Camels and Needles Again

Camels and Needles Again by Anne Le Bas
“Seek the Lord and live”…says the Old Testament reading. “Seek the Lord and live.” Today’s Gospel reading tells us of a man who is doing just that – looking to God for life. It seems strange that he is so desperate. He already seems to have everything he could possibly want – wealth and status aplenty. And yet here he is, running to Jesus as if his life depended on it. Not walking but running to this poor carpenter, with his motley crew of followers. And when he gets there he throws himself at Jesus’ feet… “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” he asks. However much he has got, there is still something missing, something he longs for – an elusive sense of security, meaning, satisfaction. But in the end he goes away grieving – no better off than when he arrived. Jesus has told him that to find what he seeks he must give up what he has – all of it - and that seems like too high a price. Jesus watches him go. “It’s easier”, he says to his disciples, “for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Now there are those who say that this business about the camel and the eye of the needle actually referred to a small gate in the wall of Jerusalem which was known as the “eye of the needle”. You could squeeze a camel through it, but only if it knelt down and you took its load off. It’s a colourful story, and it’s been going the rounds for centuries, but I’m afraid it’s completely untrue. There’s no evidence that there was any such gate and no references to it anywhere else. So if anyone’s explained this passage to you like that, I’m afraid they were mistaken. The truth is that this phrase was a common expression at the time of Christ. It was a way of saying that something was impossible – like fitting a quart in a pint pot. It was meant to conjure up a ridiculous picture in your mind. Further east people talked about fitting an elephant through a needle’s eye, which was even sillier. So Jesus is saying exactly what he seems to be saying. That being part of the kingdom of God – the world God is making of justice and peace – is impossible if you are rich. There aren’t any loopholes. It’s not about small gates that you can squeeze through if you know how. It’s a hard saying. The disciples don’t like it, and they don’t understand it either. “Who can be saved then?” they ask. The unspoken question which is troubling them is how rich you have to be before Jesus’ words apply to you. Are they too rich? To be sure, this man has much more than they have, but they aren’t destitute. They’ve got a fishing boat or two between them, a family home maybe, goods that they will inherit some day. And why is Jesus saying this now? He’s met with many other people in his ministry, and he’s never said before that their possessions will prevent them from entering the kingdom. Christians every since have argued about this too. If you can’t enter the kingdom – if you can’t be part of God’s work – if you are rich, then how poor do you have to be? Do you have to be starving, or will it do to just be a bit hard up? The truth is that our sense of whether we are rich or poor depends very much on what we have known in the past, and on what the norm is in our society. My daughter Ruth worked for a year in a Peruvian orphanage before university. It was a real eye opener – particularly for her, but also for the rest of us as we read her letters and emails. The orphanage had no hot water, few books or resources. Ruth was quite shocked when, early in her time there, the director of the orphanage sent her out with a group of girls to the local market, where the girls proceeded to do the rounds of the market stalls, begging for fruit and vegetables. But she soon came to realize that in many ways these were the lucky children. In the shanty towns around them there were many children who were far worse off. Compared to them, these girls, with a secure roof over their head and an education, were rich. Poverty and wealth are very hard to define, and simply to understand this story as one about the dangers of possessiveness and greed is to miss its real point, just as this rich man, and the disciples did. It’s message is actually much more subtle than that. There are two words in this story which need our close attention if we are going to understand the underlying message. They aren’t long words, or difficult words – in fact they are about as short as you can get. They are in the middle of the question that the rich man asks. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The two words in question are “I” and “Do”. They reveal a great deal about this man’s approach to his faith, and tell us where he is going wrong. Let’s take the first word first – the little word “I”. “What must I do?” asks the man. It’s all about him. Eternal life is something completely individual – a possession like all his others – something he can inherit and own. It has nothing to do with anyone else, with the community he lives in, with the rest of the world. Even when he has kept the commandments, which meant almsgiving among other things, it sounds as if he has had his mind on his salvation. He sees eternal life as simply a ticket to heaven, as many people do today – and it is a ticket for one. I’ve always thought that there is something very isolated about this man. Perhaps wealth does that to you – it becomes a wall cutting you off from others – you suspect their motives so you keep them at a distance. When Jesus tells him to sell what he has and give his money to the poor he challenges that self-contained world that he lives in. Salvation isn’t something individual. It’s about justice. It’s about relationships. Eternal life is not something you can own for yourself – it’s not about what happens to your individual soul when you die. It is a quality of life in the here and now which makes a difference to all. It’s the same for Amos in the Old Testament. “Seek the Lord and live” is a command addressed to the whole nation, and it is something they can only do together. They have trampled on the poor, taken bribes, pushed aside the needy – and the whole nation has suffered because of it. The gift of God that he offers them – call it salvation, eternal life, entry into the kingdom – is for all of them too. It is the recreation of the whole nation as a place of justice and peace. Salvation is either about all of us or none of us. We are all linked together. How can I enjoy the feast in the kingdom of heaven when I know that there are people who have no bread to eat? How can I enjoy the fullness of life that God gives when I know that others are dying of malnutrition and preventable diseases? It ought to be impossible for us to rest easy under those circumstances – to feel we have arrived in paradise – as impossible as getting a camel through a needle’s eye… If this rich man can get rid of the possessions which he has built like a wall around himself, he will discover that he is no longer an isolated individual, but inextricably linked to the whole of creation. The second important little word is the word “Do”. This man believes that eternal life depends on what he does. He’s been keeping the commandments faithfully – doing things. He’s been trying his hardest – doing things. And he assumes that there is just some little thing he needs to do– an action to perform, a prayer to pray. Then he will have it all sussed. Rich people are used to having power to make things happen – they are doers. So this man assumes that getting eternal life will be all down to what he does, if he can just get Jesus to tell him what that should be. But the truth is that there is nothing he can do to earn the peace he so much craves. It’s not for sale. It can’t be bought. It’s impossible to buy God’s favour - there’s that camel again attempting to get through the needle’s eye – trying to do an impossible task. It doesn’t seem to occur to him that God might give it to him anyway – that’s rather sad. Perhaps that’s why Jesus looks at him so lovingly. He sees through this man’s wealth to the poverty which underlies it. He may be rich in possessions but he is poor in trust, poor in the ability to receive from God – and probably from others as well. He’s bargained his way through life and he doesn’t think anyone would just give him something simply because they love him. “What must I do?” he asks. Jesus knows that he will have to give up his bargaining counters – his possessions and the power they bring him – in order to learn that it isn’t about doing, and that God has already given the fullness of life for which he longs. So although this story looks as if it is about wealth and poverty, there’s more to it than that. Of course in a world where many starve we need to look at the mountain of our possessions. But it is the underlying issues which this story really points to – what our wealth means to us – power, control, and self-protective, trustless isolation. These are things that have no place in God’s kingdom – any more than fish can live on dry land, or a camel can go through a needle’s eye. Jesus’ demands seemed too hard for the rich man, and sometimes we feel too that we haven’t the courage really to let go of the things we cling to. I hope and pray, though, that we will not go away grieving, but will be brave enough to let God do the impossible with us as he opens our eyes to his kingdom. Amen. (Comments to Anne at annelebas@DSL.PIPEX.COM.)