“Jesus’ well-known words of comparison that it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God is a typical exaggeration used to emphasize the sense of the whole statement”, stresses Dorota Muszytowska in her commentary for the Catholic University of Lublin Heschel Center for the Sunday, October 13.
In today’s Gospel, Mark recounts an event that occurred during Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, already within the borders of Judea. He presents two scenes of dialogue with Jesus: an unnamed wealthy man who comes to Jesus with a question about eternal life and a conversation between Jesus and his disciples that follows this first event.
Let us turn our attention to the first dialogue. At the beginning of this narrative, we know little about the man who comes to Jesus. (In Matthew, he is described as a young man, and in Luke, as a man of high social status, but Mark does not specify who he was—this broadens the perspective, and it is easier for the audience to find themselves in the question Jesus is asked.)
The man comes to Jesus as if he were a teacher, whom he holds in authority, and asks about the possibility of inheriting eternal life, expecting specific instructions.
Today’s viewers may be surprised by the formulation of treating eternal life regarding inherited wealth. It is, however, a terminology that operates in Jewish tradition. Under the category of inheriting eternal life, God’s kingdom was understood adequately regarding the blessings given to Abraham and inherited by his descendants. The desire for such an inheritance suggests that this man did not identify with the views of the Sadducees, who recognized only temporal life. His declarations about fulfilling all the precepts of the Law may indicate ties to Pharisaic circles. However, these potential identifications are secondary to this narrative. Far more important is that the narrator shows us what this man’s problem was.
The reader can find the first clue in Jesus’ initial response to the question. Through a gentle rebuke, Jesus wants to put his interlocutor’s thinking on the right track. However, Jesus’ response can also surprise. In today’s first reading, from the Book of Wisdom, the gift of wisdom given by God is portrayed as a gift that surpasses all the goods of this world worth striving for. The man’s question looks like a desire for absolute good, for imperishable riches. One would, therefore, expect praise rather than reprimand from Jesus. Yet Jesus first emphasizes that only God is good, so only God gives perfect gifts. With this, Jesus draws his interlocutor’s attention to the fact that he should regard eternal life first and foremost as a gift whose Giver is God himself. In this way, Jesus emphasizes that the inheritance God bestows is not something one’s efforts and endeavors can obtain. Asking this man what he must do to gain eternal life betrays a kind of error in thinking.
Why, then, does Jesus immediately remind the interlocutor of the commandments of the Law? Why does he point to them as conditions of inheritance?
This is the second clue that exposes the problem of Jesus’ interlocutor. Note that Jesus does not list all the commandments of the Decalogue, nor does he enumerate them in a known order, either after Exodus or Deuteronomy. This by no means implies that the other commandments not listed were considered less important by Jesus or that he establishes a different hierarchy of commandment importance here. A similar, abbreviated version of the list of commandments can be found in the 13th chapter of the Letter to the Romans, with the addition that all the commandments are summed up in the commandment to love God and neighbor. This is their quintessence, the overarching principle. Jesus, in mentioning that the chosen rules of the Law are centered on the good of one’s neighbor, thus reminds us above all of the essences of its observance. Even the most scrupulous observance of precepts and prohibitions does not fulfill God’s Law if not backed up by the love of neighbor flowing from love for God. The Law of God, conceived as the love of God and neighbor, is the factor that ‘ushers in’ and entitles one to inherit.
The advice to sell what one possesses, give to the poor, and follow Jesus is thus, for Jesus’ interlocutor, on the one hand, a simple indication of what love of God and neighbor means in practice and, on the other hand, a kind of test to find out to what extent his observance of God’s Law follows from the commandment of love and how important is the treasure of eternal life that he desires.
Jesus’ statement does not suggest considering material poverty a necessary condition for receiving eternal life. It is about an attitude of sincere love that empowers one to consider all possessions insignificant in the face of the gift of eternal life, which only God can grant as His inheritance.
[Nothing in the narrative suggests that Jesus’ interlocutor is a man who has acquired wealth dishonestly and used it wickedly and should therefore give it away]. Jesus calls for people to follow him for a reason. First, out of love for the Father and man, he allows himself to be stripped of his glory to enable men to share in the Father’s inheritance. However, for the interlocutor of Jesus, this mystery is not yet available. It can, however, be recognized by the recipients of the Gospel.
For them, both Jesus’ advice and the narrative of the caller’s reaction as he walks away saddened provide a third clue to understanding the man’s danger. The narrative here reveals that, for Jesus’ interlocutor, having eternal life was not a desire more important than anything he had. He treated it on a par with the possession of other goods. However, he did not grasp the essence of wealth, which is eternal life, just as he did not grasp the nature of keeping the Law.
Later in the narrative, the evangelist leads the audience to an even deeper understanding of the meaning of this dialogue, exposing God’s role as the Giver of the gift of eternal life.
Jesus’ well-known words of comparison that it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God is a typical exaggeration used to emphasize the sense of the whole statement. Let us note that Jesus’ disciples understand the symbolic meaning of this statement very well. They realize the impossibility of such an action and relate it to the possibility of attaining the saving gifts of the Kingdom of God. This causes them anxiety.
The narrator thus shows that the disciples still need to follow Jesus’ explanations. They are at a similar level of thinking to the interlocutor Jesus just described. This is evident in the question they ask themselves: ‘Who, then, can be saved?’ which betrays that they consider man the main contributor to achieving the Kingdom of God. Therefore, Jesus again corrects such thinking by pointing out that what is impossible for man is no obstacle for God and emphasizes that God is the author; he grants the gift of God’s Kingdom.
Peter’s following statement, which sounds like self-love, expresses two theological issues that already troubled the Old Testament authors. Firstly, it reflects thinking regarding due retribution (good is rewarded, and evil is punished). This issue is considered, for example, in the Book of Job, which is just read in the liturgy and deals with the problem of understanding undeserved suffering.
The disciples expect some kind of reward for leaving everything and following Jesus. They recognize such a choice as a good that should be rewarded. Let us see that Jesus does not deny such thinking; on the contrary, his promise emphasizes the generosity of God’s gifts—no one who follows Jesus will be left without a reward.
The second issue is the nature of the expected retribution and its timing. In Jesus’ statement, this reward is not enigmatic nor concerns only the realm of the spirit, nor is it shifted entirely to the end times. Jesus does not deceive with an easy life but announces the experience of God’s generosity amid the tribulations of this life. At the same time, however, he shows that the pinnacle of God’s generosity is expressed in the bestowal of the inheritance of eternal life, giving a share in God’s life, the experience of which transcends temporality.
Amen! Shalom!
From a Camel and the Eye of a Needle to Understanding God’s Generosity
In today’s Gospel, Mark recounts an event that occurred during Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, already within the borders of Judea. He presents two scenes of dialogue with Jesus: an unnamed wealthy man who comes to Jesus with a question about eternal life and a conversation between Jesus and his disciples that follows this first event.
Let us turn our attention to the first dialogue. At the beginning of this narrative, we know little about the man who comes to Jesus. (In Matthew, he is described as a young man, and in Luke, as a man of high social status, but Mark does not specify who he was—this broadens the perspective, and it is easier for the audience to find themselves in the question Jesus is asked.)
The man comes to Jesus as if he were a teacher, whom he holds in authority, and asks about the possibility of inheriting eternal life, expecting specific instructions.
Today’s viewers may be surprised by the formulation of treating eternal life regarding inherited wealth. It is, however, a terminology that operates in Jewish tradition. Under the category of inheriting eternal life, God’s kingdom was understood adequately regarding the blessings given to Abraham and inherited by his descendants. The desire for such an inheritance suggests that this man did not identify with the views of the Sadducees, who recognized only temporal life. His declarations about fulfilling all the precepts of the Law may indicate ties to Pharisaic circles. However, these potential identifications are secondary to this narrative. Far more important is that the narrator shows us what this man’s problem was.
The reader can find the first clue in Jesus’ initial response to the question. Through a gentle rebuke, Jesus wants to put his interlocutor’s thinking on the right track. However, Jesus’ response can also surprise. In today’s first reading, from the Book of Wisdom, the gift of wisdom given by God is portrayed as a gift that surpasses all the goods of this world worth striving for. The man’s question looks like a desire for absolute good, for imperishable riches. One would, therefore, expect praise rather than reprimand from Jesus. Yet Jesus first emphasizes that only God is good, so only God gives perfect gifts. With this, Jesus draws his interlocutor’s attention to the fact that he should regard eternal life first and foremost as a gift whose Giver is God himself. In this way, Jesus emphasizes that the inheritance God bestows is not something one’s efforts and endeavors can obtain. Asking this man what he must do to gain eternal life betrays a kind of error in thinking.
Why, then, does Jesus immediately remind the interlocutor of the commandments of the Law? Why does he point to them as conditions of inheritance?
This is the second clue that exposes the problem of Jesus’ interlocutor. Note that Jesus does not list all the commandments of the Decalogue, nor does he enumerate them in a known order, either after Exodus or Deuteronomy. This by no means implies that the other commandments not listed were considered less important by Jesus or that he establishes a different hierarchy of commandment importance here. A similar, abbreviated version of the list of commandments can be found in the 13th chapter of the Letter to the Romans, with the addition that all the commandments are summed up in the commandment to love God and neighbor. This is their quintessence, the overarching principle. Jesus, in mentioning that the chosen rules of the Law are centered on the good of one’s neighbor, thus reminds us above all of the essences of its observance. Even the most scrupulous observance of precepts and prohibitions does not fulfill God’s Law if not backed up by the love of neighbor flowing from love for God. The Law of God, conceived as the love of God and neighbor, is the factor that ‘ushers in’ and entitles one to inherit.
The advice to sell what one possesses, give to the poor, and follow Jesus is thus, for Jesus’ interlocutor, on the one hand, a simple indication of what love of God and neighbor means in practice and, on the other hand, a kind of test to find out to what extent his observance of God’s Law follows from the commandment of love and how important is the treasure of eternal life that he desires.
Jesus’ statement does not suggest considering material poverty a necessary condition for receiving eternal life. It is about an attitude of sincere love that empowers one to consider all possessions insignificant in the face of the gift of eternal life, which only God can grant as His inheritance.
[Nothing in the narrative suggests that Jesus’ interlocutor is a man who has acquired wealth dishonestly and used it wickedly and should therefore give it away]. Jesus calls for people to follow him for a reason. First, out of love for the Father and man, he allows himself to be stripped of his glory to enable men to share in the Father’s inheritance. However, for the interlocutor of Jesus, this mystery is not yet available. It can, however, be recognized by the recipients of the Gospel.
For them, both Jesus’ advice and the narrative of the caller’s reaction as he walks away saddened provide a third clue to understanding the man’s danger. The narrative here reveals that, for Jesus’ interlocutor, having eternal life was not a desire more important than anything he had. He treated it on a par with the possession of other goods. However, he did not grasp the essence of wealth, which is eternal life, just as he did not grasp the nature of keeping the Law.
Later in the narrative, the evangelist leads the audience to an even deeper understanding of the meaning of this dialogue, exposing God’s role as the Giver of the gift of eternal life.
Jesus’ well-known words of comparison that it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God is a typical exaggeration used to emphasize the sense of the whole statement. Let us note that Jesus’ disciples understand the symbolic meaning of this statement very well. They realize the impossibility of such an action and relate it to the possibility of attaining the saving gifts of the Kingdom of God. This causes them anxiety.
The narrator thus shows that the disciples still need to follow Jesus’ explanations. They are at a similar level of thinking to the interlocutor Jesus just described. This is evident in the question they ask themselves: ‘Who, then, can be saved?’ which betrays that they consider man the main contributor to achieving the Kingdom of God. Therefore, Jesus again corrects such thinking by pointing out that what is impossible for man is no obstacle for God and emphasizes that God is the author; he grants the gift of God’s Kingdom.
Peter’s following statement, which sounds like self-love, expresses two theological issues that already troubled the Old Testament authors. Firstly, it reflects thinking regarding due retribution (good is rewarded, and evil is punished). This issue is considered, for example, in the Book of Job, which is just read in the liturgy and deals with the problem of understanding undeserved suffering.
The disciples expect some kind of reward for leaving everything and following Jesus. They recognize such a choice as a good that should be rewarded. Let us see that Jesus does not deny such thinking; on the contrary, his promise emphasizes the generosity of God’s gifts—no one who follows Jesus will be left without a reward.
The second issue is the nature of the expected retribution and its timing. In Jesus’ statement, this reward is not enigmatic nor concerns only the realm of the spirit, nor is it shifted entirely to the end times. Jesus does not deceive with an easy life but announces the experience of God’s generosity amid the tribulations of this life. At the same time, however, he shows that the pinnacle of God’s generosity is expressed in the bestowal of the inheritance of eternal life, giving a share in God’s life, the experience of which transcends temporality.
Amen! Shalom!
Dorota Muszytowska, born in Elbląg. She completed her theological studies in 1999 at the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw. In 2001, she completed postgraduate studies in contemporary editing with a specialization in editing at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, where she then continued her doctoral studies in biblical studies. Her doctoral dissertation, ”The Apostle of Christ Jesus. The image of an apostle in 2 Corinthians in the light of epistolary and rhetorical analysis’ written under Prof. Dr. Stanisław Mędala’s supervision, was defended in 2008. In 2016, she was awarded the Doctor of Theological Sciences in Biblical Studies degree at the Faculty of Theology, UKSW. From 2008 to 2022, she worked at the Faculty of Humanities at UKSW, heading the Department of Biblical Studies in Old Polish Literature and Rhetoric Department and serving as the Faculty’s Vice-Dean for Faculty and Financial Affairs from 2016 to 2019. Since 2022, he has worked at the Faculty of Theology of UKSW, currently in the Department of New Testament Exegesis. He specializes particularly in New Testament epistolography, mainly in the cultural context of these texts and in the research methodologies of epistolary literature.
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