Second Presbyterian Church

"Crawling Through the Needle's Eye"
October 12, 2003

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Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2003 » Sermons for October 2003

28^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
by The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• Job 23: 1-9
• Mark 10: 17-31

Several years ago I was visiting a person in the hospital who was a not so active member of the church. She was quite ill and we all knew that she would soon die. As I visited with her she told me that she had lived a good life, and that she had tried to be a good person, and that she hoped that this would help her get into heaven. I was startled by this comment, because it goes against our basic belief that our salvation is a free gift from God, and not based upon how good we are.

Not so long ago I was visiting a person in the hospital who had been an active member of the church. He was quite ill and we all knew that he would soon die. As I visited with him he told me that he had tried to live a good life and that his life had been richly blessed with a wonderful wife and family, now with grandchildren. Then he added, "I am also glad that I am a Christian and that I am going to heaven; I thank God for that!"

You see, crawling through the needle's eye is very, very difficult! You might think it is impossible. Surely Jesus thought that there would be difficulty in getting a camel to go through the eye of a needle. C. S. Lewis, while reflecting upon this passage, noted, "All things are possible. It is even possible to force a camel through the eye of a needle, but it would be extremely hard on the camel.

There are a couple things I want to point out from this lesson. 1. Our dependence upon material goods and good behavior leaves us spiritually impoverished. 2. All things are possible with God.

When Jesus told the disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, it astounded the disciples. They were blown away by this remark. The reason being they, along with many others, believed that God blessed those who were good by rewarding them with material wealth. And there is SOME truth to this belief. Whatever we DO have comes from God and it is from his generosity that we receive material blessings. But there is also great miscalculation. Because of the assumption that material wealth was a sign of a man's good character, because of God's rewarding, many people therefore believed that people of wealth were mostly good people and people without wealth must have deserved being poor, due to their lack of character.

So when Jesus remarks about just how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God the disciples were blown away! "Then it is impossible for anyone to enter the Kingdom of God!"

Jesus responds with the affirmative. IT IS impossible for a man, by his own efforts, to obtain eternal righteousness. We cannot do it. The rich young man realized this, or he would not have come running and begging to Jesus for what he must do to inherit eternal life. He knew that his behavior, obeying the commandments, just wasn't cutting it! Something was missing.

When Jesus responded to the disciples' expressions of impossibility, Jesus not only agreed that it was impossible for man, but he added that It IS possible with God! God can give eternal life. God can give what we need to be righteous. God can give us what we need to move beyond ourselves and to live for others, just as Jesus Christ lived and died for us, for all humankind!

In conclusion, this is not a story that literally says you must sell what you have and give it all to the poor. But it IS saying this. Your real riches are with God in Jesus Christ! Your material wealth are NOT your real riches. Therefore put your trust and your righteousness in Jesus Christ, not upon what you have accomplished or acquired here in this material world.

To put it another way, don't let your material benefits get in the way of your trust and loyalty to God. If you do let them get in the way, you will become impoverished. If you put God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ first, then you will be rich beyond measure. You will have let God help you crawl through the needle's eye. Amen.

The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.