THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE
If there is one topic that we really
don’t like to discuss in the church it is money. As uncomfortable as most of us
are about talking about sexual matters, talk about money makes us recoil even
more. In fact, most preachers I know would rather preach on just about any
other topic than money, and my guess is that most people sitting in the pew
would rather hear a sermon about something other than money.
However, with our Gospel reading
from Mark today as a case in point, Jesus talked more about money and how
money, or wealth, affects and influences our relationships with each other and
with God, more than any other single topic. Jesus clearly believed that how we
handle our material wealth is a spiritual issue of great importance.
Again and again in the Gospels Jesus
preached the message that God desires our complete obedience; our total
devotion. The message is not that there isn’t room for other loves; such as
love for our spouse, our children, our parents, our friends. The message, and
we can clearly see it in these verses this morning, is that in an ultimate
sense God claims us totally.
Indeed,
scripture teaches us that God is a jealous God. God wants our whole lives. Once
we give him our total obedience, our total devotion, then that holy
relationship is the proper foundation or underpinning for every other love
relationship in our lives. Our relationship with God becomes the determinative
reality that shapes and forms every other relationship.
In
this exchange between Jesus and the rich man who had come to him with the
question, “Good teacher, what must I do
to inherit eternal life?” Jesus takes the opportunity to again drive home
the point we are to have nothing between us and God. Unavoidably, then, as we
read this text today, the question in our minds is, “Is Jesus saying that we
need to sell everything we have in order to enter the kingdom? In order to
enter the
How
then are we to interpret this teaching? Across the centuries, the church has
offered various interpretations to help disciples understand this account. In
the Book of Acts, it is clear that the early church took Jesus’ teaching in a
literal sense. Disciples were expected to sell their possessions and give
everything to the church in order that the church could sustain the community
of faith, and have enough left over to care for the needy and poor. However,
such communal living proved unworkable in the long term and very soon the
church abandoned such an interpretation.
Subsequently,
across the centuries some traditions have interpreted this teaching as being
applicable only to those desiring an elevated form of discipleship such as the
monastic lifestyle. In other words, a literal interpretation of the teaching, does
apply but only to those small number in the church who have the calling to live
in such a monastic manner.
One
problem with this interpretation is that there is no justification for it in
the text. To say that Jesus intended this teaching to apply only to a limited
number of people is just not present in the text. Some are called to the
monastic lifestyle but on balance Jesus taught engagement with the world, not
retreat from it.
A
third, and probably the most widely taught and accepted interpretation of these
verses has been to spiritualize the teaching and not take it literally. In the
account presented in these verses Jesus saw that for that particular man his impediment
to serving God obediently was his significant wealth, so he told the man to get
rid of his wealth. In this interpretation we are allowed to look beyond the
issue of money and search our hearts to discern what may be our particular obstacle
to serving God; it may be lust, or pride, or selfishness, or whatever. In other
words, the teaching applies to everybody, but not literally.
So,
then, we know that the early church model presented in Acts ultimately brought
about more problems than it solved, so that interpretation doesn’t seem right.
We also know that while a small percentage of disciples are in fact called to
the monastic lifestyle in the church, such a lifestyle doesn’t work for the
majority of disciples. While the spiritualizing approach to this text seems to
allow this text to meaningfully speak to all disciples, we cannot dismiss
lightly the reality that we are discounting the plain sense of the teaching.
Where
does that leave us? It leaves us with the uncomfortable fact that while
spiritualizing the text seems to broaden its meaning, it also allows us to
disregard Jesus’ rather direct attack on our human proclivity to allow our
money and our stuff to determine and set our priorities in this life. In these
verses, and in many others in the Gospels, Jesus’ message is that if we wish to
be alive and obedient to God, then we are called to first die to our wealth.
Not a message we like to hear, and a primary reason why we would rather talk
about just about anything else other than money – even sex.
So,
what does this teaching have to say to us today? What are we called to do? How
is this text profitable for our lives as disciples? Are we to be penniless to
be faithful? To help discover the answers let us look closely at the text.
If
we look closely at this conversation between Jesus and this man and where it is
placed in Mark’s Gospel we learn several important things. Chapter 10 marks the
turning point in this Gospel, Jesus has now turned to
In
verse 21 it reads, “Jesus, looking at
him, loved him and said…” It is important for us to notice that the text
carefully informs us that Jesus loved him. The command to go and sell
everything he had and give it to the poor and follow Jesus is issued out of
love, not judgment or condemnation. Jesus cares for the man and wants him to be
obedient. The imperative commands that Jesus gives to the man are issued in
love.
Jesus’
response to this man is clear. He tells him to go and sell his possessions.
After that, he is to give the money to the poor. Once he has done all of that,
then he is to follow Jesus. Each of these things is a tangible and concrete action.
If we try to spiritualize this text we inevitably stray from the plain sense of
the text. In verse 23, after the man has gone away dejected because he cannot
or is not willing to take the drastic step of liquidating his assets, Jesus
tells his disciples “How hard it will be
for those who have wealth to enter the
Then,
seeing their confusion in he tells them again in verse 24, “Children how hard it is to enter the
Then
in verse 25 comes the well known saying, “It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is
rich to enter the
Jesus
is not speaking metaphorically. Jesus is not spiritualizing the issue. He is
speaking quite plainly. It is hard to enter the
The
disciples are, as it says in verse 26, “astounded”.
They ask, “Then who can be saved?”
Jesus looked back at them and said, “For
mortals, it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
There
it is! The answer is plain. It is not up
to us and our efforts. It is up to God to save us. In Jesus’ words, “it is hard to enter the
But
for God, all things are possible. In God’s power we are saved. On his own, the
rich man could not do it. He couldn’t take the final step to the kingdom, but
Jesus tells the disciples God can make it happen! For a human being it is
impossible, but for God all is possible. With God’s power and will, even a rich
man who had kept all of the commandments but couldn’t part with all of his
wealth can be received into the
Do you remember last week’s Gospel
reading from chapter 10:2-16? In those verses we learned that no one can
achieve the
For
us to faithfully interpret this teaching the eye of the needle must remain the
eye of the needle. The impossible is the impossible. We ignore the plain sense
of the text at our peril. Even so, the good news is that this impossibility
does not remain the final word. Jesus teaches us that with God all things are
possible.
Let
me share a story with you that points to the truth of this passage. Before this
young man named David went off to college, his mother bought him a little
sewing kit and gave it to him, she said, “You will at least need to sew on a
button or two.” A few days later they sat down together for lesson #1;
threading the needle. But no matter how hard young David tried he just couldn’t
get that itsy bitsy thread through that tiny little hole.
“We’ll
try again tomorrow” his mother said. The next day as they sat down David’s
mother had little gadget in her hand, it looked a little like a guitar pick but
with a little loop of wire on the end. “Here” she said to David “let’s try
this”. She took the little gadget and gently pushed the thread straight through
the eye of the needle. Of course, it was needle threader. After just a few
tries, David was threading the needle beautifully.
Jesus
said it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich person to enter the
Reverend Marc V.
Mason
October 15, 2006
Trinity
Presbyterian Church
Travelers Rest, SC