Through The Eye Of A Needle

Today's Gospel: Matthew 19:23 - 30

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ When the disciples heard this they were astonished. ‘Who can be saved, then?’ they said. Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he told them ‘this is impossible; for God everything is possible.’

Then Peter spoke. ‘What about us?’ he said to him ‘We have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you solemnly, when all is made new and the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, you will yourselves sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will be repaid a hundred times over, and also inherit eternal life.
‘Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.’

Comentary notes:

It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye (eukopōteron estin kamēlon dia trēmatos rhaphidos eiselthein). Jesus, of course, means by this comparison, whether an eastern proverb or not, to express the impossible. The efforts to explain it away are jejune like a ship’s cable, kamilon or rhaphis as a narrow gorge or gate of entrance for camels which recognized stooping, etc. All these are hopeless, for Jesus pointedly calls the thing “impossible” (Mat_19:26). The Jews in the Babylonian Talmud did have a proverb that a man even in his dreams did not see an elephant pass through the eye of a needle (Vincent). The Koran speaks of the wicked finding the gates of heaven shut “till a camel shall pass through the eye of a needle.” But the Koran may have got this figure from the New Testament. The word for an ordinary needle is rhaphis, but, Luke (Luk_18:25) employs belonē, the medical term for the surgical needle not elsewhere in the N.T.(RWP)

The image of a camel passing through the eye of a needle is one which to western man seems a bit comical. Have seen one too many episodes of "Tom and Jerry", my mind conjures up a ridiculous scene. and I guess this imagination is what helps me understand Jesus' contrast of our ability versus God's possibility.

In speaking of the rich young ruler Christ is defining a difficulty that I see over and over again with the affluent. To have money is not wrong but for money to have you is.

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