Mark 10:23-31
The Eye of the Needle
23Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?”
27Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
28Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You.”
29“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel
30will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
31But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Berean Standard Bible
The man has just walked away when Jesus looks around at his disciples. Then he says something none of them was expecting: how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.
Mark says they were amazed, and to feel why, you have to know what everyone in that road took for granted. Wealth was widely read as evidence of God's favor. A prospering man was a man God was pleased with. So what they have just heard comes to this: the people God has obviously blessed are the ones who will have the hardest time getting in, and the scoreboard they had read their whole lives just got turned face down.
He says it a second time, and the rich drop out of the sentence. Children, he calls them, and tells them again how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. Not the rich in particular. Anyone at all. Then a picture of what he means.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
You may have been told there was a low gate in Jerusalem called the Needle's Eye that a camel could squeeze through on its knees. There is no good evidence for such a gate, and the story turns his sentence inside out. He put a camel against a hole you push thread through, and what he is saying is that it cannot be done.
They understand him exactly, and it astonishes them.
Who then can be saved?
They have followed the arithmetic to the end. If the men with every advantage cannot get in, nobody is getting in.
With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.
The second half of that is an old sentence in Israel. God asked Abraham whether anything was too hard for him when Sarah laughed at being told she would have a son, and he asked Jeremiah the same thing while his country came apart. Jesus sets it down here, in front of friends who have just worked out that no one can save himself.
Peter, who could never leave a silence alone, says look, we have left everything. Jesus does not slap that down. He promises that anyone who has left home or family or fields for his sake and for the gospel will receive a hundred times as much in this life, and names what is included: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, persecutions. The persecutions sit inside the promise. Then he tells them that many who are first will be last, and the last first.
How We Know
Peter's line in verse 28 is checkable against what Mark wrote earlier. We have left everything and followed you. Mark 1:18 has Simon and Andrew leave their nets at once. Mark 1:20 has James and John leave their father in the boat with the hired men.
The claim matches the record, and Mark does not point that out.
A statement in one chapter that turns out to be supported by an account given at the start of the book, with no cross-reference offered, supports material set down consistently rather than assembled for effect.
Questions
1 Why did what Jesus said about rich people startle the disciples so badly?
AnswerBecause wealth was widely read as a sign that God was pleased with you. He had just said that the people everyone assumed were furthest ahead would have the hardest time of it. The scoreboard they had read all their lives got turned face down.
2 Think of something you have worked at until you got good at it. Now, what are a camel and the eye of a needle doing in this conversation?
AnswerSaying that this one cannot be worked at. He set a camel against a hole you push thread through, so the answer he is giving is that it cannot be done. Stories about a low gate a camel could squeeze through reverse what he said.
3 The disciples ask who then can be saved. Is that the right question to be asking?
AnswerYes, and his answer depends on their having asked it. If the men with every advantage cannot manage it, nobody can. He does not correct them or soften it. He lets the question stand and then answers it.
4 Who else has been told that nothing is too hard for God?
AnswerAbraham, when Sarah laughed at being told she would have a son. Jeremiah, while his country was collapsing around him. Both times God asked whether anything was too hard for him, and Jesus sets the same sentence down here.
What This Means for Us
The answer to who can be saved is nobody, and then it is God. The order of those two matters, and it is the half we skip, because he does not tell them it is difficult but manageable if they only apply themselves. He tells them it is impossible, lets that sit, and only then says God does impossible things.
So the rich man's trouble was never that his price was too steep. Nobody on that road could have paid it, the fishermen who had already left their nets included.
There is a kind of faith that is quietly about our own effort, and it always sounds humble. The test is what happens when we fail.
Prayer
Father, we cannot do this, and we keep trying to. Thank you for saying plainly that it is impossible for us and possible for you. Take the weight of it off us tonight. And thank you for promising real things, and for being honest about the cost. Amen.