18:19 none is good. The “rich young ruler” is called “young” only in Matthew 19:22, a “ruler” only here in Luke 18:18, but all three accounts say he had “great possessions” (Matthew 19:22; Mark 10:22; Luke 18:23). He was quite righteous by most legal standards (except for selfishness), but failed to recognize the true nature of Jesus as the Son of God, calling Him “good” only in the sense that he also considered himself “good.”

18:25 needle’s eye. Some commentators suggest that the “needle’s eye” may have been a small gate in the city wall through which a camel could pass only with difficulty. However, Jesus was referring back to the “ruler” who had just asked how “to inherit eternal life” (Luke 18:18), but was unwilling to give up his wealth to follow Jesus (Luke 18:22-23). Just as it would require a great miracle to get a camel through a needle-eye (possibly by removing all the empty spaces in the atomic structure of its body), so it would take a miracle to get a rich ruler saved. He would have to be willing to become poor (note Luke 6:20), and he was not. To be saved, one must come as one who is “dead” in sin, without any reservations or merit of his own. Nevertheless, with God nothing is impossible (Luke 18:27), and God can so miraculously change a man’s heart and life that he becomes a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17). See also notes on Matthew 19:22, 26, and Mark 10:25.

18:33 rise again. It is amazing how often Christ told His disciples plainly of His coming death and resurrection (Luke 9:22; 13:32; etc.), yet they failed to understand (Luke 24:4-8, 25-27, 44-48) until after His resurrection.