| “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.” |
| —Mark 10:25 |
“That was the biggest ice cream sundae I’ve ever seen. Why it was as big as a house!”
Have you ever heard someone use hyperbole to describe how greatly important something was. Imagine if you really did have the opportunity to eat an ice cream sundae as big as a house. Could you actually do it? We use hyperbole to make a point. But often that point needs to be made in a way that will startle listeners or readers back to reality. From time to time Jesus did exactly that.
If you’ve read your Bible consistently over the years, you have likely encountered the story that Bible teachers call “The Rich Young Ruler.” That title says it all: he was rich, he was young, and he was a ruler. He had everything going for him that the world had to offer. Let’s pick up the narrative from Mark 10:17-31:
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
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.”
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.”
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
So, for the very definition of his existence—he was rich, he was young, and he was a ruler—this man gave up on an opportunity to follow the King of Kings. Why? Because he could not imagine having a new identity. His identity was rooted in the three things that defined him: wealth, vitality, and power. The key truth from this story is found in Mark 10:25:
“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.”
Over the years, I’ve heard lots of preachers offer an explanation for these words of Jesus. They’ve talked about a narrow outcropping of rocks in the Judean hillsides that makes it very difficult for a man mounted on a camel to traverse. Such a narrow opening was called “the eye of a needle.” But, I’m inclined to let the simple meaning of Jesus’ words suffice: a camel simply can’t pass through the eye of an actual sewing needle in its natural state. Only through some action that reduces the camel to a liquid, or a supernatural action that changes the fundamental nature of that camel, can the camel make it through the tiny opening at the head of a needle.
Is it absolutely impossible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle? No, Jesus didn’t say it was impossible, just very hard. So it is whenever anything that we believe defines us stands in the way of the surrender of our lives to God. As we begin a new day, let’s not allow anything that we think defines who we are get in the way of our relationship with God through His Son, Jesus. Working to avoid any roadblocks in our fellowship with the God who loves us is definitely something that has great advantage and great reward.
Based on a blog originally posted on Monday, October 2, 2017
