Through the Eye

Rev. Peter Friedrichs

March 2, 2008

"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." These words of Jesus are familiar, even to us Unitarian Universalists. According to three of the four gospels of the New Testament^[1], Jesus and his disciples were making their way toward Jerusalem when he was accosted by a rich man. The man kneels before Jesus and implores Jesus to tell him how he might gain eternal life. Jesus tells the man that he must live according to the commandments; that he shall not steal, or murder, or commit adultery, that he must honor his father and mother. The rich man replies "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." This is when Jesus delivers the shocker. He tells the rich man that it is not enough to merely have lived in accordance with the commandments that God handed down to Moses. "There is still one thing lacking," Jesus says. "Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come and follow me." Upon hearing this, we are told that the rich man "went away grieving, for he had many possessions." Jesus then turns to his disciples and tells them just exactly how hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. "It is easier," he said, "for a camel to go through the eye of a needle." The gospels report that, at these words, the disciples were perplexed and astounded.

I want to thank Dennis Leeper for asking me to preach on this passage. Dennis was the high bidder for the "choose a sermon topic" I offered at our annual auction, and I'm struck by the irony of his having paid good money to hear a sermon about the evils of money! Perhaps he's brought himself a bit closer to heaven by parting with some of his at the auction. And what better time to preach about the topic of money than on the date that we kick-off our annual fund drive! I asked my staff if they could arrange to have a camel here in the sanctuary today, but apparently all the dromedaries in the area had previous engagements.

You may have noticed that, within the space of the first few lines of this sermon I used the words "gospel," "New Testament," "Jesus," and "God." There was a time not so long ago that many in our congregations would have, like the rich man, headed for the hills upon hearing these words from a Unitarian Universalist pulpit, and I am sensitive to those of you here who are uncomfortable with this kind of language. I suppose I could just blame it on Dennis, but in truth I think that we Unitarian Universalists have matured in our faith to the point where we understand and appreciate that, regardless of whether we consider ourselves humanists, atheists, Buddhists, Jews or Christians, we can discover valuable teachings in the second half of the Bible. So I no longer feel a need to qualify my remarks with all the disclaimers that may have been required a few short years ago.

I'd like to spend a few minutes today examining this parable about Jesus and the rich man to see how it might inform us in our relationship with money. First a bit of context. As I mentioned, Jesus encountered the rich man on the road to Jerusalem. He and his disciples were making the eighty mile trip from Galilee, where he had recently attracted large crowds to his preaching. The gospels of Mark, Luke and Matthew all contain what are referred to as "travel narratives," stories of Jesus' interactions with others as they walked this road. Unlike earlier parts of the gospels that focused on miracles that Jesus performed, like raising Lazarus from the dead and walking on water, these travel narratives focus on Jesus as teacher. In fact, in the passage we heard today, the rich man kneels before Jesus and refers to him as "Rabbi" or "teacher." Scholars believe that the early miracle stories were presented first, to establish Jesus' special relationship to God or, in today's vernacular, to give him "street cred." But the gospel writers use Jesus' trek from Galilee to Jerusalem as a time for Jesus to impart his wisdom before he reaches the capital city, where he is persecuted and ultimately crucified.

This is the third story in the travel narratives, the first two containing teachings about divorce and about the place of children. In each of Jesus' teachings in this section of the gospels, we find Jesus turning the teachings of the Old Testament on their heads. First, Jesus tells a group of Pharisees that for a man to divorce a woman and then remarry is to commit adultery. This is explicitly contrary to Judaic law dating back to the time of Moses. Then he teaches his followers that they are to be more like children and that, rather than those who are learned and devout, children are closest to God. Through these and the other travel narratives, we are learning that Jesus is establishing a new order and a new way of being in the world, one that is contrary to centuries of Jewish law and tradition.

In the Old Testament, there is nothing wrong with being wealthy. In fact, there are many instances where we find rich men handsomely rewarded by God. I am certain that, when he knelt before Jesus and posed his question, the rich man was anticipating the first part of Jesus' response: to gain eternal life you must follow the commandments. After all, this is essentially the response Jesus gave to the lawyer who asked him the same question. You may remember that Jesus told the lawyer that all he needed to do was to love his neighbor as he did himself and to walk humbly with his God. But then Jesus throws the rich man a curve ball: "Sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." We can understand why the rich man was shocked, and why he went away grieving. This wasn't the answer he expected or hoped for, nor was it within the scope of the teachings of the Jewish law. Jesus' disciples, too, were stunned by this answer, even though by now you'd think they'd be pretty hard to surprise.

It's interesting to note that only one gospel, the book of Luke, claims that Jesus ordered the rich man to sell everything he owned. The gospels of Mark and Matthew don't include this absolute. Biblical scholars refer to Luke's approach as "Aramaic hyperbole." The author of the book of Luke, it seems, regularly exaggerates to make his point. Jesus himself, it seems, engages a bit of "Aramaic hyperbole" to get his point across to his disciples, after the rich man flees, presumably, to the comfort of his palace. "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." That's a pretty vivid image, isn't it? Don't forget that a camel was the largest beast that any of these men would have ever encountered. And even the largest tapestry needle that they'd ever have seen had but a tiny opening for the thread. So, basically, using dramatic and memorable imagery, Jesus is saying it's impossible for a rich man to get into heaven. Case closed, right?

Well, maybe not. Like most ancient teachings, Jesus' are subject to a broad array of interpretations, and literalism doesn't always yield the best guidance. If we took Jesus at his word, we'd have to ask "How rich is too rich?" and "How much do we have to give to the poor and how much can we keep for ourselves?" Even if Jesus gave us figures (which of course he didn't), we'd still have to argue about inflation factors and currency exchange rates. As I've said, some scholars interpret the "eye of the needle" image as simple exaggeration for the sake of effect. Although it may be very difficult, they say, it's not impossible for a rich person to find eternal life. (These are, perhaps, the scholars with sizeable grants working at universities with large endowments.) Then there are the historians who claim that the "eye of a needle" that Jesus is referring to is not what we think it is. You see, back in ancient times many of the larger towns and cities were surrounded by walls for protection. Jerusalem, in fact, was such a walled city, with several gates. The occupants of these cities would shut the gates at night or whenever they felt threatened. But within the larger gate there was often a smaller opening, one through which a person could walk. So pedestrian traffic could easily pass through this "gate within a gate" which, we are told was called "the eye of the needle." It was also possible for a camel to pass through this doorway, but there was a catch: in order for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle, its owner would have to unload all of his baggage from the camel's back, and lead it through the gates on its knees. So you see, say these scholars, a camel can pass through the eye of a needle. But first it must be stripped of its possessions. And it must proceed in a posture of humility. So perhaps Jesus' metaphorical image reflects an historic reality well known in his own time.

Unfortunately, the folks who focus on the height of the camel and the size of the needle's eye, or whether it's impossible or just difficult for a rich man to get to heaven, are missing the point of the story. I don't think Jesus was worried about these things at all. I think that Jesus was trying to accomplish two things when he told the rich man to give up what he's got. First, Jesus was putting this man's faith, and consequently our own faith, to the test. To which are we more devoted, Jesus asks, our possessions or our God? What are we willing to give up now for the ultimate future reward? Like Abraham, whom God asked to sacrifice his long-awaited son, the rich man is being told he has to make a choice between holding onto what he has or sacrificing it to secure a future with his Creator. You may recall another passage from the Bible about our attachment to wealth and possessions: 1 Timothy tells us that "the love of money is the root of all evil." This statement, as well as the message that Jesus conveys to the rich man, is really Buddhist in nature. It seeks to teach us that we need to detach ourselves from our possessions, and to realize that what we have here on earth, including our mortal selves, is fleeting, that it will ultimately vanish like so much dust in the wind. By telling the rich man that he had to give up his possessions, Jesus was testing the man, and by his response, the man clearly failed. Perhaps, like the family in our reading today, the man was non-materialistic, but he just wasn't good at it. Either way, it's clear from this passage that he was too attached to his money to part with it.

And here's the second, and I think larger point of this passage. We must remember that what Jesus was most concerned about, what made him so radical in his time, what made him such a threat to the establishment - the rich and the powerful - was his mission to lift up the poor and the sick, to give voice to the voiceless, to love the destitute and the downtrodden. If I had to guess, when the rich man knelt before him and asked how he could gain eternal life, Jesus probably wanted to say something like, "Listen, buddy, you're asking the wrong question. All you care about is saving your own soul? Look around you at the slaves, the prostitutes, and the poor. They're the ones you should be worried about saving." Sure, Jesus is testing the rich man. But this wasn't just a test of faith. Jesus was asking the man whether he could truly love his neighbor as he loved himself, whether he could share his wealth with those in need as if they were his brother and his sister. And the man failed the test miserably, heading for the hills when Jesus told him he had to help the homeless.

We need to remember that Jesus wasn't looking to hand out the keys to the kingdom to any of the rich, ruling class. This wasn't Jesus' mission at all. No, what Jesus was seeking, what he was all about, and the cause he ultimately died for, was nothing less than the total overthrow of the existing social order. Jesus told the rich man to give his money to the poor not so that this man would gain eternal life, but so that the destitute and the dying could simply live one more day. The man needed to give away his money to build a more just, a more equitable society. Jesus, like all the great prophets who preceded him and all who have come after, sought nothing less than the creation of the Beloved Community here on earth, where each cares for all, where divisions of class and race and culture cease to exist, where universal sister- and brotherhood abound, where "justice rolls down like waters, and peace like an ever flowing stream."

Does any of this sound familiar? Do you know of a place where people join in community to promote these ends? A place where every individual is valued for whom he or she is, regardless of age, or race, or class? Where we work for peace, justice and equality? Where we share our deepest selves, and the abundant gifts we possess, with one another? Where we care compassionately for each other? Where we feed the hungry and house the homeless? Each day the members and friends of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County strive to create the Beloved Community, to grow together in faith and love, to serve justice, and to change the world. These are the values by which we live and the principles that guide our decisions and our actions. Whether or not we consider ourselves Christians, each day, we right here, all of us, are doing the very work that Jesus asked the rich man to commit to.

Today is the day we are asked to consider the financial commitment we'll make to UUCDC for the coming year. We ask you for your contribution not so that you will pass through the Pearly Gates, but so that we can all continue the work of building an ever-expanding gate to a heaven in the here and now, a gate through which all may pass, together as one.

May it be so.

^[1] Luke 18:18-25; Mark 10:17-27; Matthew 19:16-26

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