Was Jesus kidding? “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Come on, what does that mean? Certainly Jesus is speaking in metaphors, certainly Jesus is exaggerating, certainly Jesus means something else…..
In the city of Jerusalem there was supposed to be a very small gate in the city wall, large enough for a human to walk through, but not a camel. Apparently to get a camel through the gate, a camel would have to be unloaded, pushed through on its knees, and then loaded back up on the other side. The gate was known as the Eye of the Needle.
How many here have heard that explanation before? Fascinating explanation, but there is not a word of truth to it. A gate called Eye of the Needle has never been found in the wall surrounding the city of Jerusalem. The reason being, the gate called Eye of the Needle simply never existed.
We read a passage like this in the Bible and it seems fairly straight forward until we come to a verse like verse 25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And we say, “Wait that can’t be right, it is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” Exactly. Jesus says what he means and means what he says.
Two old friends met one day after many years. One was very ambitious, and now was very successful. The other and never had much ambition to do anything.
The successful one said, "How has everything been going with you?"
"Well, one day I opened the Bible at random, and dropped my finger on a word and it was oil. So, I invested in oil, and boy, did the oil wells gush.
Then another day I dropped my finger on another word and it was gold. So, I invested in gold and those mines really produced. Now, I’m as rich as
Rockefeller."
The successful friend was so impressed that he rushed to his hotel, grabbed a Gideon Bible, flipped it open, and dropped his finger on a page.
He opened his eyes and his finger rested on the words, "Chapter Eleven."
So when Mark tells us the man was rich, what does he mean? I mean, how rich, is rich?
I heard the definition of being rich is making five more dollars a year that your sister-in-laws brother….apparently not a funny definition. (no one will laugh)
Rich for us means – more than I have.
For us here today, in terms of the ancient world, we are all rich – no matter how you slice it. In fact we could go a step further today and add your credit score to the mix. The man Jesus dealt with may have had some cash, but he didn’t have access to a Visa or MasterCard. Had did not have the potential buying power we have. When we look at this passage, we are the rich man.
The reason I start with verse 25, is that us as Americans, sometimes that is all we can see in this passage. Chances are, verse 25 was the verse that jumped out at you this morning when it was being read. Now though we focus on the man’s wealth, his wealth is not really his problem. Being rich or being poor is not an indicator of how spiritual you are.
You know there was a old man who was determined to take it with him when he died. He thought long and hard about how he could accomplish this. He had heavily invested in gold and since gold was mentioned in the bible often he figured this was the item that would work the best. According to his will, the gold bars was to be placed in a briefcase, placed upon his chest, with his arms holding the briefcase, while he was laying in the casket. All this was done according to his will.
After he died, he old man found himself in line at the pearly gates briefcase in hand. St Peter saw him holding the briefcase and pulled him out of line saying, “I’m sorry but we cannot allow anything to be brought into heaven, security concerns and all that.” But the man pleaded, he wasn’t any sort of security risk. So Peter relented saying, “Well, maybe this once, let’s see what you have in the briefcase”. So the old man eagerly opened the briefcase reveling the gold bars inside. “What’s this?” exclaimed Peter “You brought pavement!”
Though we may place a high emphasis on wealth, cash is not a problem in heaven.
Understand that this man was not only rich (like us) but he was also religiously competent, Luke, in his gospel, tells us he was a synagogue ruler – a person in charge of the synagogue. Money is really not the main issue here. It is not about being rich or poor, money is just the thing that reveals the real problem. The real issue here is about achieving what we see as spiritual competency, it is about doing so well in our Christianity that, well, we don’t need God’s help so much anymore to be spiritual. Ironic isn’t it? We can do so well in our Christian walk, we depend upon our Christian competencies rather than the Holy Spirit.
Well let’s jump into our Scripture this morning and what we will find is this: Jesus is talking about achievement, how you and I, though we may intellectually know better, fall into the trap of the measurement of religious competence and religious success to reassure ourselves in our salvation. We have achieved some measure of what we see as success and so we imagine ourselves to be competent and reliable; And Jesus would say to us this: You’re achieving….what?
Starting with verse 17. The Hebrew man greets Jesus as, “Good teacher”. Though the Greeks commonly greeted each other in this manner, Jews NEVER spoke to each other in this way. One Jew would never go up to another Jew calling them good. In fact this type of greeting is virtually without parallel in Jewish sources. No Jew did this. It simply is not found in ancient Jewish sources of the day. So Jesus is taken back. What is with this Good Teacher greeting?
Additionally, the man’s question is a bit out of place. He is, as Luke tells us, the ruler of the synagogue and he doesn’t know what he needs to do to inherit eternal life? What is up with that? Take a look at his question there in verse 17. The question he asks implies a standard of pious achievement doesn’t? Really what he wants to know is, has he done enough stuff to inherit eternal life. Just checking. Making sure. I know I’m OK, but just being certain. He undoubtedly regarded himself as good, this is why he calls Jesus good. Certainly he knows that according to any list of religious achievement, he is tops in his community. He’s the man. He sets the standard.
What is Jesus response? In verse 18, He questions the man’s whole spiritual system: Good. Only God is good. In other words, you think you are good? Well, you’re not, only God is good. In fact, it is not about being good. We know it is about knowing God, not being good. Those folks who reassure themselves that they are good people, have no reassurance at all. All our goodness, over an entire lifetime comes to naught, for when we compare ourselves to God, we so lacking, that we are not even seen as good.
Let’s look at it this way. If we place a scale on the wall behind me, with bad being at the bottom and good being at the top, where would you place yourself? We could place Hitler near the bottom, and Billy Graham closer to the top, right? My guess is all of us place ourselves somewhere between those two. I mean, who doesn’t look good next to Hitler? Where would we place God himself? We would place God in the upper atmosphere. See our goodness when compared to each other can look pretty good, but when compared to God, it is rather insignificant.
Now, Jesus, let’s the man know that he is in a position to know better. We see this in verse 19 where Jesus summarizes the commandments. Jesus knows what is up. The man’s idea of spirituality is achievement, so Jesus baits him with an area that the man has been successful in – the commandments. The man’s impulsive reply indicates he has made the law the norm in his life and was confident that he had fulfilled the demands perfectly – but his question indicates there is a false sense of security. He knows instinctively that there has to be more. Doing religious stuff is just not enough.
His reference to keeping the law since he was a boy, is a reference to 12th birthday, when he as a Jew would become accountable before God. So the man realizes that he is not perfect, but still, he thinks he is a good man. You can see the exasperation in his reply to Jesus in verse 20. Why is that? He needs to do. He needs to accomplish. He knows his bible well. He is up on his theology. He knows what is right and what is wrong, what is moral and immoral, what is godly and ungodly….but he knows that Jesus has got something that he doesn’t – WHAT IS IT?
Here Jesus hits him with the zinger: Verse 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him.
“One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
This is not to be regarded as a general prescription for life, but a statement for this man’s particular situation, as if selling everything can secure salvation. See, this man sees security in spiritual achievement. By Jesus asking him to do this, to give up his wealth, He shows his achievement was helpless in security. He shows that it is not what you do, but who you know.
By the way, scribal legislation prohibited the giving away of all of ones possessions because it would reduce a man to poverty, and so Jesus places the man into a catch 22. If the man sells everything he breaks the scribal law, violating his code of achievement, if the man doesn’t sell everything he violates Jesus challenge. With his religious system in shambles (verse 22), the man walks away.
Notice, amazingly, Jesus does not call him back to explain further. He doesn’t take the man aside and show him his error. The man has made his choice and Jesus lets him go. Is all lost? Is this man lost forever? “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” says Jesus. Then comes that statement about the camel and the needle (from verse 25). We have already seen that this is a statement to be taken literally. A camel cannot make it through the eye of a needle.
The disciples are shocked, in verse 26, “Who then can be saved?” See they saw this man, perhaps knew him, and from everything that the saw he was a better man than they were and even more, he was blessed materially. See, the concept of merit accumulation through good works which was presupposed in Jesus day. The Jewish culture of Jesus day saw that the blessings of wealth indicated favor with God. The wealth was after all a blessing, why would God not be pleased with someone he blessed. It just makes sense….and Jesus is turning that viewpoint on it’s head.
Jumping to verse 28. The disciples don’t seem to get it. 28 Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!” So Peter is really asking, what reward are we getting, because we have left everything just like you told this man to do. I guess Peter wasn’t listening. It is not about stuff what you have or what you do not have. Now Jesus reassures Peter that he really hasn’t lost anything, but still, this is not about stuff.
A man had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. He could receive little company and was to avoid excitement. While in the hospital a rich uncle died and left him several million dollars. His family wondered how to break the news to him with the least amount of excitement so no harm would come to him.
It was decided to ask the preacher if he would go and break the news quietly to the man. The preacher gradually led up to the question. The preacher asked the patient what he would do if he inherited a million dollars. He said, “I think I would give half of it to the church.” The preacher dropped dead.
Let’s place our finger on verse 27. “With man this is impossible, but not with God;
all things are possible with God.” So this man, no matter how good he is cannot be save can he? Why is that? We saw that we just don’t measure up do we? Whether we are the best possible people or just underachievers, isn’t the issue is it? In fact in verse 31 Jesus just messes up our whole value system as humans saying, ‘But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Jesus is referring to the man who just walked away. He was surely viewed as first spiritually in his community – because of the value placed upon him by society. But before God he would be placed last because he placed his emphasis on spiritual competence rather than spiritual relationship.
This is a great danger for us also. I think this is something many of us need to stop and look at in our lives. Do we rely on our abilities? Do we rely on our ability to do spiritual things? Do we see ourselves as spiritual because we are biblically competent – we know our stuff. Or are we, in spite of all of our spiritual growth, looking to the Holy Spirit over our own wisdom?
Will you pray with me?
