Matthew 19:23–24: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’”
I know nobody wants to hear this. I have not heard the message—maybe you have, but not me anyway—that really communicates what Jesus Christ is trying to say here. The diversion we have been pushed into is to say the “needle” is the name of a gate in Jerusalem. No, it is not. The needle is that needle you use to sew.
He is trying to tell you it is impossible. He is not trying to tell you, “Okay, you must now lift your load, then you can pass.” That is not what He is saying. They say, “How then can the camel go through that needle? Oh, then the camel must now lift its load.” No. He is telling you riches do not get you there. They cannot.
You can see the question here: “The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’” (Matthew 19:25). They know He is communicating an impossibility. He is not communicating, “Let us drop our load, then we can enter.”
And look at the way Jesus Christ answered. Jesus did not say, “Now drop your load.” Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). Only God can make it possible that people will be saved. That is the conversation. That is the context.
Remember, this is part of my series on the animal analogies of Jesus, and we are seeing the word “camel” here.
This follows the story of a man coming to Jesus and asking, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to gain eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16). Jesus told him, in effect, “Keep the commandments.” The man said, “I have done all these things.” And Jesus said, “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” (Matthew 19:21). He went away sad because he had many possessions (Matthew 19:22).
A lot of people in a particular camp—what I call the “money‑for‑blessings” camp—do somersaults on this passage. A lot of somersaults. They will tell you, “Jesus Christ was just playing with the man.” That is a somersault. Nothing in this context shows you Jesus Christ was just playing with the man. They will tell you, “It is like God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son. When he is ready to do it, God will say, ‘Do not do it; I was just testing you.’”
No. Let this passage be a means to confront the love of money in our hearts—how we have elevated money, how we have prioritized money.
These are the people who will tell you that “the gospel to the poor” is how they can get a lot of money. But we do not see that in the context. If you do not see that in the context, how come millions of people have embraced that concept now? I have to blame the devil, because it does not make any sense. It is not there that “the gospel to the poor” is money in their bank account.
Given the sheer number of people proclaiming that message in the name of God, I can only blame the devil. I can only attribute it to “teachings of demons” that Paul warned about when he said, “The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will desert the faith and occupy themselves with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings” (1 Timothy 4:1). How do you explain it? How do you explain it?
The same kind of people will come to this passage, because they have to suit themselves. They have to force everything to line up with what I call the “money‑for‑blessings” heresy. So, in a way, I am in a money‑for‑blessings church, I am becoming blind and more blind to the truth, and I am going to suffer for it. That is the truth.
This “camel” passage is communicating impossibility, and the disciples got the message. I hope we are going to get the message that it is impossible to be saved by ourselves. You cannot gain heaven by your works. It has to be through Jesus Christ.
God bless you.