A Rich Man, a Camel, and a Needle

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Well, the story we’re going to look at this morning comes from Mark chapter 10, although we find the same story also recorded in Matthew chapter 19 and Luke chapter 18. We’re going to look at the version in Mark chapter 10. Each of these different accounts gives us some important details that help us to understand the overall story.

In all three accounts, a man came to visit Jesus. All three writers portrayed him as a rich man. Now, Matthew adds the detail of describing him as being a young man, while Luke identified him as a Jewish leader.

And so we combine all three of these accounts and their details, and we know of the man as the rich young ruler, even though he’s never called by that full title in any of the stories. Now, if you’ll look with me at Mark chapter 10, It provides us with one of the accounts of his visit to Jesus as he came to ask Jesus a question. And we’ll start in verse 17.

Give me just a second to turn there. Mark 10, verse 17. It says, as he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Now, the way he approached Jesus was unusual in a few different ways. First of all, it was unusual because it was undignified for somebody who was that important. It was undignified for somebody who was in a position of authority like that to run after someone.

That’s why it was so surprising in the story of the prodigal son that the father saw the son from far away and ran to him. You just didn’t do that. So for this ruler to run to Jesus showed some humility toward Jesus.

But in addition to running, he also knelt before Jesus. We might be able to dismiss the running. Maybe he was just in a hurry or something.

But his kneeling was a definite sign of humility before Jesus. So we know right from the very first verse of this story that this was not your typical Jewish leader who was trying to interrogate Jesus or trying to trip him up. We know that this was someone who genuinely respected Jesus and sought to learn from him.

So already we know this is going to be different from most of his interactions with the Pharisees. So he came to ask Jesus a question about the things of God, which was also unusual. See, he was a Jewish authority. And as a Jewish authority, he would have been familiar with the teachings of the rabbis.

He would have known what they said about his question. He would have known that all the wise teachers said the way to find eternal life was to learn and follow the law. But the fact that he went ahead and approached Jesus anyway tells us that that answer was unsatisfactory to him.

That wasn’t enough. He had followed the law, but he still didn’t find himself any closer to God. And finally, it was unusual for him to address Jesus as good teacher.

See, in their culture, good didn’t have quite the same meaning that it has today, that we have in our everyday language. And we use the word good as kind of a blanket that can apply to everyone and everything. I mean, from God on down to a hamburger, you can describe pretty much anything you want as good, right?

Are they good in the same way? I hope not. I hope we don’t think that.

They’re not the same meaning of good. For us, good is a really unspecific term. But for them, the word agathos was more specific.

It applied to things that were genuinely good. Many times in a moral sense of being a moral good. And in that proper sense, it was a term that was often applied to God, not to mere teachers.

Because the rabbis, for all of their problems, they rightly realized that they didn’t deserve to be described with a word that was used to describe God. So you didn’t just go around calling people good teacher. It was a really unusual thing to call Jesus.

And so before Jesus answered the ruler’s question about eternal life, he paused to deal with the issue of goodness first. Now let’s look at verse 18. He said, why do you call me good? Why do you call me good?

Jesus asked him. No one is good except God alone. So before answering the question, Jesus called on the young man to think about the implications of what he had just said.

That’s what he was doing. Occasionally, skeptics and liberal theologians will cite this verse or its parallel verses in Matthew and Luke. They’ll cite those as though Jesus right here denied that he was God.

And right there, they think Jesus said, I’m not God. Why would you call me something that applies to God? But that’s not what was happening.

That’s not what was happening here. Even as a ruler, this man had already humbled himself before Jesus. He’d already humbled himself before Jesus as someone of higher stature than him.

He had approached Jesus recognizing that Jesus had an understanding of the things that God, that exceeded his own understanding, not only his own understanding, but also exceeded the collective wisdom of all the rabbis. and now he was applying descriptions to Jesus that he wouldn’t apply to a normal, ordinary human teacher. And what this tells us, coupled with Jesus’ question, was that this rich young ruler was right on the verge of realizing who Jesus was.

He was just right there, just right on the verge. So Jesus asked this question to nudge him a little bit and to call him to think about what he had just said. Just called me a good teacher.

Think for a minute about what that means. see Jesus was not telling this man not to call him good because he wasn’t God Jesus was not denying that he was God Jesus was telling the man he wouldn’t be calling him good if he weren’t God you understand the difference there said you’re calling me that because you you understand who I am this question was not Jesus way of denying his deity this this question was a way of Jesus gently calling the man to acknowledge him as God he was right on the verge of knowing it And Jesus was calling him to acknowledge it. So while the rich young ruler thought about that, Jesus moved on to address his question, the question he had asked about eternal life.

Matthew 19, 17 says that in the middle here, that Jesus told him, if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Now the rich young ruler asked Jesus which commandments he needed to keep, which ones. And then Mark continues on with the story.

See, it’s important to have all three of their accounts because each of them gives us a little more detail. So Mark continued with the story after that, after the conversation about, well, which commandments do I keep? And according to verse 19 here, he says, You know the commandments.

Jesus said, 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.

And at first, those verses sound like we can maybe get to heaven by being good and keeping the commandments. on the surface they sound like that but we’ll see that Jesus was showing the man he wasn’t telling him keep the commandments and get to heaven he was showing the man that he was incapable of keeping the commandments well enough to earn his way to heaven so look at verse 20 it says looking at him Jesus loved him no I’m sorry that’s verse 21 verse 20 he said to him teacher I have kept all of these from my youth. And Matthew adds that the rich young ruler then asked Jesus, what do I still lack?

He says, okay, commandments, I’ve done that. I’ve done that. What else do I need to do?

See, it was difficult to live in such a way that his outward behavior conformed to the letter of the law, but he’d done it. He’d done it. He’d lived a life that outwardly looked like he’d followed the commandments.

He had never had an affair. He’d never gotten so mad he stabbed somebody in a fit of anger. It appears that he had indeed lived a life free from any kind of scandal, because if he had done any of those things, Jesus would have known and could have easily corrected his claims right there.

If he’d done any of those things and lied about it, Jesus would have said, uh, no, remember that day? But he didn’t. Jesus just went with it.

He didn’t correct it. It appears that the man had kept the law, at least outwardly, but he recognized that there was still something missing. He said, what do I still lack?

There’s still something missing. That’s the whole reason why he’d come to Jesus, why he’d sought out Jesus in the first place. So in his confusion, now wait a minute, I’ve done all the things the law requires and I still lack something.

In his confusion, Jesus had compassion on him. Verse 21, which I started trying to read in the wrong place a minute ago, verse 21 starts by saying, looking at him, Jesus loved him. Looking Jesus did the most loving thing he could do at the moment, reveal the man’s spiritual need, help the man see where his spiritual need really was.

Now, our culture today says it’s hateful. It’s hateful. You hear that word hateful thrown out all the time.

It’s hateful to warn people of the consequences of sin. It’s hateful to show them their need for God. But you know what?

It’s not. It’s not hateful. It needs to be done.

It needs to be done. And we should do it in a way that’s gentle and compassionate like Jesus. Just because I say we need to warn about the consequences of sin, we need to call people to God, I’m not saying we need to do it in a Westboro kind of way and stand out there with giant signs.

It should be done, and it should be done gently and compassionately the same way Jesus did it. He was moved with compassion. Verse 21 doesn’t just tell us that Jesus loved the man.

It shows that he was motivated by that love to help him see his spiritual need. It says, looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, you lack one thing. Oh, wait a minute.

There’s a spiritual need here. There’s something he lacked. And Jesus pointed it out.

You lack one thing. Go sell all you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.

Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all of his possessions, give all the money to the poor, focus his heart on the kingdom, and follow him. Now, this is not the plan of salvation, okay? This is Jesus’ way of getting at the plan of salvation.

This is not the plan of salvation. Jesus’ point was not that selling everything and becoming homeless automatically gets us into heaven, okay? That wasn’t his point here.

Nor was it that possessions automatically keep us out. You might say, well, you’re twisting Jesus’ words. No, I’m not.

Even Jesus’ story of the rich man and Lazarus shows both a wealthy man, Abraham, and a destitute man, Lazarus, in heaven. There will be rich people and poor people in heaven. There will be rich people and poor people in hell.

It’s not the possessions or the lack thereof that does anything with our eternity. Now, hoarding wealth and being greedy are incompatible with Christianity. We may not hear that in a lot of pulpits today, but we need to understand that being greedy and hoarding wealth are not compatible with Christianity.

God entrusts things to us for us to use to take care of ourselves, but also to take care of his kingdom. And we need to remember that balance. But this command was given specifically for this rich young ruler.

This is not, I don’t think this is something Jesus told everybody to go do, to become homeless, because he would have said it to everybody. He told the rich young ruler to go sell all of his stuff and give it to the poor so that he could hold up a mirror to the rich young ruler’s life and help him see the sin in his own heart. If we were in this story, Jesus would have pointed out other things.

There are things that we all hold more tightly than we should. And for this man, it happened to be his money. His problem was not that he had stuff.

It was that he loved his stuff. You understand the difference? There were people who had stuff, who served Jesus with their stuff, who built the kingdom with their stuff.

His problem was that he loved his stuff. First Timothy says, those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge people into ruin and destruction. Here’s the familiar part.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Sometimes we will hear that verse cited as money is the root of all evil. No, no, no. The love of money is the root of all evil.

Now, as you hear me saying all this today, that money is not evil, having stuff is not evil, please don’t think I’m trying to soften the blow of what Jesus said here. Please don’t think that I’m encouraging a kind of Americanized prosperity Christianity where we assume that if we have stuff, we must be blessed by God. I mean, we must be favored by God, that he must love us extra special, and we should all try to have as much money as possible.

That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying money, no money, it doesn’t matter. It’s the condition of the heart.

God’s word says the love of money is the root of all evil. And Jesus used this to show the man where his sin was. See, no matter how sinless he appeared to be on the outside, there was sin festering beneath the surface, and he was separated from God by it.

This rich young man thought that he was acceptable to God because he was living a life that looked righteous on the outside. But Jesus revealed that his heart was just filled with idols. Just overflowing with idols.

If you want to get right down to it, he loved his possessions more than he loved God. He loved his possessions more than he loved God. And that made him into idols.

Now how do we know that he loved his possessions more than he loved God? His reaction in the next verse tells us. Verse 22 says, but he was dismayed by this demand, and he went away grieving because he had many possessions.

This description of his reaction uses words that in the Greek also apply to the weather. When you see those big, heavy, rainy, stormy clouds come tumbling in, that’s what he was describing here. He was so sad and disappointed that it was like a storm cloud had broken all over his face, and he walked away.

he walked away. Jesus had essentially shown the man that there was no room for both his possessions and God to try to share first place in his heart. So he had to choose, and so the man walked away sad.

Sure, he loved God, but he loved his stuff more, because he’s willing to walk away rather than give up his stuff. So with one question, with one question, Jesus had revealed the sin of idolatry that was running rampant inside of him. The man had asked him how to inherit eternal life, and Jesus showed him that he was filled with sin and that he was incapable of entering into eternal life in the kingdom.

How do I get it? And Jesus says, you can’t. Jesus shows him, I should say.

Jesus shows him you can’t. After the man walked away, verse 23 tells us, Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. He told the disciples that it would be hard for someone like the rich young ruler to get into the kingdom.

Understand, that would have been shocking to the disciples. See, in their society, as I’ve told you before, they interpreted wealth as a sign of God’s favor. They believed that God blessed the righteous with wealth.

So when Jesus said that people like that would have trouble getting into the kingdom, they were shocked because they assumed that those were the kind of people that God really, really loved. And verse 24 says, the disciples were astonished at his words. I mean, they couldn’t believe it.

They thought God favored people like the rich young ruler, but then Jesus said otherwise. But then Jesus went even a step further. It’s not just hard for rich people, it’s hard in general. Now the remainder of verse 24 says, again, Jesus said to them, children, how hard it is to enter the God.

See, the first time he said how hard it is for a rich man, second time he says how hard it is to get into the kingdom. And they were probably going to ask him, like an old stand-up comedy routine, how hard is it? And so in verse 25, Jesus explained how hard it is.

How hard is it? It’s this heart. He said, 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.

Now, people will try to explain away this verse. They’ll claim there must be some deeper hidden meaning because it would be crazy to imagine a camel, that a camel could walk through the eye of a needle. And so they think Jesus couldn’t have meant that because it’s impossible.

Jesus couldn’t have meant that because it’s impossible. Bingo. That’s exactly what he was telling the disciples.

It’s impossible. But still, people will say that, for example, Jesus was talking gate in Jerusalem called the Needle’s Eye Gate. Some of you may have heard this explanation.

They say it was a gate that was open in the middle of the night when all the other gates were secure. And they say the only way to get your camel through the gate was to have them offload everything and send the camel through the gate on its knees. That sounds good, but that sounds reasonable.

Unfortunately, I’ve never seen any compelling historical or archaeological evidence that a gate like that existed by that name in Jesus’s day. I’ve never seen that evidence. And I went and really looked this week.

We may see pictures of a gate today that’s called the needle’s eye, but there’s no evidence that they called it the needle’s eye in Jesus’s day. Now, others will say there’s a spelling error in the text because the Greek word for camel is camelos or camelos, which is only one letter off from camelos, which is a kind of rope that can be threaded through the eye of a needle only with great difficulty. You might have to unwind or untwist it.

Now that sounds reasonable until we realize that it would have required all three writers, Matthew, John, Mark, and Luke, would have required all three writers to make the same spelling error in the same place when they were all writing separately. I was born at night, but I wasn’t born last night. I don’t buy that, as I like to say around the house, I don’t buy that not even on double coupon day.

I don’t buy that they all three randomly made the same spelling mistake in the same place. Now, I think it’s supposed to say camel. The biggest problem, though, with these alternative explanations is that they try to take the shock out of Jesus’ teaching when it clearly did shock the disciples.

What he said clearly shocked them. It said they were astonished. Leading a camel through a gate on its knees is hard.

I would assume. I’ve never led a camel anywhere, but I would assume it’s hard but possible. Threading a cord through the eye of a needle is hard but possible.

But based on the rest of the conversation that Jesus and the disciples had, we know that Jesus was describing something that would be so hard that it’s impossible. Now, the Bible scholar Robert Piccarilli explained Jesus’ choice of phrasing, why he said camel and eye of needle. He said, in Jewish literature, a needle’s eye was proverbial for the smallest possible opening.

Something impossible was proverbialized as an elephant passing through a needle’s eye. That’s something I believe the Persians used to say. It’s like an elephant passing through the eye of a needle.

And he wrote, in Palestine, the camel was the largest of animals. So a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle, and this was Jesus’ point. That’s what he wrote, and I think that’s a good explanation.

So he was teaching that it would be impossible for someone, even for someone as rich, even for someone as upstanding as the rich young ruler, it would have been impossible for them to reach the kingdom of heaven on their own merits. That sounds exactly like what Jesus was saying. When Jesus said it was so hard that it’s impossible, it’s wrong for us then to walk it back to being hard but doable.

When Jesus said it’s so hard it’s impossible, Don’t soften it to make it hard but doable. And you’ll see that he was saying it’s impossible if you look at what comes next with me. Verse 26 says, They were even more astonished, saying to one another, Then who can be saved?

See, the disciples realized that if people like the rich young ruler, who seemed so righteous and so favored by God, if even they weren’t getting into the kingdom, then there’s no hope for them. Right? They were asking Jesus, If he can’t get in, how can anyone?

If the best people around us aren’t good enough to get into heaven, we certainly don’t have a shot. So they wanted to know how is it possible then that anybody could be saved. In verse 27, it says, Looking at them, Jesus said, With man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.

The disciples wanted to know if anybody could possibly be good enough, And Jesus said clearly and unmistakably that it’s impossible to make it into the kingdom of God based on our own effort, based on our own human effort. He said with man, it is impossible. Can’t do it.

We can’t be holy enough to be acceptable to God. Not even if we tried our best to keep all the commandments. Not even if we look like we have it all together.

Not even if we sold all our possessions and gave the money to the poor. Jesus was clear it’s impossible we can’t get there ourselves you can’t get from here to there and the rich young ruler was a great example of this here was someone who had behaved himself his whole life he behaved his whole life he had kept the commandments he’d he’d followed the rules he’d washed behind his ears and said his prayers and ate his vegetables and when he walked by all the little old ladies said what a nice young man right he was that kind of guy he was deeply religious and He did all the right things. But on the inside, even he was not right with God because the sin of idolatry consumed his heart.

And there’s a lesson there for us that no matter how much our outward conduct may convince the world that we’re good people, even then the sin in our heart separates us from the Holy God. And just in case anyone there missed the point, Jesus drove it home with that illustration of the camel. just imagine trying to thread a camel through the eye of a needle.

Start at the tail. I’ll give you a little tip there. Start at the tail.

Don’t start with the nose. They bite. Start with the tail.

And you might get a hair or two of the tail threaded through the eye of the needle, but you won’t get much further than that. As a matter of fact, when I thought about it this week, it’d be easier to stick the needle through the camel than to stick the camel through the needle, right? Either way, you’re not in for an easy day.

How long would it take? How long would it take before you gave up on threading the camel through the eye of the needle and just admitted that it’s impossible? And Jesus was in this story.

He was calling on them. He was calling on us to give up on the idea that we can get ourselves into the kingdom of heaven and acknowledge that it’s impossible too. And the disciples picked up on that right away.

You know, they were usually kind of slow. We read some of these stories about the disciples and we think, How are you not getting this? They picked up on this right away.

It’s impossible. They realized the hopelessness of their situation. See, if the rich young ruler couldn’t make it, no one has any hope of getting themselves into the kingdom.

And we need to realize that too. Recently, I was talking to a gentleman who lives not too far from here, and we were talking about his salvation. And he kept telling me, he just kept telling me, well, I’m working on it.

Told him there’s nothing to work on. There’s nothing to work on. I told him there was nothing for him to work on.

He can’t save himself, and he just needs to trust Jesus instead. And then he said he’ll come to Jesus when he gets his life cleaned up a little bit. I’m not trying to pick on him.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had that conversation over the years. And I just wanted to shake him, not in a mean way, but as somebody I care about, to shake him and plead with him, stop! Listen, you can’t ever be good enough.

You can’t ever clean your life up enough to come to Jesus. You can’t ever work on it enough. You will keep trying to get into the kingdom of heaven on your own merit, and you will wind up in hell instead because it’s impossible.

Your only hope is that God would rescue you. Your only hope is that God would do what’s impossible for you. Jesus said, with man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.

See, we can’t inherit eternal life. We can’t enter the kingdom of God. We can’t be saved.

Any of the things that it’s called in this story, we can’t do any of it on our own merits. Our only hope is that God would rescue us, and God has rescued us. See, Jesus Christ, God the Son, came to earth so that he could take responsibility for the sin that separates us from God.

And so he was nailed to the cross so that he could shed his blood, and so that he could die, so that he could die for us and rise again. God rescued us because God the Son made the necessary provision for our salvation. He did all the work to get us in.

All of the good things that we could ever do would never change the fact that we’re sinners. Even if we were as righteous as the rich young ruler on the outside, our hearts would still be filled with sin. And we can’t erase the stain of our sin.

And the Father can’t just ignore it. It has to be punished. And so Jesus came and took all the punishment that we deserved.

He paid for our sins in full. He cleansed us. He clothed us in his righteousness.

We will receive that free gift of his salvation. When we receive the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, the Father no longer sees our sin because our sin’s been washed away. He chooses instead to see the righteousness of Christ in us.

And because of Jesus, we’re welcomed into the kingdom and we’re given full fellowship with God. You can’t enter the kingdom. Just like the rich young ruler, you can’t enter the kingdom based on anything that you can do.

It’s only possible with God. And you need God to rescue you through Jesus Christ. You need God through Jesus Christ to do what for you was impossible. If you still, this morning, think that you can be good enough, I cannot stress to you enough that Jesus said it’s impossible.

That’s not Jared’s opinion. Jared’s opinion didn’t work that much anyway. That’s not just Trinity’s opinion.

Trinity doesn’t get to decide things like who’s in and who’s out when it comes to heaven. Jesus is the one who said that getting into heaven based on your own goodness is as impossible as threading a camel through the eye of a needle. Jesus said that today.

instead of trying to save yourself. You can receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. You can stop trying to do the impossible and let God do what’s possible only through Him.

You can receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. At first, you’ve got to admit that you’ve sinned against God and that your sin has separated you from Him. You’ve got to acknowledge that you need a Savior.

Then believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins in full and that He rose again from the dead. If he didn’t die and rise again, he’s not the Savior you need. So you’ve got to believe that he died for your sins to pay for him in full and rose again.

And finally, then you ask God for forgiveness. Not trusting in your own abilities, but trusting fully in Jesus Christ as your one and only Savior. Now on your own, salvation is impossible.

But Jesus said nothing is impossible with God.