The Camel and the Needle
Introduction: The Great Obstacle Course
We live in a world that is obsessed with self-improvement. The fundamental assumption of our age is that man is basically good, and just needs a little coaching, a few life hacks, or perhaps a better political system to achieve his full potential. This is the religion of "what must I do?" It is the native tongue of the fallen human heart. We want a checklist. We want a manageable series of tasks. We want to be able to stand before God, or at least before our own conscience, and say, "I did it. I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps."
This is the mindset of the man who approaches Jesus in our text. He is not a disreputable character. He is a ruler. He is wealthy, which in that culture was often seen as a sign of divine favor. He is morally upright, at least by his own estimation. He is sincere. He comes to Jesus with the most important question a person can ask. And yet, he walks away from the only one who can answer it, sad and still lost. Why?
This passage is a direct assault on the religion of human achievement. It is designed to show us that the problem is not that we are failing the obstacle course of salvation. The problem is that we think it is an obstacle course at all. Jesus is not here to give us a better map for the course; He is here to tell us that the course is impossible for us to run. Salvation is not a reward for the swift, but a rescue for the dead. And the thing that most often keeps us from realizing our desperate need for rescue is the very thing we hold up as our qualification: our own goodness, our own wealth, our own righteousness.
This man came to Jesus wanting to know what he needed to do to get eternal life into his portfolio. Jesus showed him that to have eternal life, he had to liquidate the entire portfolio. This is a hard lesson, and it is just as necessary for us in our affluence as it was for him in his.
The Text
And a ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULtery, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’ ” And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” And when Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack: sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. And come, follow Me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.” And Peter said, “Behold, we have left all that is our own and followed You.” And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.
(Luke 18:18-30 LSB)
The Flattering Question (v. 18-19)
The encounter begins with a respectable man asking a religious question.
"And a ruler questioned Him, saying, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.'" (Luke 18:18-19 LSB)
The man's question reveals his entire theological framework. "What shall I do?" He believes salvation is a task to be performed. "To inherit..." He thinks of eternal life as a possession to be acquired, like a piece of property. He is operating entirely within a system of works-righteousness. He wants to know the final item on the checklist that will secure his inheritance.
He addresses Jesus as "Good Teacher." This is a polite, but ultimately shallow, compliment. Jesus immediately pushes back, not by denying His own goodness, but by challenging the man's definition of it. "Why do you call Me good?" Jesus is forcing the issue. He is saying, in effect, "You are using a word that you do not understand. There is only one standard of goodness, and that is the absolute, perfect goodness of God Himself. Are you calling me 'good' as a casual compliment, as you might call any respectable rabbi 'good'? Or do you recognize that you are standing before the very embodiment of the goodness of God? Because if you do, your question will change entirely."
This is a presuppositional challenge. Jesus is driving the man back to his ultimate standard. Before we can talk about doing good things, we must first establish what "good" even is. And the Bible's answer is that goodness is not a set of behaviors; it is the very character of God. The man wanted to talk about ethics; Jesus forced him to talk about theology.
The Moral Resume (v. 20-22)
Jesus, knowing the man's heart, decides to engage him on his own terms for a moment.
"You know the commandments... And he said, 'All these things I have kept from my youth.' And when Jesus heard this, He said to him, 'One thing you still lack...'" (Luke 18:20-22 LSB)
Jesus points him to the second table of the Law, the commandments that govern our relationships with other people. He knows this is the man's strong suit. The man confidently replies that he has kept them all. And in an external, superficial sense, he probably had. He hadn't literally murdered anyone. He hadn't committed adultery. He was a pillar of the community. He had a clean record.
But this is the great deception of legalism. It confuses external conformity with internal righteousness. The law was given not to be a ladder by which we climb up to God, but a mirror to show us how far we have fallen. This man looked in the mirror of the law and, seeing his clean suit and tidy hair, thought he was righteous. He failed to see the cancer of greed and self-sufficiency in his heart.
So Jesus performs spiritual surgery. "One thing you still lack: sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. And come, follow Me." This is not a new law for all Christians. This is a specific prescription for a specific disease. The man's wealth was his idol. It was his security, his identity, and his functional god. He had not broken the sixth or seventh commandment, but he was shattering the first: "You shall have no other gods before me."
Jesus exposes this by commanding him to do the one thing his idol would not permit. He offers him a trade: your fleeting, earthly treasure for eternal, heavenly treasure. And then He gives the positive command that is at the heart of the gospel: "Come, follow Me." Salvation is not about getting rid of your stuff. It is about getting rid of your idols so that you can cling to Christ alone.
The Impossible Camel (v. 23-27)
The man's reaction tells the whole story.
"But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich... And Jesus looked at him and said, 'How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'" (Luke 18:23-25 LSB)
His sadness was the proof of his idolatry. He loved his money more than he wanted eternal life. He came to Jesus seeking to add God to his assets, but he was unwilling to make God his only asset. He went away sad, but the crucial thing is that he went away.
Jesus then gives one of His most famous and startling illustrations. It is not just hard for a rich man to be saved; it is impossible. We should not try to soften this by imagining a gate in Jerusalem called "the needle's eye" that a camel could squeeze through if it took off its baggage. That is a sentimental fable invented centuries later. Jesus means a literal sewing needle and a literal camel. The point is absolute, categorical impossibility from a human standpoint.
Why is it impossible? Because wealth provides a powerful illusion of self-sufficiency. It insulates a person from the kind of desperation that recognizes a need for a savior. The rich man's trust is in his portfolio. His security is in his bank account. To enter the kingdom, he must become poor in spirit, and his material poverty is often the last thing he is willing to part with.
The disciples are stunned. "Then who can be saved?" If the rich, who seem so blessed and capable, cannot make it, what hope is there for anyone? And Jesus gives the answer that is the foundation of all Christian hope: "The things that are impossible with people are possible with God." Salvation is not a human project. It is a divine miracle. It is God doing for us what we could never, ever do for ourselves. It takes a miracle for a rich man to be saved. It takes the very same miracle for a poor man to be saved. We are all the camel. The law is the needle's eye. And only God can perform the miracle of getting us through.
The Great Exchange (v. 28-30)
Peter, ever the spokesman, contrasts their situation with the ruler's.
"And Peter said, 'Behold, we have left all that is our own and followed You.' And He said to them, 'Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.'" (Luke 18:28-30 LSB)
It sounds a bit self-congratulatory, but Jesus does not rebuke him. He affirms the principle. The ruler was unwilling to give up his treasure to follow Jesus. The disciples had done just that. And Jesus promises them a glorious return on their investment. But notice the nature of the return. It is not a promise of material wealth. It is a promise of "many times more" in "this time." This refers to the new family, the new community, the riches of fellowship and life within the Church.
If you give up a brother for Christ, you gain a hundred brothers in the church. If you give up a house, you are welcomed into a hundred homes. The kingdom of God creates a new society with riches that make the ruler's wealth look like pocket change. And then, in the age to come, you receive the very thing the ruler was seeking: eternal life.
The difference is the motivation. The ruler wanted to do something to get eternal life. The disciples left everything to get Christ. And in getting Christ, they got everything else thrown in. This is the logic of the kingdom. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33). The ruler sought the "things" first, and as a result, he lost both them and the kingdom.
Conclusion: The God of the Impossible
This story is in the Bible to crush our self-confidence. We are all the rich young ruler. We all have our treasures, our idols, the things we clutch tightly and believe we cannot live without. We all have our moral resumes, the list of good deeds we think makes us acceptable to God.
Jesus comes to us, as He came to this man, and puts His finger on our idol. He demands that we sell it. He commands that we abandon our trust in our own righteousness. He calls us to stop asking "What must I do?" and to start confessing "I can do nothing."
The good news is not that we can, with great effort, squeeze ourselves through the needle's eye. The good news is that what is impossible for us is the specialty of God. On the cross, Jesus Christ, who was truly rich, became poor for our sakes, so that we through His poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). He perfectly kept the law we could not keep. He paid the debt we could not pay. He is the one who makes it possible for camels to pass through needles. He does this by making us new creatures. He does not just get the old camel through; He transforms the camel into something that fits.
Salvation is a miracle of divine grace from beginning to end. The question is not whether you are good enough, or rich enough, or have done enough. The only question is whether you have abandoned all hope in yourself and have come, with empty hands, to follow Him.