It's the "because" word that is most important here. Jesus moved past commands to the heart issue for the young man—he had great wealth and it was what separated him from total loyalty to God. To follow Jesus meant to leave everything behind for the work of the Kingdom, and the young man could not leave this behind. It is easy for us to be trivial with Jesus' demand. We can say, "Wealth was his God, or having many possessions was his problem, but that Jesus doesn't demand we all sell everything we have." This is both correct and dangerous. It is correct in that the observation is true. It is dangerous, because the same barrier holds many of us back from Jesus. Many of us are affluent by world standards, but middle class by our affluent cultures standards. Let's not remove the demand of Jesus too quickly from our hearts. Let's let it linger long enough to see if we would react differently than the young man. Let's be honest about the grip that possessions, wealth, convenience, and power have on us. There was no joy for the rich young man in his decision to keep what he had acquired. There was only sadness: sadness that he had found the Kingdom, but wouldn't pay the price, and sadness that he rejected the Kingdom to keep what he valued most. The real question for me is what do I value most? Do we choose to hold on to it or to follow Jesus?