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23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard 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 someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” ~ Mark 10:23-27
Today, we return to our study of Mark 10 where the Rich Young Ruler just walked away from the Lord Jesus with sadness in his heart because the Lord Jesus had just challenged him to stop trusting in his riches. Sadly, the fact that the man first came to the Lord proclaiming he lacked something proved his wealth was not fulfilling him. More sadly, when the Lord Jesus challenged him, he could not let go of the grip that his wealth had on him and he walked away from the only One who could fulfill him.
In v.23 of today's passage we read, "Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!'"
Affluence can create in us a mindfulness for secondary values. Rich people tend not to be worried about from where their next meal will come. Rather, they tend to be concerned about how the food will taste. Rich people tend not to be concerned about whether they will have a roof over their head and clothing to wear, they tend to be concerned with fashion and style and decor. Riches tend to transfer our concern from the necessary things of life to the secondary things of life. This destroys the simple nature to our personal relationship with God.
Some translate the Lord to have said, "It is impossible for a rich person to get into heaven." This is not a good translation of this sentence. Rather, the Lord Jesus literally said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" And, due to the fact that it is harder, the Lord Jesus highlights a few dangers that wealth and affluence can bring into our walk with Him. Most think that the wealthy are overprivileged, but, I say they are wrong. In fact, in reality, the wealthy are underprivileged. They are more likely deprived of deeper intimacy with the Lord, because it is the deeper struggles in life coupled with in-depth interaction with Him through His Word that we are afforded the possibility of deeper intimacy with Him.
In v.24-25 of today's passage we read, "24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, 'Children, how hard 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 someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.'"
In Luke's account of this story, Luke used the Greek word which means "the eye of a surgeon's needle." So, the Lord Jesus was not referring to a literal four foot gate that camels could not enter through in Jerusalem as some have suggested. Nevertheless, the illustration serves a good understanding of what the Lord Jesus was teaching that day. Wealth can hinder ones advancement toward God as it did in the case with the Rich Young Ruler. Wealth is a gift from God, but not a sign of membership into God’s family.
In v.26-27 of today's passage we read, "26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, 'Who then can be saved?' 27 Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.'"
The disciples found this so difficult to wrap their brains around because they were raised in a Jewish culture which taught them to believe that if somebody has wealth, it is because God has greatly blessed them due to their righteousness. But, what is a human impossibility is a divine certainty, because salvation is a free gift from God.
It is not our devotion to God that saves us. When we stop depending on ourselves and our resources, we open ourselves up to the wonderful grace of God. And, His grace is the greatest change agent this world has ever known. However, it is not the change that grace brings about in us that makes us right with God. It is only the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary that bridges that enormous gap that man's sin created between us and God.
Finally, God is the only One who can make us fully what we cannot become on our own: children who enter into a personal relationship with Him and are learning to trust Him daily. When we enter into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, He will move us to the point of abandoning our understanding of how life should work apart from Him. When we have done that, we will not only get our relationship with God right, but also our relationships with others, as well.
