"Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich
to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
This is not what the disciples were expecting to hear, to the extent that they were "greatly astonished". They expected the rich to be in a privileged place to enter the Kingdom, blessed with the resources to enable such an entrance. But Jesus told them that these riches were not really resources but rather encumbrances. They probably remembered Solomon, he who was son of David, during whose rule Israel flourished with worldly wealth. They still seemed to be thinking of the Kingdom about which Jesus spoke as though it were on the same terms as an earthly kingdom like that of Solomon, and as if Jesus himself was only another son of David like Solomon, destined to lead Israel to freedom and prosperity. But although there was some continuity with this earthly kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of heaven that Jesus came to announce and inaugurate was on an earthly paradigm.
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.
A needle is made for a thread whereas a camel passing through creates a comical image. Those who are attached to their wealth, like the rich young ruler, find themselves with great difficulty when presented with the narrow way of the Kingdom. The Kingdom calls for us to make a precise and directed commitment of our lives but riches make us too concerned with a myriad of other things and pull us in too many different directions toward too many other options to be able to successfully thread this needle. This is an important meditation for us, since our modern world is more well-to-do by far than the world of the Gospels. Our wealth is no doubt greater even than that of the rich young ruler. If that wealth made him to be a camel surely ours has made us elephants.
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said,
"Who then can be saved?"
Though we are rich we may yet learn to become poor in spirit. We may yet learn the secret of being among "those who buy" and yet live "as though they had no goods" and among "those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it" (see First Corinthians 7:30). In short, we can have possessions without them taking possession of us. But we often flatter ourselves to believe that this is possible through our own effort. But Jesus reminds us that for "men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible". If we don't want our 'ego footprint' to balloon well beyond camel scale we must depend on grace. Only grace can so change our relationship to the things of this world that they will no longer hinder us. We can't simply continue to hold our riches and repeat to ourselves that we are not attached to them as though speaking a mantra. We must become genuinely free to follow Jesus. The nicer our couches the hard it is to leave them. But he himself can show us the promise of a much greater reward for those willing to do so.
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.
Jesus can show us that the deepest desires of our hearts can be realized in him alone, and demonstrate that the spiritual rewards he promises can more than outweigh the temporary wealth of this world. But if this is not revealed to us we tend to quickly find ourselves weighted down to the earth but the gravity of wealth and other attachments. May he himself perform the miracle of making us small enough to fit through the eye of the needle so that, on the other side, we may discover a much larger world.
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