The Eye of the Needle

Today Dr. J discusses the eye of the needle -hyperbole.

Transcript

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Welcome to Dr. J in the Bible. Well, today has been uh just a couple days ago, close to 90 degrees. And uh today started off in 30-degree weather, actually lower than that, in the high 20s. So uh definitely bipolar, but uh it's tis the season. Today we're looking at the eye of the needle, Matthew 19, 24, and uh very interesting passage. Jesus is talking about how hard it is for a rich man to be saved, and so he uses this hyperbole of a rich man uh like uh going through the eye of a needle, a camel going through the eye of a needle, not the rich man going through the eye of a needle. That would be very difficult. But uh, but these these were used with Jewish rabbis in teaching, and they were often exaggerated or uh made a type of hyperbole in order to exaggerate an image to make a point. Often Jesus would frequently utilize uh hyperbolic statements to illustrate spiritual truths, such as remove the plank from your eye, or more accurately, remove the four by four from your eye. You know, that doesn't happen, but it was made to you it was utilized to make a real solid point so that you don't forget it. Similar idioms in a Jewish in Middle Eastern culture were phrases like the eye of the needle. And this was a well-known idiom in ancient Jewish literature. In the Babylonian Talmud, it contains a phrase that they do not show a man a palm tree of gold, nor an elephant going through the eye of a needle. Can you imagine? An elephant? And this expression meant something impossible or absurd. It would never happen. And it was impossible to happen. And so Jesus most likely adapted that common Jewish saying, replaced elephant with camel, since the largest animal in Israel at that time was a camel, to emphasize the extreme difficulty of the task. And so, what does the camel through the eye of the needle really mean? Jesus is saying that it is humanly impossible for a rich person to enter heaven if they trust in their wealth rather than God. The phrase does not mean rich people cannot be saved. It means wealth can be a major spiritual obstacle, and it is. And the verse comes from the story of the rich young ruler who wanted eternal life but was unwilling to give up his riches. This guy said that he would, you know, um follow Jesus. He wanted to be his disciple, and Jesus said, Go and sell all your stuff. And Jesus was not trying to be um rude or obnoxious here. Jesus knows the hearts of man. And Jesus knew this man had riches and the riches had the man. And that's why he said, Go sell everything, give to the poor, follow me. He knew he couldn't. He had made an idol of these riches. So Jesus tells him to sell his possessions and follow him. But the man walks away sad because his heart was so much tied to his money. Then Jesus delivers this famous saying showing that relying on riches rather than a God makes salvation impossible. Yeah. Wealth by itself is not evil, but trusting in wealth instead of God creates a barrier to salvation, and it has from the very beginning. The needle gate theory, uh, which many people take, I've heard it in sermons before, is really a false interpretation. Some claim Jesus was referring to a small gate in Jerusalem called the Needlegate, which a camel could only pass through if it crouched and removed its baggage. But this interpretation really suggests that rich people must humble themselves and unload their wealth in order to enter heaven. And by the, how well, you know, there by the way, there's no historical evidence that such a gate even existed in Jesus' time. And really, the this theory of the gate originated in the 9th century long after Jesus' time. So the truth of the matter, Jesus was using a metaphor, not referring to an actual gate. Extreme poverty as requirement for salvation. This is another way that this idiom was wrongly, has been wrongly construed. Some take this verse to mean that rich people cannot be saved and must give up all their wealth. However, scripture does not teach that, that wealth itself is evil. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were quite rich. For that matter, some of his disciples, like Peter, was probably quite wealthy before he went off to totally evangelize. So Scripture does not teach that wealth itself is evil. Rather, then the love of money is the issue. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. All kinds of what? All kinds of various evils, such as, well, let's look at it. Most businesses uh struggle. They do well, they struggle because they get greedy. Governments, like several trillion dollars in debt, uh uh uh uh, i.e. United States, uh, get in debt because of the love of money. Um prostitution. We know that uh money laundering. Uh we know that um gambling. We can go on and on. So the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. I mean, if you look in the Bible, Abraham was rich, David was rich, Job, Joseph of Arimathea. So it doesn't mean you have to give up all your wealth in order to follow Jesus. It means you need to give your heart, all your heart to Jesus, and not all your heart to money. That's what it means. So the issue is trust in riches, not the riches themselves. The issue is to trust in Christ, not in the riches themselves. Salvation is impossible without God. After Jesus stated to the disciples, the disciples asked, who then can be saved in in uh Matthew 19, 25? Jesus states, with man this is impossible, with God, all things are possible. This there is nothing about human effort here. There is nothing about selling all your riches in order to make sure you're going to heaven. There is nothing about saying that you have to do a bunch of good works in order to enter heaven or a bunch of good deeds. Because none of those can can earn salvation. It's only God's grace that can save a person. That's what he says. With man, it's impossible. But with God, all things are possible. He says, Jesus warns again in Matthew 6, 24, you cannot serve both God and money. So the rich young ruler's story highlights this danger. His wealth was an idol. Trust in God, not in riches. In Psalm 49, 6 through 7, it writes, They trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches. No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them. Proverbs 11 28, those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf. We know that Luke 12, 16 through 21, the rich fool stored up all his wealth without being rich toward God. That's foolish. That's stupid, according to the Bible. Well, what is the what's some questions we can ask ourselves as we're listening? That we can examine our own hearts. Well, let's pose some questions here. Do we trust more in our job, in our money or security than in God? Would you follow Christ even if it meant losing everything? If you lost everything, would you still follow Christ? Are you using wealth for God's kingdom? Wealth is not evil, but it must be used, a stewardship that God already owns to help others, advance the gospel, and glorify God. And we need to remember that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and that it's no other way to heaven but by that. So this passage is a very, very interesting passage. It's not about the impossibility of rich people entering heaven, but about the impossibility of salvation apart from God. Hope everyone trusts Jesus and that you can be you're one of those many saints that have had the miracle of salvation. Any person that's a believer in Christ has received that miracle. It is truly a miracle that we were once dead and now alive in Christ. Hope you all have a good day. And remember, God can take your mess, turn to a message for his glory for your good. Goodbye.