The camel-through-the-eye-of-the-needle story is one of many metaphors Jesus combines into one message. Nothing, including your body, your reputation, your knowledge, your credentials, and your coin collection, will exist when you die. It’s just your heart and soul that pass on.
Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Ezekiel 28:1-10
Deuteronomy 32:26-27ab, 27cd-28, 30, 35cd-36ab
Matthew 19:23-30
The modern, 21st-century version of the “rich” man in Matthew 19:16-22, who will have great difficulty getting into Heaven, totters between two false premises. Our understanding of wealth and the definition of “hard.”
We falsely envision Jesus’ focus on the wealthy young man as a rarity—a member of the 1st Century’s selfish, gold-encrusted 1%. A pathetic fellow, saddened at the prospect of giving away his stuff if he wants to follow Jesus.
He was likely very wealthy—for he had many possessions—but that’s not Jesus’ focus. Jesus speaks not about the actual wealth, but the encumbered weight of possessions. It’s a drag upon where our obsessions belong. Possessions take us away from God.
“Who then can be saved?” asked Jesus’ disciples. They themselves were men of possessions. In truth, getting possessions—from clothing and paychecks to housing—marked the daily chores of everyone they knew; 100% of people are hunter-gatherers, and those behaviors are required to survive.
Up to this point in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has generally condemned the elite as prideful, materialistic, and legalistic. This rich fellow exudes holiness at a more authentic level. In fact, he asked Jesus what more he could do. “What do I still lack?”
In truth, he senses something is missing in his spiritual life. That’s a surprising admission. He assuredly has everything he needs.
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Many of us hear that, and we steer our monetary minds into a false assumption. Possessions are evil. Really? The math is illogical. We give our evil stuff to some other poor slob so they can be burdened? Jesus isn’t playing hot potato.
The poor are no better attuned to possessions than the wealthy. Most poor folks dream of being wealthy. Envy politics takes advantage of this reality. It’s the scam of both left- and right-wing campaigns. They promise to give you what you don’t have by taking it from the rich, or promise to make sure you can keep what you own by insisting the poor are poor because they didn’t take advantage of the opportunities to be rich like you are.
If both the rich and the poor are sodden with temptations, why does Jesus focus upon the person with many possessions as the one who will find it hard to get into Heaven?
There are three important principles here that Jesus wants us to consider. First, perfection. Second is unloading our possessions, specifically, benefiting the poor. And third is the shifting of our sense of treasure to our heavenly reward. Perfection, unloading, and treasure are not really “steps” in a formula. Rather, two of them are preconditions for becoming perfect so we can fully follow Jesus.
Consider them in reverse. Our treasure is in heaven. Unload your material burdens. Desire to be perfect. These promptings from Jesus can be in any order, but they are necessary for us to be Christ followers. These mindsets must exist before we can become disciples. Be unburdened, love your neighbor, and desire to be perfect for the treasure of eternal life in Heaven rather than the treasures of this life.
The second general false assumption is that the wealthy won’t be able to enter Heaven.
It’s simpler than that. None of us will take possessions to Heaven. Duh.
The camel-through-the-eye-of-the-needle story is one of many metaphors Jesus combines into one message. Nothing, including your body, your reputation, your knowledge, your credentials, and your coin collection, will exist when you die. It’s just your heart and soul that pass on.
(Oh, and your DNA goes with you, which God needs to resurrect your body. But that’s all part of that Heavenly treasure promise. DNA is a metaphor, kind of.)
Jesus is making a point, of course, about the wealthy fellow and his possessions. It’s all about the possessing. Any one of us, maybe even those of us poorer than dirt, can have possession issues.
Purgatory is likely full of folks still hanging onto one or the other of the earthly essentials that are no longer essential after death. These things, including ideologies and influences, are wafts of memories. They must be purged, because they are gone. I mean, poof. No longer in your possession. Ergo, the concept of purgation will clear our souls and clean our hearts. It’s both a period of time and a notion of a place — Purgatory — because we’re spatial beings even in Heaven. (That’s way over my pay grade, so don’t get too wrapped up in my statement.)
Back to the disciples’ question. “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, ‘Who then can be saved?’”
The young man was holy, considerate, searching, and authentic. If that guy is going to have a hard time getting into Heaven, then the rest of us are doomed.
Exactly. If your mindset focuses upon perfection as an attainable feat, that is. “Hard” means brick wall, steep cliff, and swallow the ocean, all in one word. Except for the wholly innocent (the aborted babies come to mind), anyone who’s wanted a second piece of pie and then took it grasps the frailty of imperfection. We can try, and we should, but we won’t be perfect. We are, then, imperfect, burdened, and self-centered folks who need God.
Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
And there you have it.
Desire perfection, but expect you’ll need forgiveness, and even a dramatic rescue, if we’re honest.
Unburden yourself of all your possessions, but expect instead to be showered with so much that you’ll need help from both friends and strangers to properly use up, eat, maintain, and store all that stuff.
Dream of the glorious existence of your upcoming everlasting life with God and the hosts of angels, cadres of ancients, and fellowship of saints.
For as hard as everything is, for God, all things are possible.