By Dave Saviola
The average camel is over six feet tall and weighs around 1,500 pounds. That is a pretty large animal. Have you ever seen one walk through an eye of a needle? Didn’t think so. In fact, you probably think I’m a bit crazy for asking.
Well, it turns out that it is easier for 1500 pounds of fat, muscle, bone, skin and hair to squeeze through a space the diameter of air, than it is for one of us with lots of possessions to enter the Kingdom of God. Wait, what now?
I like to refer to Mark, Chapter 10, as “ground zero” for both the prosperity preachers and the poverty mindset teachers. These verses make it clear that neither instruction is right, and really culminate the totality of what the Bible says about money and possessions.
Jesus: “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sister or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time.”
Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want a hundredfold return on their investment portfolio, money market account, or real estate holdings? This is a true statement and a quote from Truth himself. The problem is there is not a period at the end of that run-on sentence. It continues: “ … now in this time – houses, and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life.”
If you know anything about Jesus, you know that he always keeps his word. There are promises here that will absolutely come to fruition for those who surrender everything, including our checkbook. Does that mean we give everything away? Maybe. He doesn’t give us a breakdown of what percentage we receive in “this lifetime” versus “eternal life.” But what he is doing here is giving us a choice, a very important choice: which riches are we going to trust in?
Since almost 70% of the world lives on less than $4,000/year, just about everyone in America is rich. That means it is indeed easier for that camel to stroll through a needle’s eye than for us to enter the King’s domain. But don’t throw up your hands just yet. As always our loving Heavenly Father provides the answer: “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”
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