Did Jesus love the rich young ruler?
Okay, I will attempt to answer this in a God honoring way.
First, it should be noted, that this conversation between Jesus and the rich young man, is recorded by three of the Gospel writers. It is not recorded in the book of John. Therefore, we need to compare this verse in all three Gospel accounts:
Mat 19:21
Jesus said unto him, If thou wouldest be perfect, go, sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Mark 10:21
And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Luke 18:22
And when Jesus heard it, he said unto him, One thing thou lackest yet: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
We know two very distinct things about this young rich man:
1) He was
foolish and
arrogant. Foolish, because he thought he could gain Salvation by works of the Law. We know that Salvation is not of works and that God's highest standard cannot be kept by fallen men.
2)
Arrogant, because this young man believed he had kept all 10 of these commandments: Luke 18:21
And he said, All these things have I observed from my youth up. This statement, not only shows his spiritual ignorance but he proves himself to be self-righteous and arrogant.
Only in Mark's account is there a mention of Jesus "
looking upon him, loved him". Therefore, we must ask, why the other two did not record this action by our lord. One thing that can be ascertained, is the Holy Spirit did not inspire the other two to write it down. This could possibly indicate, that it is not a vital piece of information to the point of the conversation. We know, that the point of this conversation, was to prove the young rich man's inability to give up his material possessions, which were great. Thus, he served the god of materialism and not the True God.
In Mark 10:21, Jesus
looked upon the young man and
loved him, after the young man had declared his foolishness and arrogance. This is a clue, as to how we should understand the statement: "loved him".
Let's look at the Greek word used here and see if we can ascertain how it is used. The Greek word is:
ηγαπησεν and comes from the root of the word:
ηγαπαω. Mark uses this word:
ηγαπησεν, only here in verse 21 and no where else in his Gospel writings. It carries the meaning of a physical or emotional gesture. According to Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, he describes it in this way: to love (as to hug or kiss), to wish well, to show pity towards and to have compassion for. These are all things, that we as Christians, should show towards everyone. In as much as lies in us to do. Therefore, this "love" carries the same idea as:
Love thy neighbor as you would have them love you.
The type of love herein, recorded by Mark, should be understood as, Jesus looked upon this young man with
compassion and sincere pity, knowing that this young man
could not do what Jesus was about to say. For Jesus Christ knows what is in the heart of every one.
The young man had an emotional response to what Jesus said: Mar 10:22,
"But his countenance fell at the saying, and he went away sorrowful: for he was one that had great possessions". Therefore, Jesus had comforted this young man before he announced, what He knew the young man could not do.
The Greek word used here by Mark,
could not in this instance, carry the meaning of "
enduring and intimate love" because that kind of "LOVE" is only expressed between the Father and The Son, the angels and God (not including the fallen ones), as well as, between God and His chosen people. To put that kind of meaning onto the Greek word in Mark 10:21, would have to mean: That the young rich man is one of
the sheep but had not yet been "born from above" and was not yet able to hear and understand what the Lord was saying.
Contemplate this without traditional prejudices.