Christian Art | The Image Depicts A Gate Similar To The Eye Of The Needle. In Order To Squeeze Through, A Camel Would Need To Be Disburdened Of All Its Load – Its Cargo – In Effect Thereby Becoming Poor
Matthew 19: 23-30 – Week 20 Ordinary Time, Tuesday (King James Audio Bible KJV, Spoken Word)
23 ¶ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
27 ¶ Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.
Peter says to Jesus, in effect: ‘Look, we have left everything, and we’ve followed you. So what do we get in return? Where is the return on our risk, on our investment?’
And strangely then, Jesus does promise Peter an astonishing return, the twelve disciples’ effort and work and self-sacrifice magnified beyond all measure. They shall sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes – Israel re-embodied! And gloriously so. For one house forsaken, there shall be an hundredfold returned, and for one mother an hundredfold, and for one father and brother and sister and child – an hundredfold. For each acre of land, an hundredfold.
This great reward is as one with the leaving behind of earthly values. An hundredfold of mothers! Of fathers! In other words, there is to be absolute companionship with all in Jesus’ Kingdom. There will be one great family, transcendent of worldly human terms. Rather than the worldly partitioning of all the little that is between small families locked into their own sense of their own interests, there will be all for all, mothers and fathers for all, sisters and brothers for all, land and with it the food for all. Thy Kingdom come.
‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’ It is an expression signifying that a thing is impossible, unthinkable, humanly speaking. There has been a pleasant story that in Jerusalem there was a narrow gate called The Eye Of The Needle, but it seems there is no real evidence for this – and indeed, why would Jesus then so explicitly say that with man it is impossible. ‘A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.’ For men: impossible. But with God, all things are possible.
With God, it is possible for those with whatever riches they may have, whether great or small, to enter into the Kingdom of heaven. This sits alongside the injunction to give away everything you have and follow Jesus. It sits with the Beatitudes: blessed are the poor; blessed are the meek. Because they will inherit the Earth. Because theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Give away everything you have and follow me.
It can be all too easy to want things and to cling to things, even as we know this wanting and clinging interfere with our happiness. How good it is to let things go! This is no doubt easier said than done. The compulsions to want and to cling can be so heavily trained into us.
Blessed the man who ceases to devote such energy to worrying about great riches, when a little will do for today, and the little we have, and comfortably have, can assist us as we serve others, as we give and share, and as we receive all the good things from others that we can’t do by ourselves, as we live in community. Here there are riches! Here is God’s Kingdom come.
Concluding Prayer
Increase in us, Lord, your gift of faith,
so that the praise we offer you
may ever yield its fruit from heaven.
We make our prayer through our Lord.
King James Audio Bible KJV | Endnotes | King James Version
A Rich Man Through The Eye Of The Needle | With God All Things Are Possible
Jesus tells a rich young man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor in order to inherit eternal life. The man goes away sorrowful, and Jesus then remarks to his disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. The phrase ‘eye of the needle’ is commonly interpreted as a reference to a small gate in the wall of Jerusalem called the ‘Needle’s Eye’. This gate was so narrow that a camel could only pass through if it was unloaded and had to crawl through on its knees.
The message of the passage is clear: the accumulation of wealth can be a hindrance to salvation. Jesus does not condemn wealth in itself but warns against the love of money and the dangers of materialism. Jesus calls on his followers to give generously to those in need, as demonstrated by his command to the rich young man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor.
This teaching has been echoed through Christian history.
Saint John Chrysostom, fourth-century bishop and theologian, preached: ‘Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.’
Saint Francis of Assisi, thirteenth-century friar, famously gave up his wealth and lived a life of poverty, inspiring countless Christians to follow his example.
Saint Basil the Great, fourth-century bishop and theologian, wrote: ‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.’
In the Protestant tradition, Martin Luther wrote in his Small Catechism: ‘What does God say about all these commandments? He says, “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”’ Luther interpreted this passage to mean that God punishes those who love their possessions more than Him but blesses those who love Him and His commandments.
John Wesley, founder of Methodism, emphasized the importance of using wealth for the good of others. He wrote: ‘Having, first, gained all you can, and, secondly saved all you can, then give all you can.’
Pope Francis has spoken out against the ‘idolatry of money’, calling on the wealthy to use their resources to help the poor and marginalized. He has also criticized the ‘throwaway culture’ that allows some people to accumulate wealth while others suffer.
Sometimes, when I read my Bible, I pause in the reading and say to myself: ‘This bit’s real.’ It would be fair to say, I have issues with Mary, because, contrary to what we are taught to say, Mary isn’t my mother. Rather: Mum is. One bit of the Bible-text says this: And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, “He is beside himself.” … And his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mark 3: 21; 31-35.) Here she comes. She is in considerable distress. I can imagine that. I can relate to that. To save her boy from whatever he’s got himself into this time. And you’re not telling me there isn’t something inside that. Her boy is beside himself. Radical. Radicalized. Radicalizing. A misunderstood word. /ˈradɪk(ə)l/ adjective & noun. 1 Forming the root, basis, or foundation; original, primary. 2a Inherent in the nature of a thing or person; fundamental. b Of action, change, an idea: going to the root or origin; far-reaching, thorough. c Advocating thorough or far-reaching change. d Characterized by departure from tradition; progressive; unorthodox. ‘He has a demon! And he is mad!’ – thus ‘the Jews’. (e.g. John 10: 20.) Come home! It’s all she wants. His family want him back now. But it is an exclusive cult: there is an inside and there is an outside; and on the outside, they are not meant to understand, lest they be converted. He has defined himself as different from anything she was. Only at the end does Jesus say to his Mum – and with savage, bitter irony: ‘Woman, behold your son.’ And then he dies. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. We ask that we might find Mary in our hearts as a Yes! place for Jesus. It is also recommended that we pray to Jesus that we may be further in oneness with Mary. It is self-emptying, such that we only exist insofar as we are responsive to God’s Word. * Last term, and put-out to pasture, the old Archbishop Emeritus came over to stay for a few days and did the odd class with us. He spoke of Yes! as the meaning of Mary’s virginity. And we were not very nice about him. One or two took umbrage. One or two got the hump. In a sense, his Grace, the Arch, basically wanted to move anyone he’d ever known from a high-place – a mountain – received theological ‘truth’ – to an imminent, human plane. Earthing the spiritual. Recalibrating metrics of life’s believability toward a spiritual sense of things. He might have asked the impermissible question: what happened? His Grace described it. God’s love as a cloud. This descended upon Mary – and subsumed her. Within the cloud, Mary capitulated utterly. She became only and purely a response to God’s love. As he spoke, the Arch cradled her. He carried her in his lap – in his hands. His Grace was a consecrated bishop. He was faith. He sat squat, a rounded man, hands cupped and ankles crossed, fingers interlocked, with parted thighs. Rumpled, washed, speckled. A lifetime’s skin… There could be no doubt His Grace spoke through long-term personal relationship with Mary. It was Julian went for him: ‘So are you saying Mary was a Virgin? Or are you not saying Mary was a Virgin?’ Nasty. No, it wasn’t pretty. Julian twisting his silver ring. For a moment, what Julian had said to the Arch simply failed to communicate. No, for a moment, that dumped on the air meant nothing. Then His Grace said: ‘There is a range of possible meanings we may understand in the question of Mary’s virginity. For example, there are understandings of the word virginity entailed in the action of giving birth.’ Julian said: ‘Duh! So had she had sex or hadn’t she?’ Trigger words. No, it wasn’t pretty. On that went for a little while. At length, Julian’s point seemed reluctantly conceded. Then the Arch told us a new story, an additionally human event, the more to baffle us. Controversially, he told us that Mary could not have been Joseph’s first wife, for this would not have been the way of things in the society of that time. His belief was that Joseph must have taken Mary into his household through pity. That would be normal, he said, for Joseph to bring a young, vulnerable girl, who is about to have a baby, within his protection, not meaning to enjoy with her marital relations, but through kindness. ‘And this story of the inn and stable,’ the Archbishop said, ‘it can’t have been like that really. Joseph has travelled with Mary to stay with his family, at home in Bethlehem, and they don’t want Mary in their house, for reasons which I am sure we can understand. It must have been there was considerable resistance to Mary. But Mary gives birth, and who can resist a baby? That’s what happened. It must have been. ‘I’m convinced that must have been how it happened really.’ Later that term, toward the beginning of Advent, we met boys who had been here before, in Valladolid, and now were in regular seminary. They had heard and recited verbatim all the Archbishop had said to them. Their spot-on impressions of each of the fathers were scathing. […]
John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way of Jesus, to call the people to repentance of their sins, such that their souls could be readied to receive the grace of our Lord. He was the precursor, the last of a long line of prophets awaiting Christ. As he baptized, he told the people that one greater than he was to come [ … ]
Today’s Gospel verses again speak of the conflict between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees, and again we sense the verses reflecting the breaking away of Christianity from Judaism, and the tensions in the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem. Jesus’ rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees, the lawyers, is stinging. Jesus associates them with the history of murder of the righteous through Scripture, from the first murder of Abel to the murder of Zechariah, a prophet who died by stoning in Jerusalem around the year 800 BC because he accused the Jewish people of being unfaithful to God’s law (cf. 2 Chronicles 24: 20-22) [ … ]
