<p>19:24- See on 7:13.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>And again I say unto you-</em>&nbsp;Note the double repetition of this powerful point- that wealth makes entry into the Kingdom difficult.</p>
<p><em>It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God</em>- I go with the old explanation that this is an allusion to a loaded camel needing to be unloaded of its 'wealth' so that it could squeeze through the pedestrian gate- a call to become human, to realize we are naked before God, and our wealth adds nothing to us. Mark's record uses a term for &quot;the eye of a needle&quot; which the Septuagint always uses for &quot;the holes of the rocks&quot; (e.g. Jud. 6:2; 15:8,11; Jer. 13:4; 16:16), from whence we see the idea of a hole in the rocky city walls.</p>
<p>In the beauty and depth of His simplicity, the Lord comprehended all this in some of the most powerful sentences of all time:&nbsp;<em>It is very hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom.&nbsp;</em>He&nbsp;<em>must</em>&nbsp;shed his riches, like the camel&nbsp;<em>had&nbsp;</em>to unload to pass through the needle gate (Mt. 19:24). This is such a powerful lesson. And it's so simple. It doesn't need any great expositional gymnastics to understand it. Like me, you can probably remember a few things very vividly from your very early childhood. I remember my dear dad showing me this as a very young child, with a toy camel and a gate drawn on a piece of paper. And I saw the point, at four, five, maybe six. It is&nbsp;<em>so clear</em>. But what of our bank balances now, now we're old and brave? It's easier for a camel, the Lord said. Why? Surely because someone else unloads the camel, he (or she) has no say in it. But in the story, surely we must be the camel who unloads himself, who shakes it all off his humps, as an act of the will. And as we've seen, the spirit of all this applies to every one of us, including those without bank accounts.</p>