With the Rich and Famous
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the February 22, 2014
Sabbath School Lesson
“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?’”
Matthew 19:23-25, NIV
This story
is often watered down by those who would assert that there is a gate in
Jerusalem called “The Eye of the Needle” where camels actually go through, but
only be kneeling and shedding all of their cargo. This story is preposterous on
its face because no merchant would normally choose to go through a gate with
his camel if he had to leave the cargo behind when there are several serviceable
gates nearby. Also, the Disciples appear to have understood Christ’s allegory
to mean that entry was impossible not simply difficult.
However, for
those who may persist in such an explanation of this allegory, it may be hard
to refute the simple fact that such a gate does not exist and never did
anywhere in Jerusalem.[i]
When we add to this fable the fact that the “needle” referred to in the Greek
text is rafidos, which is literally a
sewing needle. Juxtaposing huge and miniscule objects in hyperbolic statements
was not uncommon for Jesus. For example, there is also the “grain of a mustard
seed” faith capable of moving humongous mountains.[ii]
One cannot help but wonder why such a myth that altered the story’s meaning
came to be. Perhaps as the church left behind the persecutions of the Ante-Nicene
era and under the aegis of imperial favor began to accumulate wealth and power,
it became necessary to re-interpret the narrative in a manner less
confrontational to those changes.
A serious
problem for the rich is that they entrust their security for themselves and
their families to the riches they have procured. They do not know how they can
survive in this world without that security. Anxious about every cloud they see
looming on the horizon, both real and imaginary, their minds are filled with
fears and justifications why what they have even now is not enough. They may
not be able to see that they are held in a golden cage, promising security but
in reality entrapping them in such a way that they find it impossible to ever
fully trust in God.
In spite of
this there are many who would gladly exchange places with them. Millions cast
their meager funds to the many lotteries hoping to do just that by overcoming
the incredible odds and win a fortune. They fail to understand that often the
anxieties only multiply along with the riches. Like a golden Sword of Damocles,
their wealth hangs perilously over their lives. Perhaps it was to these that
Jesus spoke when he urged them to lay aside these anxieties and place their
trust in God.[iii]
Those who rely on their wealth witness to the poor that they should do the same.
They perpetuate the very cycle of worry and anxiety that Jesus sought to
deliver us from.
Sadly, these
wealthy individuals could do far more to relieve the worries of the
impoverished by using the blessings they have obtained to bless others. All too
often, this is not the case. Instead they begin to see themselves as more
deserving of what they have than others might be. Such arrogance denies the
true source of their wealth. It is God who pours His blessings upon the just
and the unjust day by day.[iv]
Perhaps this is why there are so many who deny God’s claim on their lives as
their Creator when they are well off. Maybe they find it easier to part with
God than to share their blessings with the poor. In this way, it truly would
seem impossible for the rich to enter the Kingdom.
At this
point some might challenge whether or not they are wealthy as such a term is
relative to one’s culture. This is very similar to the lawyer who asked Jesus
when told to love his neighbor, “Who is my neighbor?”[v]
To even ask such a question is to acknowledge that the term is not an absolute
value such as “he who lives in the house next door.” The story Jesus shared
with the lawyer demonstrated that a neighbor is anyone in need of our help. When
we apply that principle, we are wealthy when we have two pair of shoes and our
neighbor has none. We are wealthy when we have so much to eat we have leftovers
and our neighbor must skip meals due to his poverty. We are wealthy when we
have multiple vehicles and our neighbor must walk everywhere. Lest we belabor
the point, wealth is relative, but not to one’s culture so much as to one’s
neighbor within and without their culture.
The allure
of wealth is based on a commonly and perhaps erroneously held belief in a
hypothetical. This being that it is entirely possible to one day attain enough
wealth to be able to sit back secure and snug in the knowledge that nothing can
threaten one’s idyllic lifestyle. Even though no one knows anyone who has
actually achieved it, this golden “carrot on the stick” persists and keeps many
chasing the mirage. To what end? Jesus spoke to this very issue. He said that
just when you feel you have finally made it and can kick back and take things
easy, it may all be snatched away.[vi]
We may be
like Job, and see our wealth destroyed by those who would take it from us, or
by natural disasters.[vii]
Or like in the story just referred to that Jesus told we may simply run out of
life. Then the financial vultures who have gathered, sensing the pending
expiration of someone of means, will pick over the corpse of their legacy. Like
runners in an endless relay race, they pick up the baton and start running, not
really understanding why, only that they must pursue the same carrot, and so
the baton moves forward to the next runner.
When we
consider all of this, perhaps we can understand that wealth based security is a
myth. Instead the possession of wealth fills our hearts with fear. In virtually
every city around the world, there are areas where the wealthy cannot travel without
strong security because their wealth would be in such contrast to the poverty
in those areas that it would make them a target. Sadly they become that target
because the poor buy into the same lie as the rich, the lie that wealth is the
answer, the way out.
All day
long, seven days a week, the myth is spun like spider’s silk, entrapping the
unwary. Television, radio, movies, books, social media all tell the story of
how hard work in pursuit of wealth will pay off in complete security one day. Never
mind that at poverty wages that day may never happen in our lifetime, the myth
encourages us to continue to pursue it so our children or their children may
one day have the security that eluded us. After all when we look around us, we
see people richer than we are, so isn’t it true? Better perhaps to ask them if
they have achieved that ultimate security.
Maybe this
is what Jesus wants us to understand. That the elusive dreams of wealth and
security are just that—only dreams. True security may lay instead in the love
and support of family, neighbors and friends who compassionately care for one
another and provide a foundation of support for the entire community. The
movies often portray the stereotypical cowboy hero as a rugged individualist
who rides off alone to seek fame and fortune. The historical reality is that
the person who tried to go it alone often did not survive long in a hostile
land. There is a reason why settlers grouped together in wagon trains to move
westward from St. Louis during the nineteenth century. They may not have been
rich, often carrying everything they owned in the wagons they drove, but when
they got sick, they nurtured one another to health and continued moving westward.
When food became scarce they hunted and foraged and shared the results with one
another.
Jesus wants
us to live lives like these settlers, giving without expectation of return.
This is because the return is intrinsic to the giving.[viii]
To share our blessings as we are able without expectation of return carries
within it the promise that we will not go away empty. Like the widow who cared
for Elijah, sharing her meager store, she found that in her act of caring for
another with even less than she had was hidden a blessing that sustained her
and all who depended upon her.[ix]
She didn’t need to chase the carrot to get there.
