The Hard Saying: Mark 10:21

One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

This article is part of a series explaining the sayings of Jesus that are hard to understand. This list was put together by the Lord's Library. To see the list an access earlier articles, go to this page.

• Rediscovering Jesus's Words is a reader-supported publication, but between now and Christmas, all new posts will be free to everyone. To receive new posts in email and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Jesus has just welcomed those bringing their children to him after rebuking his followers for stopping them. He then said that they must all accept the realm of the Divine like a little child, (an article about a similar verse is here).

After this, a young man came and knelt to him and asked how he could inherit eternal life. Jesus said to follow the commandments. The young man said that he did. The gospel then says that Jesus looked at him, cared about him, and said the following from Mark 10:21:

NIV: One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

The words in boldface are those that are discussed in this article.

First, we should notice something odd about this story. Before that young man said that he followed the commandments, all he had to do to be saved was obey Moses’ laws. Only after he says that he did obey them, making Jesus cared for him, does Jesus give him the higher standard: selling what he has and following him. The unavoidable implication is that if he had been a law breaker, all that was required for was to reform. Because he is virtuous, Jesus gives him a higher standard: giving up everything, his property and his sense of virtue.

Lacking One Thing?

The first sentence doesn’t really say anything about what this young man lacks. The subject of this sentence isn’t even the “you,” referring to the young man himself. The “you” is the object of the verb. The subject is the Greek word that means “one” in a form that refers to a “thing.” The verb means “fails,” “lags behind,” or “fall behind.” What Jesus said is that one thing fails that the young man is doing or not doing.

The “fail” verb also means "lag behind," which plays with the "follow" as the end of the verse. We cannot “follow” when we lag too far behind. The fact that this is the first verb of the sentence sets up this meaning, which is not be apparent until the last word, which is the basic “setup” and “punchline” elements of humor.

Everything You Have?

In the translation, Jesus then instructs this man to “sell everything,” but, once more, the source Greek doesn’t say that, at least not directly. First, the word translated as “sell” meant something different then than it does now. It could mean “sell for money,” and, because the proceeds are given to the poor, could, but its primary meaning was to “exchange” or “barter” something. At the time, most of what we call “doing business” was an exchange of products. It is not like the man could exchange his property for anything he could distribute to beggars. The whole point of this verse is that Jesus is recommending an exchange for this man, an exchange of values and an exchange of life style. This explains why the already virtuous man was given a tougher challenge. He must make a sacrifice. He must make an “exchange” to inherit eternal life.

Then we have the word translated as “everything.” The Greek word means "as much as." It is not the Greek word, "all," that means "everything." The “as much as” is a comparative word. The sense is that he must sell as much as he can. We don’t know if he owned a lot of land being farmed or merchandise in warehouses, but in either case too many people in his family, his household, and his businesses would depend upon him. However, one other thing he has is his sense of virtue from simply obeying the law.

The verb translated as “you have” is applied to both what the man has to sell in the present tense and what he gets in exchange in the future tense. The Greek word we translate as “have” is used differently than our English word, “have.” The Greek word means “have,” “hold,” and “possess,” but it also means “have charge of,” “maintain,” and “keep safe.” The “as much as” is not only the stuff he owns but the stuff he has the responsibility for keeping safe. The sense is not only that this man is giving up property, but that he is giving up one kind of responsibility.

The exchange is one of priorities. Instead of maximizing his property, his goal should be exchanging property for things to give the poor: clothing, food, perhaps shelter. However, he isn’t trading away his responsibility for others. He is expanding it. Another priority is humbling himself: not seeing his virtue, but seeing what more he can do.

Treasure in Heaven

The word translated as "treasure" means a "store," that is, a store of value. The Greek word is the root for the English word, thesaurus, a store of words. It can mean "treasury," but it can also mean a "granary," a “strong room,” or a "cavern," and "subterranean dungeon." The general sense is a stock of resources that are put away for the future. This man is being advised to exchange today’s worldly possessions for future resources in “heaven.”

The word translated as "heaven" means simply the "sky," but it can also mean the "universe." Jesus used it to indicate the plane of higher existence. It also meant the home of the gods in a physical sense for pagans: the sun, moon, and planets were named for the gods. More about this word in this article. Most of Jesus’s referrals to “heaven” are in the plural with an article, “the skies,” but this word is the singular noun without an article before it, “in a sky.” The sense is that there are many “skies” or “sky realms” but that our resources are only in one of them.

Jesus’s concept of “heaven” usually involves are reversal of conditions on earth. That is the situation here. When we give to the lowest, the beggars, what we get in return is resources in the highest, “a sky.”

Come, Follow

The Greek word translated as "come" doesn’t mean that either. It is unrelated to the verb commonly translated as “come”” in the Bible. This word is not a verb at all. It is an adverb meaning "here." It can be used like a command, the way we call, “Here!” to summon a dog. This is the same word that Jesus uses to summon Lazarus from the grave. Jesus is telling this young man where to follow him, “here.” We might assume that he pointed behind him to make his meaning clear.

"Follow" is a Greek verb that means "to follow," and "to go with." It also means "to be guided by" and “following” a leader as a disciple. “Follow me” is the punchline, the last two words in this verse. This verse starts with the verb whose primary meaning is “fail” and "fall behind." The sense is that if we don’t follow the right things, we will fall behind or that what we follow can be what holds us back. This man followed his property and his law-abiding level virtue. He grieved at exploring a new, unknown path, giving them up. This fact held him and prevented him from following Jesus.

What did this young man hear Jesus say?

One thing fails you. Depart, sell as much as you have, and give it to the beggars, and you will have treasure in a sky. And here! Follow me.