Luke 18:15-30 Commentary

The Little Children and Jesus
15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

The Rich and the Kingdom of God
18 A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
19 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.' [a]"
21 "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."
26 Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"
27 Jesus replied, "What is impossible with human beings is possible with God."
28 Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
29 "Truly I tell you," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life."



Dig Deeper
I always enjoyed reading fables when I was growing up whether they were written by Aesop or someone else, or even were traditional fables with an unknown author. One of the most famous parables ever created, and one that has been duplicated and reworked hundreds of times, is the much loved fable of the monkey and the banana. The gist of that fable is that a monkey sees a jar full of bananas and greatly desires to have all of the bananas for himself. He sneaks up and plunges his hand into the jar and grasps onto a handful of delicious bananas. As he goes to jerk his hand out, he realizes a dire problem. His hand is stuck. He yanks and pulls and struggles but he cannot get his hand out of that jar. The ending of the story can vary but it usually doesn’t turn out well for the monkey. He is so focused on his desire for those bananas that he cannot escape the narrow neck of the jar. We, of course, know that he could be freed at any moment if he would just release his grip on his prize stash of bananas but he won’t. He has made a decision that the bananas are so important that he won’t ever consider letting them go. He doesn’t realize it, but the thing that he most desires is the very thing that is keeping him from his freedom.

At the heart of this short little snippet about children being brought to Jesus and a longer description of an exchange between Jesus and an important young man, and the ensuing discussion between Jesus and his disciples in response to that confrontation, we have a situation similar to that monkey and his bananas. It seems as if the most potent barriers to entering into the kingdom of God are those bananas that we can cling to. It might be our social expectations and biases, it might be out desire for wealth, or it might even be the aversion that some have to lose their individualism and self-focus in order to become part of God’s family in the way that he has described through his word. In both of these accounts the point is clear. One must drop their bananas to be freed from the old order of things and be able to truly escape and enter into the life of the kingdom of God. Those who continue to cling to their bananas will never be able to truly accept God’s kingdom.

It is possible that the specific reason that people were bringing their young children and babies to Jesus was part of the practice of bringing children to elders for special blessings on the eve of the Day of Atonement. Whatever the case, it seems obvious that Jesus’ disciples thought of this as trivial. Jesus was too busy with his kingdom announcement and had too many things swirling about him to bother with blessings for the most inconsequential social group in the land of Israel. Jesus had too much going on to be bothered with children who could do nothing to advance his cause. As usual, though, Jesus took advantage of the opportunity and the normal societal assumptions of the disciples to teach a larger truth about his kingdom.

Rather than ignoring the children or rebuking the parents for bothering him, Jesus offered a mild rebuke for his own disciples. It seems that they were trying to keep the children away because they viewed them as unimportant and unable to be of any value in this kingdom mission. But Jesus wanted them to see something extremely important. It was the Pharisees and those opposed to God who were into making value judgments about who was and who was not worthy to be part of the kingdom. Jesus wanted the children to come to him because they were a perfect example of what people needed to be like to receive the kingdom. Children are innocent and completely dependent on the provision of others. Why should Jesus’ time be taken up with children that were of such little importance? Because they were the perfect picture of what Jesus wanted to say. Anyone who wanted to truly receive the kingdom of God must do so with the innocence and lack of pretension of a small child. The children were a snapshot of what people needed to become to receive the kingdom. They needed to drop their social pretensions and what it meant to be important by the standards of the world and embrace the freedom that was reality of the life of the kingdom of God. They needed to let go of the bananas and pull their hand out of the jar.

We should note that some have misused this verse to argue for the salvation of babies but this cannot be the case based on a simple reading of this passage. Babies cannot repent (Acts 2:38), choose to die to themselves at baptism (Rom. 6:1-4; Gal. 2:20) or have faith (Heb. 11:6). Thus, it is obvious based on Jesus’ own words here that he was using babies and small children as an example and saying that people must receive the kingdom in a manner “like” a child who has no social expectations, he was not teaching that babies themselves can enter into the life of Christ.

Luke then transitions into another question of what it will require of people to enter into the kingdom. The question that the rich young ruler asked of Jesus needs a bit of explaining. He was not, as we tend to imagine in our time, asking what it would take for him to know that when he died one day he would go to heaven. The phrase that is translated “eternal life,” more appropriately means “the life of the age to come.” The age to come was the time when Jews believed that God would come and restore his once very good creation to its original intent (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21; Rom. 8:19-25). This would be the time of the resurrection, when God would bring heaven and earth together as one and he will dwell with his people forever (Eph. 1:10; Rev. 21:1-5).

The young man, then, wanted to know what he must do to be numbered among God’s people, those who were “worthy” of being included in the inheritance of that age. It seems, at every turn, though, that this young man thought rather well of himself. He began by calling Jesus the “good teacher,” a compliment that would have expected a reciprocating compliment in return. Jesus broke protocol, though, by not playing that game. Why call a teacher good when only God is good? Either this man needed to change his definition of “good” or he needed to realize that the one he was talking to was far greater than just the teacher that he imagined him to be.

If he wanted to receive the life of the coming age then the first point had to do with his diligence in holding to the five commandments that dealt with the relations between others in the community. How had he treated the people of God? The young man, no doubt, relished that question and felt that he had observed those commands without flaw. Surely, he expected the teacher to declare that the inheritance of eternal life was in his grasp and to receive a commendation from the teacher.

Yet, Jesus did not play into his hands and instead pointed out that he lacked one thing. The tension mounts here and we wonder how this young man will handle a challenge from the teacher that he has just called “good.” The expectation would have been that he would listen to and embrace whatever the “good” teacher pointed out. Jesus’ challenge was stiff and to the point. There was one thing that he was clinging to. It was his wealth and more particularly, his self-focus with that wealth. Would he be willing to sell all of his possessions and share with God’s people that were in need, the people that he was so proud of following commands that concerned them? Would he be willing to put the values of heaven, the place where God’s will is done perfectly (Matt. 6:10) ahead of the values of the present age? Would he put the welfare of the people of God ahead of his own personal status?

The response of the young man was decisive and seemingly final as he walked away. Jesus was making available right now the age of the life to come that he claimed to want. Surely it would come fully one day, but Jesus’ people needed to die to themselves and give up their grasp on the present age so that they could begin to grab hold of the eternal life right now (1 Tim. 6:12). But he couldn’t really be seeking the life of the coming age if he wouldn’t let go of the markers of the old one. He couldn’t give up his possessions. He just would not accept what Jesus was saying as a child would.

Jesus knew that there wasn’t anything inherently wrong with being rich but that those who are rich tend to be so shackled to the values of the present age that it would be easier for one of the largest of animals known at the time, the camel, to walk though the eye of a needle (some biblical commentators have claimed a quite fanciful tale of there being a gate at the Temple called the “Needle’s Eye” that travelers would have to pass through but those stories, as fascinating as they might be, are not based on historical fact). The statement would have been jarring to Jesus’ disciples that were thoroughly immersed in the Jewish view that wealth was a sign of God’s favor. Those who were wealthy, powerful, and important must have obviously, in their eyes, been accepted by God as special and worthy of blessing. Jesus blew a hole in that in a few short words. Salvation and being part of God’s family wasn’t about worldly signs of wealth or even clinging to the commandments. It was God alone who could provide salvation through the life of Christ.

If the wealthy weren’t automatically shown to be among God’s people, then who was? What did it mean to give up everything? Would the disciples pass that standard? This is why Peter throws out the statement that he does in verse 28. They had left everything to follow Jesus. They had left their families, their jobs, their status, and everything else. Was that enough? Jesus confirmed that it was. They had been willing to let go of the bananas of their family identity and status to mark them out as God’s people where the rich man would not let go of his banana. In giving up the things of the present age, including their family solidarity, they would not fail to be part of God’s new family and be blessed with many more spiritual mothers, brothers, and sisters. This would be the new family that would define their status as the people of God. They would be required to let go of everything, all of their bananas, but they would not fail to receive many more times that in God’s family in the present age (as the life of the age to come would break through into the present age through God’s kingdom people) and in the age to come.

This passage reminds us that we must let go of our grasp on the things of this age, whatever they may be, and give up everything to follow Jesus. Paul’s words put it succinctly and should continue to challenge us to ask if we have really given up everything to follow him: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).



Devotional Thought
Are there any bananas that you are still clinging to that keep your from fully embracing the life of the eternal age that God wants for his people? Will you listen to the Spirit’s prompting as he urges you to release your grip or will you be more like the rich young man and continue to cling to things of this age?