Threading the Needle…
09.22.24
“Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you; it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”” Matthew 19:16-26
For many, this illustration of “the eye of a needle” is seen as a sewing needle. In this view, the interpretation would imply that since it is literally impossible for a camel to fit inside of a 2–3-millimeter hole there is no chance that anyone considered “rich” will have a place with Jesus in His Kingdom. There are some other challenges when it comes to this interpretation… Who determines the threshold on “rich”? The United States poverty line? Top 25% of the world? If that is the case, we all might be in trouble… The other challenge involves what we know about God’s grace (which is described in the vineyard parable and our companion passages.) How can Jesus describe his grace as free (not based on works) and then put a minimum donation requirement for a ticket to the banquet?
Perhaps we need to explore a different interpretation of this analogy. According to other traditions, the “eye of the needle” references a path or gate to Jerusalem. Essentially, there were times that this access into the city was too small for someone to ride in on top of a camel carrying all their belongings, so one would need to rid themselves of the things they didn’t need or wouldn’t fit. Some traditions even add that one’s camel would need to be on their knees to get through this passage.
With this interpretation in mind, this story becomes less about us all being asked to do the impossible, but us being challenged to reflect on what might be keeping us stuck at a certain point on the road with the fullness of Jesus still feeing out of reach. For the man in the story, it was his riches that kept him unable to continue to “move” toward God. But that does not mean that it is financial riches for all of us.
As I thought about how difficult this “letting go” process can feel sometimes and what that feels like, I also pictured a pathway like this “eye of the needle” interpretation. When we decide to follow Jesus, our eyes are now looking ahead to be with Him and all that he promises us. But just like a drive on a long stretch of interstate, our depth perception can play tricks on us. Like how a tree can seem parallel to a mountain range from miles away, so can some of our hopes and dreams seem parallel to where Jesus wants us to go (or who Jesus wants us to be.) The further along we go with Jesus, those expectations of our own for our lives suddenly get closer and closer while Jesus continues ahead. Once we realize that as Jesus is asking us to continue to follow Him it means we now must walk past something that we thought was our destination, that is when we see that what we thought we were picking up along the way is something that we need to walk past if we are going to continue to follow.
God’s grace is freely given whether we are still struggling to sit high on our camels with all of our wants and wishes, but it becomes much more difficult to hold this grace when our lives are too full of ourselves.
So, the question for us all is, what is Jesus asking us to leave behind to continue to walk in His grace? Maybe not so much the physical stuff, but what is in our heart that is causing us to keeping holding on? Pride? Jealousy? Selfishness? Fear?
May God’s mercy and grace be revealed to us as we learn to let go and continue to follow.