Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly
astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:24-26)
There are some who say that “the eye of a needle” refers to
a small gate in the city walls, which would allow a camel to pass through it if
the camel were unloaded of all cargo and basically crawled through on its
knees. The first problem with this is that no such gate existed. The second
problem is that the notion that the wealth had to be removed from its back and
had to humble itself by crawling on its knees still meant that it was possible
for the camel to do of its own power and will.
Even long before the Jews were a nation, Job suffered at the
hands of those who thought that the rich were blessed by God, and the poor were
sinners being punished by Him. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount showed that He
rejected that notion, because the poor own the kingdom, and the meek inherit
the earth, and even in today’s passage, He noted, “…but with God all things are
possible.”
The rich man doesn’t need to give up his wealth, but he does
need to be able to give up his wealth if Jesus asks him to. That’s the problem
with the kingdom of God, we have to choose between it and our idols. No matter
how one might describe someone as “rich” (in terms of money, education, fame,
influence, strength, etc.), it’s only natural to depend on that wealth. When one
does so, they become addicted to it and enslaved by it. It’s only by the grace
of God that one escapes that sort of addiction. Put another way, man can’t
accomplish entrance into the kingdom of God by himself, but the kingdom of God
can’t be entered by someone planning on retaining citizenship in another
kingdom. God doesn't share His place in our hearts.
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