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Yeshua and the rich young man (also called Jesus and the rich ruler) is an episode in the life of Jesus in the New Testament that deals with eternal life and the World to Come. It appears in the Gospel of Matthew 19:16–30, the Gospel of Mark 10:17–31 and the Gospel of Luke 18:18–30. It relates to the Evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience.
In Matthew, a rich young man asks Jesus what actions bring eternal life. First Jesus advises the man to obey the commandments. When the man responds that he already observes them, and asks what else he can do, Jesus adds:
If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.
Luke has a similar episode and states that:
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God / Indeed, 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."
The disciples then ask Jesus who then can be saved, and Jesus replies: "What is impossible with men is possible with God."
This parable relates the term eternal life to entry into the Kingdom of God. The parable starts by a question to Jesus about "eternal life" and Jesus then refers to entry into the "Kingdom of God" in the same context. To avoid conflict with the Christian doctrine that states that salvation is "by grace through faith" (Ephesians 2:8-9) dispensational theologians distinguish between the Gospel of the Kingdom, which is being taught here, and the Gospel of Grace, which is taught in dispensational churches today.
A non-dispensationalist view of Christ's response to the man's question on inheriting eternal life is to understand that Jesus knew that there would be none who could do a good enough work to merit such a gift as eternal life (Romans 3:12), but for the benefit of all who would eventually read this scripture he described the repentant believer's first steps of faith. While simply obeying commandments and selling your riches will certainly yield nothing by itself, the important phrase comes as the end of Jesus' recommendations: "come, follow me." (Luke 18:22, KJV) Thus, grace is the invitation to follow, and faith is the ingredient which compels a man to forsake all earthly cares in pursuit of the "author of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5:9, KJV).
The Rich young man was the context in which Pope John Paul II brought out the Christian moral law in chapter 1 of Veritatis Splendor.
A historical understanding of the times in which Jesus lived leads to a greater understanding of his sayings. In Old Jerusalem, there was a small gate called the "Needle's Eye," which was part of the much larger gate through which people and animals, such as load carrying camels, entered the great city during the day. At night, the larger gate was closed, but entry could still be gained through the much smaller Needle's Eye. For a camel, loaded with goods and possessions, to make it through this smaller gate, it would have to be unloaded of all that it carried. It would also have to get down on its knees and crawl through the gate. Thus, for a camel to literally go through the Needle's Eye, it would have to cast off all its worldly goods and possessions and adopt the posture of supplication to enter the Holy City.
Whilst the above may sound a reasonable explanation, it does not accord with what Jesus said. Rather than saying it is difficult or hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God, Jesus's disciples understood that he was saying it was impossible, when they said, "Who then can be saved?" His response, "With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible." confirms they have understood what he was saying correctly. The idea of a camel going through a small gate, albeit first having its load taken off, speaks about hardness and difficulty, not impossibility.
While Jesus's instructions to the rich young ruler are often interpreted to be supererogatory for Christians, Dietrich Bonhoeffer argues that this interpretation acquiesces in what he calls "cheap grace," lowering the standard of Christian teaching:
The difference between ourselves and the rich young man is that he was not allowed to solace his regrets by saying: "Never mind what Jesus says, I can still hold on to my riches, but in a spirit of inner detachment. Despite my inadequacy I can take comfort in the thought that God has forgiven me my sins and can have fellowship with Christ in faith." But no, he went away sorrowful. Because he would not obey, he could not believe. In this the young man was quite honest. He went away from Jesus and indeed this honesty had more promise than any apparent communion with Jesus based on disobedience.