Some things in life are hard because they take great strength and endurance, like climbing a mountain. Other things are hard because they involve heroic “letting go,” like giving up desserts.
Jesus said that getting into God’s Kingdom was hard in the latter sense. In fact, for some, it was nearly impossible (Matthew 19:23-30).
“Amen, I say to you it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”
I have been told that “the needle’s eye” was the name given to a small passage that existed in Jerusalem’s wall. The gate of the city was closed ate dusk, and for anyone who came later they had to use the well-guarded “needle’s eye.” A person could walk easily through this narrow opening, but if he had his camel with him, that became a problem. Leaving his camel behind was one option; the other was unloading the camel and trying to shove it through the opening. Those who tried to get their camel through the “needle’s eye” knew what an ordeal it was—especially if the camel decided to kick and fight back.
Jesus presented this image after watching a rich man chose to keep his wealth rather than follow him. We are told that the man looked sad because he really wanted to part of Jesus’ kingdom; he didn’t have the strength to let go of his “camel.” The more “baggage” we have, the harder it is to let go of it and follow Jesus.
“When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, and said, ‘Who then can be saved?’”
The message shook the disciples. When they saw this good, God-fearing man, who was highly respected in his community turn away, they began to think that no one could meet Kingdom requirements. If this good man could not be saved, who could?
“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’”
We, of ourselves, cannot get through the narrow gate. Maybe we have enough strength to follow Jesus down a rough road, but we do not have the strength to let go of the “riches” that hold us back. Salvation is a move of God’s grace that enables us to do what the rich man could not do—to surrender totally to Jesus.
Peter reminded Jesus that he and the others had given up everything—jobs, bank accounts, possessions—to follow Jesus. Did they qualify for the Kingdom? Jesus then elaborated, including the “riches” of family ties.
“And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life.”
In our natural minds we think that money, houses, and family are keys to happiness. Jesus says that following him brings a level of happiness a hundred times greater than anything a person can experience by natural means.
Knowing the pull that the things of this world have on us, we fall back on Jesus’ words that “nothing is impossible with God.” In our prayer we ask him to set us free from anything—including riches and family ties—that keep us from following Jesus through the “needle’s eye.”
“Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
