Mateo 19

VBL · Chapter 19/28

1Cuando Jesús terminó de hablar se fue de Galilea y se dirigió a la región de Judea, al otro lado del Jordán.

2Grandes multitudes le seguían, y él sanaba a los que allí estaban enfermos.

3Entonces ciertos fariseos vinieron para probarlo. “¿Se le permite a un hombre divorciarse de su esposa por cualquier razón?” le preguntaron.

4Jesús respondió: “¿No han leído que Dios, quien creó a las personas en el principio, los creó hombre y mujer?

5Entonces dijo: ‘Esta es la razón por la cual el hombre se irá de donde su padre y su madre y se unirá a su esposa, y entonces los dos se convertirán en uno’.

6Ahora no son dos, sino uno. Lo que Dios ha unido, nadie debe separarlo”.

7“¿Entonces por qué Moisés entregó una ley que dice que un hombre puede divorciarse de su esposa entregándole un certificado de divorcio escrito y despidiéndola?” le preguntaron.

8“Por la actitud insensible de ustedes, Moisés les permitió divorciarse de sus esposas, pero no era así al comienzo”, respondió Jesús.

9“Les digo que cualquiera que se divorcia de su esposa – a menos que sea por inmoralidad sexual –, y luego se casa con otra mujer, comete adulterio”.

10“¡Si esa es la situación entre el esposo y la esposa, es mejor no casarse!” respondieron sus discípulos.

11“No cualquiera puede aceptar esta instrucción, solo aquellos a quienes se les da”, les dijo Jesús.

12“Algunos nacen siendo eunucos, algunos se vuelven eunucos por causa de otros hombres, y otros deciden ser eunucos por causa del reino de los cielos. Los que aceptan hacerlo, deben aceptar tal enseñanza”.

13Entonces la gente traía niños pequeños delante de él para que los bendijera y orara por ellos. Pero los discípulos les decían que no lo hicieran.

14Pero Jesús dijo: “Dejen que los niños vengan a mi. No se lo impidan. ¡El reino de los cielos pertenece a quienes son como ellos!”

15Entonces él puso sus manos sobre ellos para bendecirlos y luego se fue.

16Un hombre vino a Jesús y le dijo: “Maestro, ¿qué cosas buenas debo hacer para recibir vida eterna?”

17“¿Por qué me preguntas a mi lo que es bueno?” respondió Jesús. “Solo hay uno que es bueno. Pero si quieres tener vida eterna, entonces guarda los mandamientos”.

18“¿Cuáles?” preguntó el hombre.

19honra a tu padre y a tu madre, y ama a tu prójimo como a ti mismo”, respondió Jesús.

20“Yo he guardado todos estos mandamientos”, dijo el joven. “¿Qué más debo hacer?”

21Jesús le dijo: “Si quieres ser perfecto, entonces ve y vende todas tus posesiones, da el dinero a los pobres, y tendrás tesoro en el cielo. Entonces ven y sígueme”.

22Cuando el joven escuchó la respuesta de Jesús, se fue muy triste, porque tenía muchas posesiones.

23“Les digo la verdad”, dijo Jesús a sus discípulos, “a la gente rica se le hace difícil entrar al reino de los cielos.

24También les digo esto: es más fácil que un camello pase a través del ojo de una aguja que un rico entre al reino de los cielos”.

25Cuando los discípulos oyeron esto, se sorprendieron, y preguntaron: “¿Quién puede salvarse entonces?”

26Jesús los miró y dijo: “Desde un punto de vista humano, es imposible, pero con Dios todas las cosas son posibles”.

27Pedro le respondió: “Mira, hemos dejado todo y te hemos seguido. ¿Qué recompensa tendremos?”

28Jesús respondió: “Les digo la verdad: cuando todo sea hecho de nuevo y el Hijo del hombre se siente en su trono glorioso, ustedes que me han seguido también se sentarán en tronos, y serán jueces de las doce tribus de Israel.

29Todos los que dejan su hogar, a sus hermanos, a sus hermanas, a sus padres, a sus madres, a sus hijos y sus campos por mi causa, recibirán cien veces más y recibirán la vida eterna.

30Porque muchos que son los primeros serán dejados de ultimo, y muchos que son los últimos, serán los primeros.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jesus teaches about marriage and divorce, blesses the children brought to him, and a rich young man walks away sad upon hearing that he should sell all he has to follow him, prompting Jesus to comment on how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.

Explanation

The question about divorce was a live debate among rabbinic schools of the time, which disagreed over which grounds justified a man divorcing his wife; Jesus goes beyond the law of Moses and points back to God's original design at creation, a lasting union between a man and a woman. The episode with the children again shows Jesus valuing those society regarded as unimportant, correcting his own disciples who tried to keep them away. The rich young man illustrates how wealth can become a silent obstacle to total surrender to God, even when a person otherwise appears morally upright. Jesus's reply — that with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible — keeps the story from becoming a simple condemnation of wealth, pointing instead to the need for divine grace for anyone's salvation.

Fun facts

  • The expression 'a camel through the eye of a needle' is often misunderstood; some try to soften it by linking it to a supposed narrow gate in Jerusalem, but there is no historical evidence for such a gate — it is a deliberate exaggeration, a device common in Jesus's teaching style.
  • The term 'eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake' refers to people who choose to live without marriage in order to devote themselves entirely to spiritual mission, a theme the apostle Paul later takes up in his letters.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Mateo 19:1Closes the fourth great discourse in the Gospel, on community and forgiveness, and marks Jesus’ final departure from Galilee toward Judea — the start of the final journey that ends in Jerusalem.
  2. Mateo 19:2Large crowds following Jesus even outside Galilee show that His fame had already spread to other regions of Jewish territory.
  3. Mateo 19:3At the time, there were two rival rabbinic schools debating this exact point: one said a husband could only divorce for infidelity, the other said any reason was enough. The Pharisees are trying to get Jesus to pick a side in a dispute that already existed among themselves.
  4. Mateo 19:4Jesus answers by citing the account of creation in Genesis, pointing to God’s original design — man and woman created from the beginning — even before addressing the specific question of divorce.
  5. Mateo 19:5Continues the quote from Genesis, this time about marriage forming a new unit (‘one flesh’), an argument Jesus uses to question how casually divorce was treated at the time.
  6. Mateo 19:6Jesus’ conclusion, that what God has joined together man should not separate, shifts the focus of the discussion from when divorce is permitted to the original intention of permanence in marriage.
  7. Mateo 19:7The ‘writing of divorcement’ was a formal document required by the law of Moses so that a man separating from his wife would put in writing that she was free to remarry — a legal protection for her, not an easy permission for him. Jesus answers that this law was a concession to people’s reality, not the original plan for how marriage was meant to work.
  8. Mateo 19:8Jesus explains that Moses’ permission for divorce was a practical concession to the hardness of the human heart, not God’s original ideal — a distinction between permissive law and initial design.
  9. Mateo 19:9The exception for ‘fornication’ was one of the most debated points among the rabbinic schools of the time — Jesus takes a more restrictive position than the common debate over valid grounds for divorce.
  10. Mateo 19:10The disciples’ reaction, that it would be better not to marry at all, shows how radical and demanding the standard Jesus presents sounded by the customs of the time.
  11. Mateo 19:11Jesus acknowledges that the proposal that follows, about giving up marriage, isn’t for everyone — it’s a specific calling, not a universal rule.
  12. Mateo 19:12Jesus speaks figuratively about people who choose to give up marriage to devote themselves entirely to their mission, not about literal mutilation. It’s a jarring comparison drawn on purpose, using a real condition of the time — there were eunuchs from birth and eunuchs made so by others, usually to serve in royal courts — to describe a voluntary choice.
  13. Mateo 19:13The disciples rebuke those bringing the children, probably because they saw them as unimportant enough to take up a teacher’s time — an attitude Jesus corrects directly in the next verse.
  14. Mateo 19:14Jesus reverses the disciples’ attitude, directly linking children to the kingdom of heaven — an echo of the teaching already given in chapter 18 about humility and status.
  15. Mateo 19:15Laying on of hands was a common gesture of blessing in Jewish culture — Jesus performs this simple act before continuing on His journey, without making a bigger spectacle of it.
  16. Mateo 19:16Calling Jesus ‘Good Master’ was a polite title, but the question ‘what good thing shall I do’ reveals a mindset of earning eternal life through specific actions, something Jesus is about to challenge in the conversation that follows.
  17. Mateo 19:17Jesus questions the use of the word ‘good’ applied to Himself before reserving that title for God alone — an answer that also sets up the test of sincerity that follows, about keeping the commandments.
  18. Mateo 19:18The commandments Jesus cites come from the second part of the Ten Commandments, the ones dealing with relationships between people, not the direct relationship with God.
  19. Mateo 19:19Ends the list of commandments with ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,’ from Leviticus — the same principle Jesus had already called central elsewhere in the Gospel.
  20. Mateo 19:20The young man’s claim to have already kept all these since his youth, while still asking what he lacks, suggests an awareness that obeying the law, by itself, hadn’t given him the certainty he was looking for.
  21. Mateo 19:21‘If thou wilt be perfect’ proposes a step beyond simple obedience to the commandments: giving up his own wealth reveals where the young man’s true priority actually lay.
  22. Mateo 19:22The young man’s wealth, which seemed like a sign of blessing by the common thinking of the time, turns out to be the very obstacle keeping him from accepting Jesus’ invitation.
  23. Mateo 19:23Jesus generalizes the specific episode of the rich young man into a broader statement about how hard it is for wealth and entry into the kingdom to go together — an idea that contradicted the common view that prosperity was a sign of divine approval.
  24. Mateo 19:24There’s no historical evidence of a ‘narrow gate called the needle’ in Jerusalem, as is sometimes told to soften the phrase — that’s a later legend, with no basis in the ancient texts. The comparison is literal and deliberately impossible: the largest common animal in the region trying to pass through the smallest possible hole.
  25. Mateo 19:25The disciples’ surprised reaction reflects exactly this common mindset of the time, that wealth was seen as a blessing and a spiritual advantage, not an obstacle.
  26. Mateo 19:26Jesus’ answer shifts the possibility of salvation from human effort to God’s action — even what seems impossible, including the salvation of someone rich and attached to possessions, is within God’s reach.
  27. Mateo 19:27Peter contrasts the disciples’ own group, who gave up everything, with the rich young man who has just walked away sad — a direct question about what reward to expect for that choice.
  28. Mateo 19:28‘Regeneration’ describes the final renewal of all things expected at the end of the age — the promise of thrones for the twelve disciples to judge the tribes of Israel ties that future reward directly to the faithfulness shown now.
  29. Mateo 19:29The promise of receiving ‘an hundredfold’ in return for giving up family and possessions for Jesus’ sake contrasts directly with the rich young man at the start of the chapter, who couldn’t make that same trade.
  30. Mateo 19:30‘First’ and ‘last’ refer to the expected social order — whoever had more status, wealth, or time spent in religious devotion was seen as ‘first’ in line. Jesus says that order is about to be scrambled, and the parable that comes right after, about the workers in the vineyard, is the example He gives to explain the statement.

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