faith in Christ.

In verse 21, Jesus said, “If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor.” The word “and” is a separating point, it is a conjunction; “thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and [the great separation point] come and follow me.” Come and follow me is an invitation for salvation as per Matthew 11:28.

Verse 22 — the rich young ruler rejects the divine solution. “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful [being grieved, literally. He was very upset] for he had great possessions.” He is upset because he doesn’t want to part with them. He doesn’t want to buy his way into heaven (and, of course, he couldn’t) and he doesn’t want grace. He doesn’t want anything that is close to salvation.

Verses 23-24, the problem of the rich young ruler trusting Christ.

Verse 23 — “Then said Jesus to His disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly [with difficulty] enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Rich people do get saved but they get saved with difficulty. What is their problem? They have a tendency to depend upon their wealth rather than on the cross. But in the case of the rich young ruler he is not only rich but he is also religious and he wants to also depend on his works. Other passages which teach of the difficulty of a rich person being saved include 1 Timothy 6:9-11, 17; James 5:-6; Matthew 8:36-38. There is nothing wrong with being rich and it isn’t impossible for a rich man to be saved, it is just difficult.

Verse 24 — “Again, I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” .In an ancient city they closed the entrance gates at sundown and barred them. Maybe a caravan would come after dark and they would approach the gate and be hailed and identified by the watch. They had a door in the gate, a small door, and they would allow the caravan to come into the city under the protection of the walls at night but they would enter them through this gate. It was a very small door and it was very difficult to get a camel through. He has to stoop and grunt and be booted from one side to the other and only one camel could get through at a time. No army was going to charge through that small gate. They called this small gate the eye of the needle and it would let one camel through with great difficulty. So the point is that rich people do go to heaven just the same way anyone else does, it is just more difficult for them because they have a tendency with wealth to do one thing or another and they don’t bother to think much about eternity.

Verse 25 — “When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?”

Verse 26 — “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible.” You can’t be saved by works; “but with God all things are possible.” In other words, only God can save. The rich young ruler is trying to be saved by himself and he can’t do it.

Verse 27 — “The answered Peter and said unto him, Behold we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?” Peter didn’t have any money and he’s given up everything for the Lord and he wants to know if he is going to have any treasure. Peter is saved but Peter is confused.

Verses 28-29, salvation comes before reward.

Verse 28 — Jesus is going to point out to Peter that he has the wrong emphasis. Peter is emphasising what he has done for Christ rather than what Christ has done for him and he doesn’t have the perspective of grace as this particular point. “And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration.” There is a parenthesis here which is closed in verse 29 after the word “hundredfold,” (when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, … etc) the sentence is concluded at the end of verse 29, “even you shall inherit everlasting life.” That is the sentence. The parenthesis begins with the word “when” and ends in verse 29 with the word “hundredfold.”

What is in the parenthesis? “When the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,” all but Judas Iscariot. His place will be taken by Paul; “judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” This is at the second advent, the baptism of fire.

Verse 29 — “And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold [maximum reward].” So here is the answer. They are each going to sit and they are going to judge and they are going to pass out the rewards to one of the tribes, and when they pass out the rewards they will pass them out to believers who have forsaken these things for Christ.

Verse 30 — “But many that are first” are believers that are first in the field white unto the harvest. “First” is defined in Matthew chapter 20:10, first into God’s vineyard, first to serve. Many believers in the first century “shall be last,” they shall lose reward, “and the last,” many believers down at the end of the Church Age, “shall be first.” So we have then the principle of reward in the kingdom: every believer will be rewarded on the basis of how he utilises the grace of God in phase two. No two people have the same capacity but God will reward on the basis of capacity given, so you cannot compare yourself with someone who has a greater capacity.