NOTES for Mar 10:17-31
The question of possessions in Christian history has periodically become central, if not for all Christians, then for many. People appeared who claimed that a Christian not only can but must necessarily be poor, completely and absolutely poor, or else he will have to forget about salvation and the Kingdom.
Some of the stories told by the evangelists really can lead to such thoughts, especially at first glance. Yet Jesus Himself was not utterly destitute: in the community of disciples that He led there was a common purse, mentioned in one way or another in all four Gospels. It is true that Judas Iscariot managed that purse, which has undoubtedly served in every age as an additional argument for supporters of complete and absolute poverty.
Yet the apostles themselves reacted to the Savior's words about the difficulty of salvation for a rich person, and they reacted as if they were all rich. If the issue had been material wealth, money, or possessions in general, they would have had nothing to worry about; but clearly the disciples understood that the Teacher meant something more. Still, the young man who spoke with Jesus was materially rich, but the issue was not material wealth as such. Jesus simply answers the question that was asked: what do I lack for the Kingdom? This is exactly what the young man asks Jesus, expecting an answer like the one learned rabbis and teachers of the Torah often gave at that time.
He thought that, like them, Jesus would offer him some special means: a prayer, for example, or a special ascetic exercise, or some secret connected with observing the norms and rules of ritual purity; in short, something that would allow him to enter the Kingdom. He did not expect the simple answer about the commandments: "I have kept all these from my youth." Nothing special; most observant Jews could have said that about themselves. But the young man is looking for something specifically special; he wants to receive the key to the Kingdom, and he is searching for it by going from one spiritual teacher to another.
Jesus, however, can offer him only one thing: complete poverty. Not poverty in the literal sense, but poverty as readiness to give up what one considers one's own. In the Kingdom no one has anything of his own. Each person uses everything he needs, but does not claim as his own what he uses. He does not cling to it with his heart, which remains free. This task is harder than the complete renunciation of possessions, and this time the disciples understood their Teacher perfectly. Such poverty is not so much a human matter as a divine one, which is what Jesus tells them.