Mat 19:23 Truly I tell you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Alternative version: Truly I tell you, That wealth is hard to satisfy by entering into the kingdom of heaven.

The more I study Christ's words, the more clearly I see that Christ does not use the term "kingdom of heaven" to refer to the afterlife. I discuss the meaning of kingdom of heaven in much more depth here, and if you look at everything Christ says about it (which I list), it cannot describe the afterlife.

What Christ is saying here is that a rich person cannot enter into the state of perceiving the hidden order of the universal rule. The rich, more than anyone else, are distracted by the "real" world because they have so much involved in it. As Christ says clearly in Mat 6:21, your heart (symbol for relationships) is where your treasue is. Those who have worldly treasure are more strongly tied to the material world.

This connects to the previous discussion of marriage again because a serious committment to a family is a similar barrier. However, as Christ assures us both earlier in the chapter, neither marriage nor wealth is a complete barrier to understanding the real order of things because God is always there to help.

On a personal note, as one who is both very happily married and financially comfortable, I need
God's help more than most in writing these posts.

"Rich man" is from plousios, which means "rich," and "opulent." It very much has the sense of ostentatiously rich.

"Can hardly" is from duskolos, which means "hard to satisfy with food," "hard to please," and "difficult to explain."

"Enter" is from eiserchomai, which means both "to go into," "to come in," "to enter," "to enter an office," "to enter a charge," (as in court) and "to come into one's mind."