An Utter Impossibility
Bible Thought (Mk. 10)
I can only imagine what it would have been like to be the man who had everything except what mattered most. Many of us throughout our lives desire material things, thinking they’ll make us happier. If only we had a bit more money or newer possessions (that money has bought) then life would be better. All in all, we want or even need money.
In Mark 10, a man comes to Jesus, hoping to inherit eternal life. The Gospel accounts taken together add up a picture of a “rich young ruler.” This guy had wealth to spare. He had great possessions. He had, as it were, everything this world could offer, but he was lacking one thing. Truly, it was the most important thing.
Jesus engages in some dialogue around the man’s “doings.” As far as uprightness under the law goes, this guy was doing a pretty decent job. But we know from the rest of the New Testament that salvation isn’t a matter of our doing, but of Christ’s. So, Jesus concludes, that the thing this man lacked was to sell his possessions and to follow Him.
Following Jesus was the most important thing. It required a faith in who He was and some assent to His person. The man who had everything lacked one thing. He had set his love on earthly riches. He had laid up treasures on earth and that was good enough for he wouldn’t follow Jesus in order to have treasures in heaven (see Matt. 6:19-21).
A desire for the things that this life affords is a continuous problem. Ultimately, it becomes a form of idolatry where it is to be preferred over a relationship with the living God. The famous hymn says, “I’d rather have Jesus, than silver or gold. I’ve rather have Jesus than have riches untold.” Yet, for this man he would rather have his riches than to have Jesus.
Jesus concludes with such a powerful illustration. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk. 10:25). Now, I remember as a young person hearing that this referred to an ancient gate in Jerusalem and a camel had to get down on its knees and struggle its way through but eventually it could make it. Perhaps you’ve heard this too. However, the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (ZIBBC) states so clearly, “There is no basis for the widely circulated tradition that the eye of the needle was the name of a gate in Jerusalem…Theophylact (eleventh century) seems to have been the first to make this suggestion.”[1] Roughly 1,000 years later is when that tradition begins, certainly it was alien to the disciples.
Hence the reason His disciples are shocked! Their response is, “Then who can be saved?” (Mk. 10:26). If they had regularly seen camels struggling through a gate every time they’d gone to Jerusalem, then this wouldn’t have been a hard saying! In effect, if there was such a gate, then Jesus would have been teaching something along the lines of, “You can save yourself. It’s really hard. It’s going to be a lot of work. It’s going to be a struggle. But you can push through and make it, just like that camel over there.”
This is the antithesis of what Jesus is going for. Instead, Jesus is showing the utter impossibility of salvation apart from God’s grace. He takes the smallest opening you could think of and the largest animal in their region and puts them together to showcase the greatest impossibility.[2] There’s no shot that one will be saved apart from a miraculous work of God, especially those who are rich in this world.
This is the whole point! For, He responds to the confounded disciples, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mk. 10:27). The God who designed the camel can do with it what He wants. It’s His invention. Naturally speaking, a camel will never make it through the eye of a needle. That’s the whole point! Apart from God, no man will make it into the Kingdom. No rich person, no poor person. It just so happens that the rich are generally further away in that they feel they are self-sufficient and don’t need help. Whereas the impoverished, or even little children (see Mk. 10:13-16) readily acknowledge their need.
Rich people can be saved. Poor people can be saved. The master could be saved. The slave could be saved. Anyone is savable, not because of who they are, but because of who God is. Salvation is the greatest miracle of all, and thus it can only be worked by the miracle-working God, not by a rich man keeping commandments.
[1] Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 265.
[2] Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 264–265.