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Compare Luke 22:28-30
1.
There is and was no gate in Jerusalem called “the eye of a needle,” for which a camel had to kneel or be stripped of its load, or through which a camel was unable to pass.
The idea here is clearly that, without grace, rich people won’t be able to enter heaven.
This happens, though, to be true for all of us, even if we’re not rich.
2.
Obedience to God and Jesus is actually a good investment. But it requires faith to see that. The costs in this life can sometimes be very, very high, and the rewards won’t all come until the next.
3.
Some Latter-day Saints, particularly in the nineteenth-century, have said that Joseph Smith will play some sort of role at the Judgment.
Evangelical Christian® critics have, in many cases, been scandalized at this notion. So far as I’m aware, though, the idea that not only St. Peter but Bartholomew and Thaddaeus and Simon the Cananean will play some sort of role at the Judgment leaves them entirely unfazed.
4.
The teaching that “many that are first will be last, and the last first,” should keep us humble.
As one General Authority is said to have remarked, “When you get to heaven, don’t stare. They’ll be just as surprised to see you there as you are to see them.”
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