Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich
to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
There have been wealthy saints, saints who were able to follow Jesus and use their wealth in his service. But they have been decidedly the minority. The trouble is that, although money is not the root of all evil, love of money is (see First Timothy 6:10). The trick is to have money without loving it, which is less easy than it sounds. When we have money we have to contend with a voice whispering to us about all the problems money can solve and all of the pleasure it can afford us. The more we become convinced of its power the less and less we are able to do without it. It comes to dominate our attention and begins to fills us with anxiety. It comes to rule us rather than we it.
The temptation with money is that it really does often seem like a more effective solution than something more spiritual. This leads to pursue the apparent efficiency of using money to solve problems without subordinating it to spiritual values. And yet, there need not be an either/or in this regard. There can instead be a hierarchy of values, with the spiritual at the top and money relegated to a mere means rather than an end in itself. We must work at this, for when money becomes our primary end we end up hurting other people and feeling empty ourselves. Some goal may in fact be achieved, but may often trample over human lives in the process.
Again I say to you,
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.
To enter into the holy city of the Kingdom of God we will need to be willing to hold our possessions and our wealth loosely. If we cling to them to tightly it will make us too encumbered to enter. Our small acts of giving are in fact a practice of this, getting used to holding this things of this world lightly, and embracing those things that last.
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said,
“Who then can be saved?”
That is, if people with earthly blessings, those who seem the greatest can't be saved, then who can? Jesus came to upend these traditional assumptions. He said that many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. The world's success criteria are not in fact the criteria of Kingdom success where the lowest and the least become the greatest. This means that success often looks more like little acts of love than the great successes of governments or corporations.
“We have given up everything and followed you.
What will there be for us?”
Peter wanted to know what it was all about if they weren't in fact working for a world according to the old paradigm of wealth and success. For a moment he wasn't sure what would motivate such an endeavor. The explanation of Jesus revealed that both success and wealth had different definitions in the Kingdom. There was real spiritual treasure to be had, that could be had by even the very poor. This was true even before Jesus returned in glory to set all things right, to bring justice for all those who suffered in all of history.
Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you
that you who have followed me, in the new age,
when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory,
will yourselves sit on twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
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.
The battle to stay free from the love of money is a real battle. Fortunately, the angel assures us that the LORD is with us to help us against this Midianite army. We may doubt. After all, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us?" Yet all that the LORD has thus far permitted was only so that his own glory may now be all the more manifest in us.
Thereupon a fire came up from the rock
that consumed the meat and unleavened cakes,
and the angel of the LORD disappeared from sight.
Gideon, now aware that it had been the angel of the LORD,
said, “Alas, Lord GOD,
that I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”
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