#43 Through the Eye of a Needle (or Jesus Tells a Joke!)
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
April 18, 2021
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 12:13-21
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 10:17.
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – One time a man was sent to prison, so he was getting to know his new cellmate. Suddenly, down the hallway, someone yelled “42” after which prisoners from one end to the other burst out in uncontrollable laughter, including his new cellmate. But he just kept on with the conversation with his cellmate until someone on the other end of the hallway yelled out, “67,” followed again by hysterical laughter through the whole prison hallway.
After a few more times of calling out numbers, resulting in hilarity, he asked his new cellmate, “What’s going on with these numbers and people breaking out laughing?”
His cellmate said, “Well, we’ve all been in prison so long, we’ve heard all the same jokes time and time again, so we gave each one a number and when we hear the number, we remember the joke and laugh at it.”
“Huh,” said the new guy. “Can I try it?”
“Sure” said the old timer.
So the new guy yells out “56,” but all he gets are a few muted chuckles. So he tried a different number, “13,” he yelled, but this time not one person laughed. He looked at his cellmate and asked, “What gives? Nobody’s laughing at my jokes.”
The old prisoner said, “Well, some people can tell a joke and some can’t.”
I love that joke because it’s a joke about telling jokes.
Did you know that on at least one occasion, Jesus told a joke? It was a joke with a purpose to explain why a rich young ruler made a bad decision to turn from Christ and why rich people find it difficult to trust in Christ. This led to a serious discussion about what believers get in return for their sacrifices. Let’s dig in.
I. FIRST, IN VERSES 17-21 JESUS TEACHES THAT GOOD WORKS ARE NOT ENOUGH TO BE SAVED.
Look with me at verse 17 – “And when he had gone forth the way, one came running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’”
Mark simply mentions that “one” came running to Jesus. Matthew says he was YOUNG, and Luke says he was a RULER. All three tell us he was RICH. For these reasons, this man is often referred to as “the Rich Young Ruler.”
Now notice that this young man is very sincere.
• Mark tells us the man came running to Jesus: This suggests that his question had an urgency to it. He HAD to get an answer to his question, revealing that he did not have assurance about his eternal destiny.
• Second, this young man had the right attitude: He knelt before Jesus.
• Last, he addressed Jesus respectfully as “Good Master” or “Good Teacher.”
But notice that the man asked the wrong question. He asked, “What shall I DO to INHERIT eternal life.” His question revealed that he viewed eternal life as something earned by doing good works, the OPPOSITE of an inheritance, which is something bestowed by someone else.
Verse 18 says, “And Jesus said unto him, ‘Why callest thou me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”
By calling Jesus “Good Master,” he did something unheard of among the Jews. Jewish teaching rightly recognized the biblical truth that no one is perfectly good except God, and therefore to ascribe the term “good” to a person was at best questionable and possibly blasphemous.
Did the rich young ruler perceive that Jesus was God?—Probably not, but he definitely looked to Jesus as a great and good teacher, and felt Jesus could resolve the gnawing of his soul about the insecurity of his eternal destiny.
Jesus continued in verse 19 – “Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor thy father and mother.’
Since it was the rich young ruler who brought up goodness, Jesus pointed him to the law, specifically the Ten Commandment—the ultimate standard of what is good. He didn’t quote all 10 of the commandments, but rather, the second table—the last 5 of the 10, the ones that deal with our relationships with others. These are the ones that are more verifiable by OUTWARD ACTIONS, not one’s INNER HEART relationship with God, which cannot be outwardly seen.
How does he respond? – Verse 20 says, “And he answered and said unto him, ‘Master, all these have I observed from my youth.’”
We in the Christian era would be shocked if someone said that. Was this man crazy?—Was he self-delusional?
On this side of the Gospels and the letters to the Romans and the Galatians, few people today would claim they have kept all of God’s commandments, but many Jews believed they could in that day, and many still do today. In their widely recognized work on Judaism, Strack and Billerbeck say, “That a person possessed the ability without exception to fulfill God’s commandments was so firmly rooted in rabbinic teaching, that in all seriousness they spoke of people who had kept the entire Torah from A to Z.”
So the rich young ruler was deadly serious; he truly believed that he had kept all God’s Law perfectly since his bar Mitzvah, the time a son assumed responsibility to keep the Law.
Before coming to Christ, Paul also thought he had kept all of God’s Law, stating in Philippians 3:6 that according to the righteousness of the Law, he had thought he was blameless. But he admitted that he he’d been mistaken, and in several of his letters he states that for one to keep the whole law perfectly was impossible. James says that if we could keep almost all of God’s Law and yet offended in ONE single point, we would stand guilty of transgressing the WHOLE Law.
But Jesus knew this man wasn’t as clean and innocent as he thought he was. – Look at verse 21 – “Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, and take up the cross and follow me.’”
The first part of the verse says—“Jesus, BEHOLDING him….” The word “beholding” in the Greek is an intensified compound of the normal word for “look” and therefore means “to look at intently.” It’s the same word employed in Luke 22, when Peter denied the Lord 3 times, and Luke says, “The Lord turned and LOOKED at Peter… and he [Peter] went outside and wept bitterly” (vs. 61-62). Jesus’ look in Mark refers to a look of discernment; a look of deep penetration; a looking inside the very heart of a person.
So Jesus’ intense gaze on this young man must have been disconcerting. Jesus knew exactly what his problem was, and He knew exactly what he needed to do to be in a place that he could inherit eternal life.
And as He was looking at him so penetratingly, Mark tells us that Jesus loved him! Isn’t that beautiful? Despite his self-righteousness and the sins we’ll look at shortly, Jesus still loved him.
But what Jesus told him to do is a surprising answer Maybe this man HAD done a pretty good job at keeping God’s commandments; maybe in his eyes and in the eyes of others, he was good.
But Jesus revealed to this man two commandments he had not kept:
When you look at the list of commandments Jesus gave in verse 19, that He left out one of the commandments in the second table of the Decalogue.
He mentioned adultery, murder, stealing and bearing false witness. Strangely, He left out the 10th commandment, “You shall not covet,” and ADDED, “Do not defraud.”
Wait…“‘Do not defraud’ is not one of the 10 Commandments.” It is if God the Son says it is!
Here again Jesus may have been exercising a prerogative of God—the authority to make an 11th command if He wanted to. But more likely, He was making the 10th commandment—you shall not covet—applicable to this man’s personal situation.
How did this man get to be rich? Did Jesus know something about him no one else knew about? Had he, with a covetous heart, defrauded others to attain his wealth? Might this be the explanation for his insecurity about his eternal destiny? If so, he was guilty of the whole Law like any other sinner.
But there was another commandment this man clearly had transgressed. He had transgressed the first one: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” True, he most certainly would never have bowed down to an idol, but false gods are not always visible, tangible things.
A “god” is anything that takes the place of THE God in our lives,…anything that competes with God for our love and devotion. All through the scriptures we’re commanded to put away all false gods, whether they be literal wooden or stone idols, or the intangible idols of position or power or possessions or a person or a passion IF it becomes first place in your life before God.
So this young man may have been good in comparison to others, but in comparison to God’s laws—God’s standard of righteousness—he was guilty before God as a covetous defrauder and an idolator!
God will NOT save those who do not forsake all other gods in their lives. Whatever you worship, whatever is first place in your life, whatever competes with God must be abandoned and forsaken in order to inherit eternal life.
By the way, Jesus was not teaching that salvation was earned by the works we do. He was saying the opposite in fact: that being good was NOT ENOUGH. He was saying that this man’s sincere and heroic efforts to keep the Law was certainly commendable, but they were insufficient to inherit eternal life. There was one problem he had: He had a god in his life…the god of materialism, and he could not be saved until he abandoned that false god for the true God.
Nor was Jesus teaching that we must all do what he required of this man. He was saying that WHATEVER competing god you have in your life must be jettisoned to be able to receive God’s grace. You only need to sell your riches if riches have become the god of your life.
This is the only person in the Gospels Jesus tells to sell all and give all to the poor. Nicodemas and Joseph of Arimathea were both wealthy, but Jesus never told them to sell everything and give it to the poor. In the book of Acts and all the letters of the New Testament, no one is ever commanded to do this, and many wealthy people advanced God’s kingdom. What Jesus is teaching is we must come to God with empty hands, rather than claiming any goodness or worthiness on our part to earn our salvation.
What was this man’s response? – Let’s see in verse 22 – “And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.”
He proved what was his real god, no matter what his outward good works showed. Jesus knew His heart, and sadly, this man had a greater love for his possessions than he had for God and eternal life. So great was his love for this false god that he was willing to forfeit eternal life to hold on to his money and possessions in this life. What a sad and tragic mistake: He made the wrong decision.
II. IN VERSES 23-27, JESUS TEACHES THE DANGER OF RICHES.
Verses 23-24 say, “And Jesus looked round about, and said to his disciples, ‘How hard shall they who have riches enter the kingdom of God!’ 24 And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again, and said unto them, ‘Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!”
In verse 23, when the rich young ruler walked away, Jesus turned His penetrating gaze to the disciples and said something that BLEW THEIR MINDS! – “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’” They were astonished when Jesus said this. To drive this point home, in the rest of verse 24, Jesus repeated what Had just said, but this time He explained why it was hard for those with riches to enter into God’s kingdom.
The problem is that people who are rich “trust in” their riches. When you’re poor and needy, it’s easier to trust in God; but if you’re rich in money and property, it’s much easier to trust in those things than God.
But why were the disciples so astonished when Jesus said this? The rabbis instilled a malicious misunderstanding about poverty and wealth. The Old Testament promised Israelites that if they obeyed God’s Law, they would be blessed by God, but blessings were not always material. The rabbis taught a first century version of the “prosperity gospel” so that in the popular mind, since this man was rich, he must have been good.
It’s at this juncture that Jesus tells a joke—a camel joke no less. – Look at verse 25 – “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’” This was a well-known Jewish hyperbolic proverb used to depict the impossible.
Some have tried to water down Jesus’ teaching, claiming that there was a low gate in Jerusalem known as the Camel’s Gate that camels had to bend to their knees to get through. The only problem with that is that there’s not an iota of historical or archeological evidence of such a gate. Furthermore, who would go to the trouble: they could take their camels to another of 8 gates into Jerusalem. The Camel’s Gate idea appears to be a late invention to soften Jesus’ clear meaning: Namely, that it is IMPOSSIBLE for a rich person to be saved.
Have you ever tried to get a rope through the eye of a needle? It’s hard enough to get a piece of thread through the eye of a needle. Jesus was saying that for a rich man, like the rich young ruler, to enter God’s kingdom is just as impossible as threading the eye of a needle with a camel.
But you may be thinking, “Obviously rich people have been saved, and many of have used their wealth in remarkable ways to advance the kingdom of God.”
You wouldn’t be the only one puzzled by Jesus’s remark: Look at verse 26 – “And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, ‘Who then can be saved?’”
The phrase “astonished out of measure” in the Greek means, “astounded, struck out of their senses, overwhelmed.” The disciples were carrying Jesus’ words to its logical conclusion: If God blesses the best people with riches, and THEY cannot be saved, then who in the name of heaven CAN be saved, for crying out loud?
This is EXACTLY where Jesus is leading His disciples; it’s the PRECISE conclusion He wants them to come to. If the “BEST” cannot be saved, who can be?
Jesus answers their question in verse 27 – “And Jesus looking upon them said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.’”
In other words, NONE of us can save ourselves, but GOD can! If we want to inherit eternal life, we cannot rely on ourselves. Our good is not good enough; our law-keeping falls short. Eternal life cannot be earned or bought; it is a GIFT from God. We must receive salvation as a free gift like the children did when they came in simple faith in in Mark 10:15-16, which we looked at before our Easter series.
It’s the only way any of us can ever get into heaven. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God—not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
And this is true of every one of us, whether we be [USE AIR QUOTES] “good” sinners, like the rich young ruler or “wicked” sinners, like the thief on the cross. Salvation is a miraculous work of God in the heart of sinners. With God, ALL things are possible.
III. LAST, IN VERSES 28-31 JESUS TEACHES US THAT THOSE WHO SACRIFICE FOR HIM WILL BE RICHLY COMPENSATED.
Verse 28 – “Then Peter began to say unto him, ‘Lo [or literally, “see”], we have left all and followed thee.”
Peter is often the spokesman for the disciples, so he speaks up. You can’t help but see a little bit of self-commendation here. In contrast to the rich young ruler who had everything and would not sacrifice it to follow Jesus, the disciples HAD given up everything to follow Him.
Jesus recognizes their sacrifices and gives them a promise and a warning in verses 29-30 – “And Jesus answered and said, ‘Verily I say unto you, There is no one who has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, 30 But he shall receive a hundred times now in this present age: houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.”
I like Jesus’ math here. He doesn’t say we’ll be rewarded double or even ten-fold, but a HUNDRED-fold. Though Jesus said His followers might encounter a break with old ties, like home, loved ones, or property, these physical losses will be replaced a hundred times over with a spiritual family and homes, ALBEIT with persecutions at times, BUT in the age to come, with eternal life.
Then Jesus warns Peter not to boast about all their sacrifices and sufferings in following Him, for verse 31 says, “But many who are first will be last; and the last first.”
CONCLUSION
What can we take away from this story for our lives personally? I have just two quick applications to our lives: one to the saved and one to the lost:
First, for you who are believers, be thankful for the things you have in Christ, not thinking of the sacrifices you make for Him.
When Jesus said we “will receive a hundred times now in this present age: houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions,” He was talking about the spiritual brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands that we have in the family of God. I love my family members, but honestly, I have more in common with my SPIRITUAL family members than my lost PHYSICAL family members. My family in Christ is such a blessing in times of trouble.
Jesus did not sugarcoat it: After listing all these spiritual things we have in the family of God, He tacks on “persecutions.” But it’s almost at the END of the list; it’s an afterthought. It’s as if to say, “Yes, your lot may include persecution, but look at the blessings of the people of God in this vast entity called the Church!” Suffering and persecution and opposition are bearable with Christ and your brothers and sisters in Christ! And of course, no matter what you suffer here on this earth, we have the hope of eternal life when there will be no more suffering, no more persecution or opposition, no more tribulation.
My second takeaway is this: If you have not trusted in Christ as your Savior, is there something standing in your way that keeps you from coming to Him?
Whatever that is, THAT is what you must forsake to come to Jesus. Is it an immoral relationship, a love of money, an insatiable thirst for recognition and power, an unwillingness to disappoint someone in your life, a sinful behavior like drunkenness? You must topple whatever god that is in your life and come to Jesus with empty hands.
If you do that, you’ll ever regret it! Down through the years, I’ve never met anyone who regretted giving his or her life to Jesus Christ, no matter what sacrifices they had to make to follow Jesus.
Do you, like the rich young ruler, have a gnawing feeling that something is missing? The Apostle Paul was one of the most righteous and religious men of his day. He said in Philippians 3 that he had been properly circumcised as God’s Law commanded, was from the right tribe, was a fervent keeper of God’s Law and extremely zealous. In other words, he checked all the boxes of being “good.”
But he lacked one thing: CHRIST. He said that what had been gain to him, he counted as loss. He gave it all up for what? He answers that question in Philippians 3:10 – “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” That I may know HIM. Do you know Jesus?—I invite you to accept Him into your life today.
