One of the favorite films in our family is The Princess Bride. We can watch it together over and over and always enjoy. It’s a story about a princess who has been kidnapped by some bad guys who hope to set off a war in the kingdom. Either that or it’s a story about true love. Or else it’s a story about a grandfather reading a fairy tale to his grandson. Whatever it is, it’s funny and sweet.
The character Vizzini, a Sicilian mastermind criminal played by the actor Wallace Shawn, has kidnapped the princess Buttercup. Inigo Montoya, a Spanish swordsman and Fezzik, a giant, assist him in his criminal endeavors. They are all being pursued by a mysterious man in black. Vizzini tries to outwit the man in black, but every time they look back they discover he is still on their trail and gaining on them. Each time Vizzini exclaims, “Inconceivable!” Finally, after this has happened several times and Vizzini has pronounced it inconceivable, Inigo Montoya says, “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”
A few years ago, we were in Chicago visiting family and we went to the Art Institute. Our son Joe and his girlfriend went down to the café for a cup of coffee and when they came back, they said, “Guess who we saw in the café having coffee with his wife: Wallace Shawn.” And I said, “Inconceivable.” I couldn’t resist it. I’ll bet he hears that word a lot more than he cares to.
The thing that is inconceivable to us, and to Jesus’ disciples, is the notion of a camel going through the eye of a needle. I have grown quite farsighted, and I have trouble enough getting even a thread through the eye of a needle. I can’t envision a camel small enough or a needle large enough to allow this to happen. And, as impossible as this is, Jesus says it is even more impossible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
There have been some valiant attempts by Bible scholars to let us off the hook. Some have suggested that the eye of the needle here referred to is a gate in Jerusalem, which was smaller than the other gates. The size of it made it very challenging for travelers to get their camel through it. Packs needed to be unloaded, a certain amount of gymnastics needed to be performed by the animal in order to get it through. But it was possible. Difficult, but possible.
It has also been suggested that Jesus was misheard. When they thought he was saying camel he was really saying rope. That’s right, rope. Well, the words sound similar in Greek, so it’s not as absurd as it sounds. Now, this makes for a slightly more fathomable image. A rope is at least the right type of object to pass through the eye of the needle. And I can imagine that it might be possible to get it through the eye of a needle, although with great difficulty. Again, it’s possible.
If we were really audacious, we would say that Jesus is actually talking about rope, not camels, and furthermore, he is referring to the gate, not an actual needle. So now we are looking at a length of rope passing through a small gate. I don’t know what the big deal is about that.
And just like that, we have stripped the story of any meaning at all, haven’t we? We can breathe easier, though.
How does a camel get through the eye of a needle?
Some years ago I read about an art installation in a Las Vegas museum that showed a life-size camel, knitted out of wooly yarn and standing in a desert made of glued together matchsticks, facing a needle. How does the camel get through? I’ll bet you would like to know how.
It’s a riddle that’s hard to answer. It’s trying to make the impossible possible. How does a camel get through the eye of a needle? How does a ship get in a bottle? How do the Orioles win the World Series? Is the impossible ever possible?
The answer to the question might be on your lips right now – the answer Jesus gives the disciples: with God, all things are possible. Surely all things are possible with God, but that’s not the answer to the question that is really vexing us. That question is –
How?
It’s a question that I need to have the answer to because there is a lot at stake for me. I am that rich person.
Most of us are the rich person in this story because we are all rich by world standards. We may not feel that way when we compare ourselves to our bosses, our politicians and celebrities, or even our neighbors. But when we look around the world and compare ourselves to our global neighbors, we are rich. We have an awful lot to be grateful for, and an awful lot of room for generosity. You might be surprised.
There was an American woman living in Calcutta. One day a local woman came to her door with a request. She was going to be working in the mountains over the winter and she would need a pair of warm slacks. She had no slacks, so she was asking this American woman to give her one of her pairs. The American woman balked at the request because she only had two pairs, herself, not exactly a superfluous number of slacks. Yet the woman standing in her doorway looked at her and said, “You have two pairs. I need one. That will still leave you with one. Won’t you share your extra pair with me?”
This was a level of giving the American woman never expected to be asked to do. I don’t think any of us expect to ever have to give quite so much. Aren’t there reasonable limits?
I imagine the rich young man in the story also wondered, as he walked away from Jesus, about reasonable limits. He knew the law and the law did not require him to give everything away. Why would Jesus ask for so much more than what the law requires?
We wonder if there was something peculiar about this rich young man that made Jesus respond to him in that way. Was there something about him that was different from us, which would make it reasonable to ask him to give everything away? What I mean is, is there some way of seeing ourselves as exempt from this requirement?
If there is, the text doesn’t give us any clues. Jesus simply says what he says: it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. So what is the solution?
His disciples are suddenly flooded with despair, because what Jesus said defies everything they have been taught about what it means to be in the Lord’s favor. The Hebrew Bible teaches us to look at material blessings as a sign of God’s favor. So if even those whom God has smiled upon cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, who in the world can be saved?
And Jesus answers them, “You cannot save yourselves – that’s impossible. But for God, all things are possible.”
That takes us right back to the original question posed by the young man. What must I do to inherit eternal life? He wanted a list. What must I do to earn my salvation?
Jesus looked him in the eyes and he loved him. He loved this earnest young man who wanted to be as good as he could be, he wanted to make God proud. Jesus loved him enough to want to save him, so he said there is one more thing: sell all your possessions and give them to the poor, then follow me. Get rid of everything that is getting between your heart and your God. Whatever is claiming any part of your loyalty, get it out of the way because God is asking you to go all in.
You see, our possessions are not bad things. Every good thing we have is a gift from God, meant to be used for the glory of God. But the problem is that all too often our possessions become our masters. There is an addictive quality to material consumption. Once you start, you can never have enough.
In a land of such great abundance, one of the hardest parts of living a life committed to Christ is to live as though you have enough. Yes, there are blessings in material wealth but there are also dangers. The land of material excess is also a spiritual desert. The question we must ask ourselves is how shall we handle the blessings we have received? This is not a casual question. We must earnestly seek the answer to this question – just as earnestly as the rich man sought answers to his question. And this is why I want an answer to the riddle: how does a camel get through the eye of a needle?
That wooly camel in the Las Vegas art gallery? It was being unraveled, a stitch at a time, and passed through the eye of the needle. And as it passed through the needle it landed in a heap of yarn on the floor. As it turns out, the camel can get through the eye of the needle quite easily, but it must come undone. In the end, every bit of the original camel will be on the other side of the needle, but it will have an entirely different shape.
How about us camels? If we go all in? Having been shaped by our material lifestyle, we will be reshaped. Having been defined by our possessions, we will be redefined. For any one of us to enter the kingdom of God we must be transformed – radically, humbly transformed – and this can only happen by the power of God. We must open the hand that holds tightly to the things of this world to receive the kingdom of God.
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Photo by SUNBEAM PHOTOGRAPHY on Unsplash
