Why Do You Ask Me?

Matthew 19:17 - And he said to the man, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one who is good. But, if you would have life, keep the commandments."

Matthew buries the lede here. There's a lot going on so it's understandable. Trying to get to the deep story, I think to do Jesus justice, we need to play around with stressing words in his question. "Why do you ask ME ..." is different than "WHY do you ask ..." Stressing the 'why' might make Jesus look angry or irritated. However, I think he is responding to the man's unexpressed need. The man discusses a solution, Jesus asks for the reason. In other words, he may be saying, "Dude, I really think you need to ask yourself why you would ask me this.

Stressing the 'me' underscores this point - Not just why the man is asking but also why he chose Jesus. Lastly, stressing 'good' underscores Jesus humanity in apposition to his divinity. This is evidenced in the following sentence - there is only one who is good. I think it's safe to say that Jesus is challenging the man to consider what he's asking, why he's asking, why he chose Jesus, and why he thought Jesus would know about the 'good'.

Possible responses: He thought Jesus would affirm him and say he needn't do anything. He might have really wanted to know. Maybe he realized something was missing in his life. Or he wanted to show Jesus and his followers that he was his equal or even wanted to test him. Of course, we don't know because no answer is recorded.

The first possibility is most in line with the nature of the question. I think he wanted Jesus to say he was good to go. Jesus is not about affirming out bullshit stories. He's about challenging his followers (including us) to repent - turn around - and change our lives. For every question we ask, Jesus asks a probing question in return - always getting us to look not to Jesus to perform a miracle or give an answer, but rather to our own lives. Thus his question is or may be the most salient point in the pericope. Challenging the man to look into his own heart and see where it might need cleaning up, mending, breaking.
B - written before the events of Aug 12, 2017 and not updated.