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Matthew 19:23-26, 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.”

Jesus and his disciples have begun to make the journey to Judea; they are heading to Jerusalem.  And Jesus is using this time to teach about what it means to follow him.  Jesus is turning everything upside down in his teachings: to follow him means renouncing the things that the world values. 

In this chapter, we see Jesus touch on how following him will affect how we behave in the most fundamental parts of our lives.  He starts by teaching on divorce, making the point that marriage is not simply a contract, but it’s a creation of God and both men and women are equal partners in the marriage.  Jesus is saying in God’s Kingdom, marriage is a covenant between the man, the woman, and God.  The commitment is sacred.  Here he is - turning things upside down.

Jesus goes on to teach about children – parents were bringing children to him to be blessed and the disciples scolded them.  Jesus intervenes and says to let the little children come to me and then makes this stunning point that we all must become like little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Children, in those days, weren’t seen as having any value.  But Jesus places tremendous value on them.  Jesus’ point is that to follow him, we have to become like little children – vulnerable, powerless, needing someone else to provide safety and sustenance.  Again, he is turning things upside down.

Then, we come to today’s focus verses. A man comes up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

Jesus says, “Well, you need to follow all the commandments.” He then lists out the various commandments and the man simply says, “Yes, I’ve done all those things since I was a boy.”

Then, Jesus looks at the man and says that to be perfect,  he must go and sell everything he owns and give it all to the poor.  The text says that the man’s face fell.  He went away sad because he had great wealth.  This is the irony. The children in the former story who possess nothing are not told that the kingdom of God is theirs; yet this man who possesses everything still lacks something! Only when he sells all he has—only when he becomes like a vulnerable child—will he possess everything.  But he isn’t willing to do that.  He decides to walk away from Jesus.  The man wasn’t expecting to have to make that kind of sacrifice.  He had no idea following Jesus would be so hard.

The disciples are really confused by this.  At that time, most people believed that being wealthy was a sign of God’s blessing.  Here, Jesus is saying that this man has to sell everything and give it to the poor.  And that’s when Jesus says the really, really hard thing…It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 

And the disciples ask “then who possibly can be saved?” Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”  I don’t know about you but I find it very unsettling to read this passage. 

Let’s go deeper:  Jesus could look at this young man he loved and see that what he cherished most were his possessions.  I think there is a warning in here for us.  Jesus is not condemning having resources.  There are others in the Gospels with great wealth that Jesus doesn’t tell them to do the same thing.  But he is making it clear --- having wealth can get in the way of our relationship with him.  When we have resources, our tendency is to rely on ourselves, to hold on to our money, to not fully submit our lives to him.  It’s hard to approach God as a vulnerable little child (think about how children totally depend on their caregivers for everything), when we don’t feel so humble and vulnerable.  The greatest enemies to faith and obedience are self-satisfaction and pride.  And live in a culture where these things are held up as ideals. 

Jesus is saying, being a disciple, is not about following a list of rules.  If that were the case, then the rich young ruler would have been a shoo-in.  He is saying, it’s about denying yourself, picking up your cross, and following me.  And we don’t like to deny ourselves.  We don’t like to be uncomfortable.  It means looking at your life and renouncing any part of it that gets in the way of your walk with Jesus.  That means that following Jesus isn’t one part of our life; following Jesus isn’t simply one activity in a busy life filled with lots of great stuff.  No, following Jesus means radically reorienting our life.  Jesus comes first and our devotion to Jesus as Lord and Savior affects every other area of our lives.  Our dedication to Jesus affects how we treat other people, it affects how we spend our money, it affects how we spend our time, it affects how we behave.  Following Jesus means a radical adjustment to priorities.  It means worrying less about what the world values, and focusing on what Jesus values. 

Let’s pray…Lord, How we need you.  Help us shed those parts of our lives that get in the way of our relationship with you.  Help me be a fully devoted follower of Jesus.  More of you and less of me.  In Your Name, Amen.