Compare Luke 22:28-30
1.
First of all, there’s no evidence for an ancient gate in the walls of Jerusalem known as “the eye of a needle.” This attempt to explain these passages should be abandoned.
2.
So these passages seem, at first glance, to be saying that it’s flatly impossible for a rich person to be saved.
3.
But Mark 10:24 (“how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!”) seems to suggest that the fundamental problem isn’t wealth in and of itself, but reliance upon wealth to the exclusion of dependence upon the grace of God.
4.
It’s also significant that, in each account, Jesus says that, while such salvation is humanly impossible, it’s possible through the saving mercy of God. In this regard, incidentally, the rich are in precisely the same position as the rest of us. None of us can save himself or herself; we can only be saved through the atonement of Christ.
5.
The concluding verses of these passages seem almost to depict Christian discipleship as a wise investment: Give up x, and you’ll receive x to the nth power in return. Still, while this expression may seem rather mercenary, the kind of discipleship being demanded still requires a great deal of faith. Vast rewards will come, but there’s no human way of foreseeing them and no mortal guarantee that they will come. Surrendering oneself to God requires enormous confidence in the unseen and the yet to come.
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