Mark 10:23-26 “Looking around, Jesus said to his disciples, “It will be very hard for the wealthy to enter God’s kingdom!” His words startled the disciples, so Jesus told them again, “Children, it’s difficult to enter God’s kingdom! It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.” They were shocked even more and said to each other, “Then who can be saved?”
After the encounter Jesus had with the rich man, the disciples have questions. I think we all would have questions too. I would also guess that we would be just as shocked when Jesus says it’s difficult for the wealthy to enter God’s Kingdom. What does it take?
Jesus told the rich man his possessions we basically his god and was holding on to them too tightly. Now we see Him saying it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven.
This is an interesting remark. The camel and needle was also an ancient saying that many people at that time probably would have known. But, what is Jesus saying? I have a hard enough time trying to thread sewing thread through the eye of a sewing needle. This is our terminology today. There is also a gate that is referred to as the “eye of a needle” that a camel certainly would not have been able to pass through. This was a gate that a person would have to bow in order to enter.
Jesus is saying that someone going through that gate standing tall (prideful, arrogance, etc) would not be able to enter because they wouldn’t humble themselves to bow down to enter the gate.
This is, I believe, what Jesus is talking about here; making sure we are humble enough to acknowledge the One God in humility and place no other Gods before Him.
Our challenge is to see how we can be humble each day and enter into God’s Kingdom, God’s grace, God’s Light today and each day following. Doing this does not make us weak, or even less people. Instead we get to live in the Light of Christ and reflect His light to others to move them into the Kingdom. Humility is a great thing!
What does Jesus say next? That’s tomorrow 🙂
R Y A N S T R A T T O N 