After
his encounter with the “Rich Young Ruler” (Mark 10:17-31), Jesus
said, “It is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle that for a
rich man to
enter the kingdom of God!” (verse 25).
When
we
came to that part, I asked the Bible study class how they had
heard this verse
explained. One man raised
his hand and
said, “Apparently, there used to be a gate in the wall of
Jerusalem and it was
called ‘The Needle’s Eye’. It
was so
small that a camel had to get down on its knees and crawl through
it. It could get in, but
it was really difficult”. Several
people nodded their heads in
agreement. They had heard
the same
explanation. Of course, I
had too.
There
is
only one problem: It is
not true! It is a
complete lie! No such gate
ever existed!
Why, then, would
almost everyone
in the room know that story? More
to the
point, why would the church teach something that is untrue?
Could
it be that we are looking for a way around what Jesus said?
The point of the
gate story is
that the camel can get into the city if he humbles himself, lowers
himself and
crawls in. The application
then is that,
with some effort, a rich man can keep his stuff and enter the
kingdom without
ever having to chose one or the other.
However, Jesus’
point is the exact
opposite! He says that if
you want to
love God and money at the same time, you are in big trouble. You would have better luck
pushing a camel
through a needle’s eye. Jesus
is not saying
that it is hard. He is
saying that it is
impossible!
After hearing this,
the disciples
were amazed (Mark 10:26). Other
versions
describe them as indignant, upset, or exasperated. They clearly understood that
there was no
loophole here. The choice
was going to
be love God or love money, but not both.
Now, it is worth
noting that this
conversation was motivated by love (verse 21).
Jesus challenged the young man to loosen his grip on
material things, so
that he could reach for eternal riches.
If he could become a “cheerful giver”, he would bless
others instead of
just himself and, in that way, he would begin to reflect the very
nature of God. In fact, he
would be participating in God’s
work and helping to draw others to Christ and the kingdom (see 2
Corinthians
9:6-14).
We can try to
side-step the
truth. We can make up
stories about
camels and gates. We can
make a big deal
about the fact that Jesus did not tell everyone to “sell
everything you have
and give to the poor”. We
can point out
that this was one command to one specific person. If we try hard enough, we can
negate this
teaching, and the self-examination that goes with it.
However, Jesus also
said, “No one
can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the
other, or you
will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve
both God and
money” (Luke 16:13).
That passage is
uncomfortably clear!
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