More thought on a camel and the needle eye

First of all I hesitate quoting almost any scripture out of context. Yet I seem to do it a lot. I really think the camel through the eye of the needle thing must be viewed in context with all of Mark 10: 17-31. This story of the rich young man is also told by Matthew in 19: 16-30 and by Luke in 18: 18-30.

I especially like Mark's version because he is the only one to note "Jesus looked at him and loved him."

So does this story mean that most rich people are not getting into heaven?

You betcha!

Just kidding. Here is what I think is going on in this story. This rich young man has a lot of earthly possessions and he wants eternal life too. Maybe he thinks all his stuff can go with him.

Anyway, he goes to Jesus and makes the big ask. And notice how Jesus first asks the asker a question ( Jesus does this a lot to people ). "Why do you call me good? Jesus tells this man no one is good except God alone. It's as if Jesus knew the dialog about keeping the commandments and this guys claim to have kept them was coming. ( Umm..........he did ).

I think it's pretty neat how Jesus basically warns this guy not to claim to be good. But the guy totally misses it. He claims to have kept since boyhood all the commandments.

Jesus obviously could have challenged the guy on this. Jesus could have produced a seriously long list of all the times this guy DID NOT keep these commandments. With dates and times and places duly noted. Instead Jesus tells him to sell it all, give it away, and follow Him.

And I wish this story had a better ending for this rich young man. I wish the next thing this story talked about was the impact this guys money had on the world. Instead it says this man "went away sad, because he had great wealth." Well I bet Jesus went away sad too.

This is key to the story because it precedes Jesus talking to his disciples about how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. And Jesus then makes the camel through the eye of the needle comment. Not because this rich guy couldn't get in. But because this guy valued his wealth more than God. And this young man got to a point in his life where God challenged him on what mattered most.

So as we learned in the last post from the global rich list:

Bad News: You and I are rich

Worse News: I still have not found any teeny,tiny camels.

Good News: Jesus did not say the gate to his kingdom was closed. He said it was narrow.

I wonder what's beyond those gates.