Threading the Needle
Text: Mark 10:17-31
Earlier this week I was talking to my parents about the gospel reading for today. Through some of my preliminary reading, I’ve noticed how much that we try to soften the edge on some of the really difficult sayings that we find in the Bible. The reading that we hear from Mark is one that we would prefer to skip, or at very least gloss over. Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle, than a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. It’s a hard one for us as well-off North Americans to hear a passage like this. So we try to soften the edge.
Dad told me of a story from the church that he worked at as an organist around the time that I was born. When preaching on this passage, the priest told a story of a gate in Jerusalem, apparently called the “eye of the needle” where people could easily walk through, but camels would have a great deal of difficulty. They would have to get down on their knees and shuffle through… So while a hard and humbling task, it’s not impossible. The priest went on to say how Jesus must have been making a reference to this gate in Jerusalem, and that the best quality is for us to be humble before God, walking a straight and narrow path. Maybe you’ve heard it? I know that this story still makes the rounds in pulpits.
Maybe it’s all well and good, except for the fact that the “Eye of the Needle” gate in Jerusalem never actually existed! When Jesus said what he said, he meant it as exactly that. To actually perpetuate the story of this straight and narrow gate would actually be irresponsible for me as a preacher. It doesn’t exist, it never did. It is just one of many ways that interpreters have tried to soften the edge of one of the harshest sayings that Jesus ever uttered… at least to rich North American ears. There’s another one that said that Jesus actually meant rope instead of camel because of the similarities of the two words in Greek. Again… same thing… it’s trying to take the edge off the saying.
My own danger is to want to soften this passage up. I am seriously tempted to try and make it more palatable for us to listen. The real struggle is how do we hear this? Are we in danger of going away feeling dejected like this rich man earlier in the story? Maybe we are… but if the Biblical stories were entirely comfortable to us, then there would be no impetus, no reason for us to take on any sort of substantive change in our lives.
But at the very risk of trying to soften up what Jesus says, the reason we try to soften up this passage is that we take it too seriously. We see Jesus as being grim-faced and unrelenting when he utters this seemingly impossible saying. Yet to be honest, gross and exaggerated imagery is part of the culture… it was not uncommon to use such a wild comparison to make a point. In other words, Jesus is being a bit tongue-in-cheek here… It’s both funny and serious at the same time. Ironic humour perhaps… a bit of cynical wit.
Think of it this way… We have this story of this rich man who comes to Jesus wanting to learn more about the kingdom of God. Right off the bat, Mark tells the story of an almost combative Jesus who verbally spars with this potential disciple.
“Good teacher!” He says… trying to be respectful.
Jesus throws him off his guard, saying “why do you call me good?”
“I dunno, it’s just a greeting, I guess!” he stammers back…
“That still doesn’t answer my question though…”
“Well… I… um…”
“Look, nobody is good except for God.” Jesus replies back with a wink. “So why don’t we get on with your question…”
This kind of saying was pretty common amongst teachers of the day, Jesus wasn’t the only one who used it.
Mustering up his courage, the man asks Jesus “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
His was a deep theological question… and a good one, weighing very heavily on his conscience.
“Okay… you know the commandments, right?” Jesus asks…
“Uh huh… Followed ‘em since I was a kid!” he replies.
“All of ‘em?” Jesus asks, narrowing his eyes… and there’s a glint that he’s up to something. So he starts in on the list.
“Don’t kill?” He asks,
“Yep”
“Don’t commit adultery?”“Yup”
“Don’t steal?”
“Uh huh!”
“Don’t bear false witness?”
“Yes sir!”
“Don’t defraud?”
“You got it.”
“Honour your mother and your father?”
“Got it covered...”
“Right…”
With enthusiasm, the guy goes on to say proudly, “Teacher, I’ve done all of this since my youth!”
It’s interesting that while Jesus essentially lists off the Ten Commandments, he sticks to the so-called “Second Tablet” –all of the earthly commandments of life together in society. But there’s something missing… in all the commandments that Jesus rattles off, in all the answer that this potential disciple gives, where’s God?
We quickly find out that this person sees themselves as being very faithful, having followed all the commandments since he was a child. He is genuinely earnest, but there’s something missing. Jesus cares enough to challenge him.
“What about God?” Jesus asks…
“Pardon?” The man replies.
“You know, God… the creator of all, God of Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Moses. Where does God factor into this?” Jesus asks.
“Yes, but I don’t get it.”
“No kidding.”
Jesus pauses… mustering up some patience.
“Look, you’re missing something here.” He sighs. “You’re missing the forest for all the trees in the way. You want to see the kingdom of God? Then sell all you have, get rid of all of those distractions, come follow me, and then with nothing in the way you might learn what you’re missing.”
Of course, the man doesn’t hear everything Jesus says, he just hears “sell everything you have” and goes away dejected because he was materially wealthy.
It is in this that Jesus expresses a bit of frustration. In Mark’s gospel especially, the kingdom of God was not a place that one gets to at the end of their life, but something we can genuinely experience in life, right here, right now. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God, right in our midst. This rich person couldn’t see past his possessions, going away disappointed.
Jesus shakes his head and mutters out of frustration, “Maybe we’d have an easier time shoving a camel through the eye of a needle than for the rich to actually see the kingdom of God.”
Jesus frequently used metaphor, and this comparison he uses is comical, it’s funny… but it also has a big fat grain of truth to it. Trying to convince the rich to not be tied down by their possessions is like trying to push a camel through the eye of a needle. Perhaps we don’t like to see Jesus making cynical or sarcastic remarks, but given the often difficult time he had telling people of a very simple message, maybe it’s not surprising that he did.
We often use metaphors like this to draw parallels, to make a revealing comment about something. As one example, I remember at my wedding, my father-in-law was trying to get people to move into the sanctuary to get things started… Granted this was ten minutes before things were supposed to get underway, and a number of our colleagues had gathered outside and were happily talking with each other. He walked past me and muttered something about getting clergy to move into one place is like herding cats!
The “Eye of the Needle” comment may well have been something like this. It may have been funny to hear Jesus shake his head and mutter this after his encounter… yet I don’t think calling it a cynical remark softens it at all. While Jesus didn’t intend for it to be taken absolutely literally, this comment shows the great difficulty Jesus had in talking about the kingdom of God when people were very much focused on the material life. How difficult is it for us to simply stop, pause, and get those things out of the way?
Keep this in mind: Jesus himself was extraordinarily poor, and yet was so grounded in faith, that it didn’t matter. He showed us that we don’t necessarily need that sense of security in things first in order to be able to experience the kingdom of God. If anything, our sense of security comes from this foundation of faith, that even if we have nothing, God is still there… even when we feel abandoned by everyone else. We hear those quiet echoes from both Psalm 22 and from Job this morning.
In the story, Jesus challenges this rich man to take the next step, and let go of the things that get in the way of his relationship with God. In other words, he wanted him to experience the kingdom of God in the midst of life, and for him, it meant letting go of his riches. The challenge for us is to be willing to and able to, as the saying goes, “Let go and let God.” Yet it’s far easier said than done. I think if anything, that’s why Jesus makes the cynical comment about camels and needles. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God right in front of us, ready for us to experience in life, and yet we miss it because we are so distracted by those things that we’re not willing to let go of. So instead, we spend our time trying to soften the edge saying, to make it easier for us to hear… and yet all we end up doing is trying to shove a camel through the eye of a needle, when Jesus really calls us to experience the kingdom of God.
Earlier this week I was talking to my parents about the gospel reading for today. Through some of my preliminary reading, I’ve noticed how much that we try to soften the edge on some of the really difficult sayings that we find in the Bible. The reading that we hear from Mark is one that we would prefer to skip, or at very least gloss over. Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle, than a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. It’s a hard one for us as well-off North Americans to hear a passage like this. So we try to soften the edge.
Dad told me of a story from the church that he worked at as an organist around the time that I was born. When preaching on this passage, the priest told a story of a gate in Jerusalem, apparently called the “eye of the needle” where people could easily walk through, but camels would have a great deal of difficulty. They would have to get down on their knees and shuffle through… So while a hard and humbling task, it’s not impossible. The priest went on to say how Jesus must have been making a reference to this gate in Jerusalem, and that the best quality is for us to be humble before God, walking a straight and narrow path. Maybe you’ve heard it? I know that this story still makes the rounds in pulpits.
Maybe it’s all well and good, except for the fact that the “Eye of the Needle” gate in Jerusalem never actually existed! When Jesus said what he said, he meant it as exactly that. To actually perpetuate the story of this straight and narrow gate would actually be irresponsible for me as a preacher. It doesn’t exist, it never did. It is just one of many ways that interpreters have tried to soften the edge of one of the harshest sayings that Jesus ever uttered… at least to rich North American ears. There’s another one that said that Jesus actually meant rope instead of camel because of the similarities of the two words in Greek. Again… same thing… it’s trying to take the edge off the saying.
My own danger is to want to soften this passage up. I am seriously tempted to try and make it more palatable for us to listen. The real struggle is how do we hear this? Are we in danger of going away feeling dejected like this rich man earlier in the story? Maybe we are… but if the Biblical stories were entirely comfortable to us, then there would be no impetus, no reason for us to take on any sort of substantive change in our lives.
But at the very risk of trying to soften up what Jesus says, the reason we try to soften up this passage is that we take it too seriously. We see Jesus as being grim-faced and unrelenting when he utters this seemingly impossible saying. Yet to be honest, gross and exaggerated imagery is part of the culture… it was not uncommon to use such a wild comparison to make a point. In other words, Jesus is being a bit tongue-in-cheek here… It’s both funny and serious at the same time. Ironic humour perhaps… a bit of cynical wit.
Think of it this way… We have this story of this rich man who comes to Jesus wanting to learn more about the kingdom of God. Right off the bat, Mark tells the story of an almost combative Jesus who verbally spars with this potential disciple.
“Good teacher!” He says… trying to be respectful.
Jesus throws him off his guard, saying “why do you call me good?”
“I dunno, it’s just a greeting, I guess!” he stammers back…
“That still doesn’t answer my question though…”
“Well… I… um…”
“Look, nobody is good except for God.” Jesus replies back with a wink. “So why don’t we get on with your question…”
This kind of saying was pretty common amongst teachers of the day, Jesus wasn’t the only one who used it.
Mustering up his courage, the man asks Jesus “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
His was a deep theological question… and a good one, weighing very heavily on his conscience.
“Okay… you know the commandments, right?” Jesus asks…
“Uh huh… Followed ‘em since I was a kid!” he replies.
“All of ‘em?” Jesus asks, narrowing his eyes… and there’s a glint that he’s up to something. So he starts in on the list.
“Don’t kill?” He asks,
“Yep”
“Don’t commit adultery?”“Yup”
“Don’t steal?”
“Uh huh!”
“Don’t bear false witness?”
“Yes sir!”
“Don’t defraud?”
“You got it.”
“Honour your mother and your father?”
“Got it covered...”
“Right…”
With enthusiasm, the guy goes on to say proudly, “Teacher, I’ve done all of this since my youth!”
It’s interesting that while Jesus essentially lists off the Ten Commandments, he sticks to the so-called “Second Tablet” –all of the earthly commandments of life together in society. But there’s something missing… in all the commandments that Jesus rattles off, in all the answer that this potential disciple gives, where’s God?
We quickly find out that this person sees themselves as being very faithful, having followed all the commandments since he was a child. He is genuinely earnest, but there’s something missing. Jesus cares enough to challenge him.
“What about God?” Jesus asks…
“Pardon?” The man replies.
“You know, God… the creator of all, God of Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Moses. Where does God factor into this?” Jesus asks.
“Yes, but I don’t get it.”
“No kidding.”
Jesus pauses… mustering up some patience.
“Look, you’re missing something here.” He sighs. “You’re missing the forest for all the trees in the way. You want to see the kingdom of God? Then sell all you have, get rid of all of those distractions, come follow me, and then with nothing in the way you might learn what you’re missing.”
Of course, the man doesn’t hear everything Jesus says, he just hears “sell everything you have” and goes away dejected because he was materially wealthy.
It is in this that Jesus expresses a bit of frustration. In Mark’s gospel especially, the kingdom of God was not a place that one gets to at the end of their life, but something we can genuinely experience in life, right here, right now. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God, right in our midst. This rich person couldn’t see past his possessions, going away disappointed.
Jesus shakes his head and mutters out of frustration, “Maybe we’d have an easier time shoving a camel through the eye of a needle than for the rich to actually see the kingdom of God.”
Jesus frequently used metaphor, and this comparison he uses is comical, it’s funny… but it also has a big fat grain of truth to it. Trying to convince the rich to not be tied down by their possessions is like trying to push a camel through the eye of a needle. Perhaps we don’t like to see Jesus making cynical or sarcastic remarks, but given the often difficult time he had telling people of a very simple message, maybe it’s not surprising that he did.
We often use metaphors like this to draw parallels, to make a revealing comment about something. As one example, I remember at my wedding, my father-in-law was trying to get people to move into the sanctuary to get things started… Granted this was ten minutes before things were supposed to get underway, and a number of our colleagues had gathered outside and were happily talking with each other. He walked past me and muttered something about getting clergy to move into one place is like herding cats!
The “Eye of the Needle” comment may well have been something like this. It may have been funny to hear Jesus shake his head and mutter this after his encounter… yet I don’t think calling it a cynical remark softens it at all. While Jesus didn’t intend for it to be taken absolutely literally, this comment shows the great difficulty Jesus had in talking about the kingdom of God when people were very much focused on the material life. How difficult is it for us to simply stop, pause, and get those things out of the way?
Keep this in mind: Jesus himself was extraordinarily poor, and yet was so grounded in faith, that it didn’t matter. He showed us that we don’t necessarily need that sense of security in things first in order to be able to experience the kingdom of God. If anything, our sense of security comes from this foundation of faith, that even if we have nothing, God is still there… even when we feel abandoned by everyone else. We hear those quiet echoes from both Psalm 22 and from Job this morning.
In the story, Jesus challenges this rich man to take the next step, and let go of the things that get in the way of his relationship with God. In other words, he wanted him to experience the kingdom of God in the midst of life, and for him, it meant letting go of his riches. The challenge for us is to be willing to and able to, as the saying goes, “Let go and let God.” Yet it’s far easier said than done. I think if anything, that’s why Jesus makes the cynical comment about camels and needles. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God right in front of us, ready for us to experience in life, and yet we miss it because we are so distracted by those things that we’re not willing to let go of. So instead, we spend our time trying to soften the edge saying, to make it easier for us to hear… and yet all we end up doing is trying to shove a camel through the eye of a needle, when Jesus really calls us to experience the kingdom of God.
Comments
Your comment came through loud and clear. Thank you, I also appreciate your feedback with regard to my reading speed. I will do my best to give the readings the attention they deserve.