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?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour your father and mother.'” And he said to Him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 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.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
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!” 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! It is easier for a camel go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
Mark 10:17-27
The man asks a silly question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He obviously doesn’t understand how inheritances work. No one does anything to receive an inheritance! A son receives his father’s inheritance not because he’s done anything to deserve it, but simply because he’s his father’s son. In other words, it’s because of who he is—his relationship to his father—that he receives his father’s blessing. And when Jesus tells him he still lacks one thing from the Law and he goes away despondent because he loves his possessions so much, he still doesn’t get it. Neither do the disciples.
It is not only difficult for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God; it is impossible! It is as impossible as a camel going through the eye of a needle! So then, the disciples asked, “Who can be saved?” And Jesus answers, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” A camel cannot make itself go through the eye of a needle; that’s absurd and impossible. Just so, a rich man—indeed, any man—cannot save himself by keeping the Law. But if God so desired, He could make a camel go through the eye of a needle. He’s that powerful. Just so, only God can save a man, rich or no. And Peter still doesn’t get it, for he says, “Look at us! We’ve left everything and followed you!” (v. 28). Oh Peter, you have not done a single thing to inherit eternal life because you cannot. Only God can give you eternal life.
C.S. Lewis has an excellent understanding of this text:
Christ said, “Blessed are the poor” and “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom,” and no doubt He primarily meant the economically rich and economically poor. But do not His words also apply to another kind of riches and poverty? One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give and so fail to realize your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God. Now quite plainly, natural gifts carry with them a similar danger. If you have sound nerves and intelligence and health and popularity and a good upbringing, you are likely to be quite satisfied with your character as it is. “Why drag God into it?” you may ask. A certain level of good conduct comes fairly easily to you. You are not one of those wretched creatures who are always being tripped up by sex, or dipsomania, or nervousness, or bad temper. Everyone says you are a nice chap and (between ourselves) you agree with them. You are quite likely to believe that all this niceness is your own doing: and you may easily not feel the need for any better kind of goodness. Often people who have all these natural kinds of goodness cannot be brought to recognize their need for Christ at all until, one day, all the natural goodness lets them down and their self-satisfaction is shattered. In other words, it is hard for those who are “rich” in this sense to enter the Kingdom.
It is very difficult for the nasty people—the little, the low, timid, warped, thin-blooded, lonely people, or the passionate, sensual, unbalanced people. If they make any attempt at goodness at all, they learn, in double quick time, that they need help. It is Christ or nothing for them. It is taking up the cross and following Him—or else despair. They are the lost sheep; He came specially to find them. They are (in one very real and terrible sense) the “poor”: He blessed them. They are the “awful set” he goes about with—and of course the Pharisees say still, as they said from the first, “IF there were anything in Christianity those people would not be Christians.”
quoted in Schumacher, 373-374
Thus, since the poor in spirit are blessed since “theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3), one must become poor if they are to receive the rich inheritance of eternal life through Christ our Saviour. If rich in money, perhaps they need a hard lesson in financial loss to recognise their utter need for Christ, or at the very least a loss in pride. Then, if God makes them rich in money again, they can better steward their resources to help those in need and support their local church, the Body of Christ. If rich in pride, perhaps a harsh lesson in humility to become poor in spirit and thus recognise they cannot do anything without Christ, and that He is Lord rather than themselves. Then, if God makes them rich in reputation, they can use their position and privileges to serve their lowly neighbour and exalt him or her just as God has exalted them from humble estate (Luke 1:52).
For that is the way of the kingdom: God does the impossible. A rich man—whether in money or pride—cannot save himself, so God humbles them and makes them poor in spirit to give them His inheritance of eternal life. A poor man—whether in money or in despair—already knows they cannot do anything of their own volition, so God exalts them to the great estate to inherit the Earth (Matthew 5:5).
Bibliography
Schumacher, Frederick J., and Dorothy A Zelenko. For All the Saints: A Prayer Book For and By the Church. Vol. I, Year 1: Advent to the Day of Pentecost. Delhi, NY: The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 2003.
The Lutheran Column 