“Eyeing the Needle”
Text: Mark 10: 17-31 Esv
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" 20 And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth." 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"
24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him,"Then who can be saved?"
27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." 28 Peter began to say to him, "See, we have left everything and followed you." 29 Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first."†
beyond the jordan
Jesus and the Disciples are on the far side of the Jordan. A man comes running up to Jesus, kneels before him, and calls him “good” teacher. These are three things most self-respecting Jews of the day would not do. Grown men don’t run—only servants or children. To kneel before another person was to give them too much worship. And Jesus counters the man by questioning the address: “Why do you call me ‘good’”?
This man is clearly reverent, clearly humble, and he recognizes and honors Jesus.
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?
Notice: he doesn’t ask what he must do to earn eternal life, but to inherit, or receive it.
Jesus asks him what is commanded, and he runs through the short list. Then it says something lovely:
“Jesus loved him.”
Jesus says You’re doing great, but your missing something—one thing:
“Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Jesus doesn’t tell him to give all the money to the poor; he just says, “Give to the poor.” The invitation is to transform his life into one that serves the gospel. He is even invited to become one of the Disciples. But he walks away disheartened, because of his wealth.
Jesus follows by twice saying how difficult it is for those with wealth to enter the kingdom. Easier to put a camel through the eye of a needle. There is no symbolism here. This is not about one of the gates in the walls of Jerusalem—just a striking, unforgettable image. Easier to put a 1500-pound camel—the largest native animal they knew—through the eye of an needle.
As we “eye the needle” together today, we’re going to consider what makes it so hard to get one with wealth into God’s kingdom, and we’re going to see what are chances are of getting through ourselves.
Wealth and the heart
Most people would like to be wealthy. For those without faith, the here and now is all there is; therefore, what is the good of life? Getting all you can, as soon as possible, and keeping it for as long as you can. If this life is all there is, there is no hope beyond this life; and if there is no hope beyond this life, then what is fulfillment?
For many, it is a balancing act between taking all you can while managing your necessary relationships—family, marriage, partnerships, etc.
If this life is all there is, it seems to me that people are perfectly justified in pursuing their goals with total aggression—campaigning, protesting, rioting and revolting—in order to get all they can in the short time they have, on whatever terms that will work for them.
The problem with those who have wealth is not the wealth itself, but the place it occupies in their heart and soul. Jesus says:
“Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
Note that he does not say the opposite:
“Where your heart isthere will be your treasure also.” (NOT Jesus)
Locate your treasure and your heart will be found. In brief, your treasure is the thing which fills your heart.
Let’s be clear: Jesus is not making an indictment specifically against rich people, as we’ll see. Are only rich people greedy? No, I think we know that poor people can be greedy as well. It’s possible for rich people to be generous (as Jesus asks the man to be) and for people with nothing to be selfish.
The message of Christ isn’t about reversing privilege, creating entitlements, or economic justice in the big sense. His indictment is against the distracted and the worldly; specifically, those whose hearts are filled with the things the world supplies. That is wealth.
heart-soul-wallet
This is a security neck pouch; it’s popular with travelers to dangerous areas. The way it works is that you wear it around your neck and under your shirt. Inside their are several zip pockets and the whole wallet folds up flat to avoid detection. You put your valuables into it—passport, cash, travelers’ checks, credit cards—to keep them safe from pickpockets and street bandits.
Now I’d like us to think about heart and soul as this kind of wallet. This is our heart-soul. We all have one. It is invisible to the world but we know it’s there. You and I have the free will to put into it whatever we choose (not even the real item, let’s say, but just the name of it on a little slip of paper, like from a fortune cookie). Imagine the things one could put on a slip of paper—just the words:
FAMEDESIRESRESPECT
POWERREWARDSPRESTIGE
HOUSESINFLUENCE etc.
You and I are free to add slips of paper or to take them out. We can have lots of notes stuffed into every little pocket, and even divide up the notes according to different aspects of our life: treasures at work, treasures at home, treasures yet to be acquired, and treasures lost but not forgotten.
Our text from Mark calls the contents of the wallet wealth, but money is only one kind of wealth, because it’s only one of many things we can put in our heart-soul-wallet. Anything we put into that wallet is our wealth. Your wealth is whatever you put in that wallet.
I think most people in the world don’t have much money in there. One’s wealth can be anything.
- Family
- Children and/or grandchildren
- A person one is obsessed with
- One’s “gang,” me and my besties
- My people, OUR people
- Nationalism (collective self-love)
- Me, Me, Me
Whatever we put into that heart-soul-wallet is our wealth. Not surprisingly, it can fill up pretty quickly. Before long, it can become overpacked, overstuffed, disorganized, and the major source of fear and anxiety to balance.
The problem is that we become emotionally attached to some of those things. We can’t imagine life without them—the very thought is truly frightening to us. Our attachments to the things on the notes in our heart-soul-wallet are part of who we are. But these same attachments are the very source of most of our fears and anxieties. We think, I absolutely cannot lose this slip or that one!
genies and eternal wishes
In all those stories about Aladdin, genies, or magical fish that grant wishes, we are presented with that proverbial question: If you had three wishes, what would you wish for? Before thinking about it for long, I think we tend to defer to those cleverer answers involving wishing for more wishes. The third wish is always something like three more wishes.
Don’t we long for something similar with our wallets—some kind of third wish scheme that keeps us from overloading and running out of room? Well, there is.
The problem with our heart-soul-wallets is all the stuff we’re putting into them. We are seeking to save ourselves and losing ourselves in the process. Whatever we put inside—money, people, things, anything—competes for space against Christ.
Jesus knows what needs to be in there. To the man in the story he says, “You lack one thing.”
One Thing Missing
The Man was rich, privileged, powerful, righteous, respected, respectful, blessed, and humble. He acknowledged Jesus and honored him. Put these together and you have a pretty decent picture of what many Christians seek to build as their ideal Christianity.
Jesus word to him is also his word to all who would be all these things:
“You lack one thing.”
He may say that to you and me as well. No matter how well we think we have our act together, we are still inept, inadequate, and incomplete. As long as we are managing the heart-soul-wallet, we will lack the one thing.
If Jesus is to be Lord and Savior—if we are to trust in him—we have to turn over the entire wallet, heart and soul. Anything less is walking away disappointed because of our wealth.
Jesus says, “Hand me your wallet, full of its well-balanced and well managed notes.”
Jesus will write the notes from now on. He writes one to put inside:
The Way the Magic Works
The magic only works when we empty our hearts—when there is nothing else there to compete against the Lord for space. It only works when the wallet is handed over in entirety to Jesus to manage.
All those slips—every one of them—must be taken out and offered to him. Only then can we trust that he is really Lord, really in charge, really Master and King. Only then will the magic work, for whatever we attach to takes up space in our heart-soul.
The “one thing” the man in our text was lacking was lordship—perspective and detachment. He had many possessions, and held them in his heart. He had a lot of very good (and probably very well-organized) slips in his wallet, but he couldn’t part with them. He couldn’t be bothered. He couldn’t be disrupted now that he had his life together.
The problem with wealth—whatever its content—is that our attachments to it create a lordship of their own. We choose what slips to put into our wallets, but then we become servants to our treasures.
The saddest thing about this story is that this was a good guy whom Jesus loved and personally called to be his disciple who walked away because his heart was already full.
Jesus Transforms Religion
Notice: the Disciples are amazed (one of Mark’s favorite words) when they first hear that it is hard for one like this man to enter God’s Kingdom. When Jesus talks about the camel, they are “exceedingly amazed,” but why? What is it about the Disciples that made them so sure this guy ought to be one of the elect? Let’s look at the list of his qualifications:
RichPrivilegedPowerfulRighteous
RespectedRespectfulBlessed Humble
What is more:
He acknowledged Jesus.
He honored Jesus.
This man was the ideal religious Jew. He had his act all together. The Disciples marvel at the idea that this guy—a reverent, obedient, blessed man—might not enter the kingdom of God.
Within the short space of this narrative, Jesus does something extraordinary and world-changing. He takes religion out of the hands of humanity and places it entirely into the hand of the Father.
"With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God."
No longer is religion or faith a matter of what we do, but only of what God does. In this short space, Jesus transforms all of human religion from something we do for God to something God does for us!
Religion, by itself, is useless, worthless. Only an act of God on our behalf matters. It requires an act of God to get that camel through the eye of the needle. Because we have our wallets, we are all camels.
Jesus Transforms Wealth
It is not enough that we have a dedicated, Christian wallet pocket among our other pockets. It is not enough that we have our wallet stuffed with Christian notes. We must turn over the entire wallet to God. We must give it to him in entirety and allow him to manage it.
This is not about economic justice, but simply allowing Jesus the control of our resources. God is willing to multiply our treasures a hundredfold—beyond our imagining—but only when we let him put it to use. Treasures hidden away are the buried talents of the “wicked and lazy” servant from the parable.
A wealthy woman from Lubbock, Texas (whose grandfather had donated all the land for Texas Tech University) put it perfectly:
“Money is like manure: it ain’t worth nothin’ unless you spread it around.”
Jesus wants to make the magic happen for you and me, even as he fulfills God’s will for the world.
What about Your Wallet?
So there it is; it is up to us. What shall you and I do with our wallets? What shall we put in them? What is on that slip of paper? Do we prefer anxiety, fear, and complication of soul over discipleship?
Our richness, our wealth, is ultimately not a matter of what we do with our wallets; it is a matter of what we have and become once we turn over our wallets in entirety to our Lord.
The call to discipleship—that same call that sent the man away disheartened—is presented to you and me here and now.
Our choice: keeping them full of the things of this world and living with the constant anxiety of their management, or emptying them and turning them over to Christ completely.
This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God. †