Notes on Mark 10:23-31
These notes supplement my podcast titled Last and First. The included translation is a working translation. Check out passages in your favorite Bible version.
23Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for those who have possessions to enter into the kingdom of God.”
I’m sure that the disciples were disappointed that they had not gotten such a valuable new addition to their ranks. They might have felt that he would be in competition for the best places, but each one would have assumed he would get the best place, and thus have this talented person in service.
Jesus crosses their disappointment by suggesting that the rich, who were normally regarded as exceptionally blessed, would have difficulty entering the kingdom.
For those who believe Jesus never taught righteousness by faith, this passage has to be a challenge. Jesus here is making it very clear that in order to enter the kingdom one must put one’s trust in him, and at the same time that those who have many other things to trust in will have grave difficulty doing it.
The textual variant in verse 24, “those who put their trust in riches” is probably a scribal effort to blunt the message, but it also does see part of the point. It’s the matter of trusting others. Because I am not rich, I might say that this passage doesn’t speak to me. But I might easily place my trust in my education, my talents, or my strength of will. Jesus is making the harder point, however, that simply because one has some things to trust in, one will find it difficult to put one’s trust in God.
If I am helpless, and my only possible option is to trust another person, I may make that leap. If I still think I can fix a situation myself, I’m strongly tempted to fix it myself. It isn’t just those who knowingly and openly trust; it’s all those who have that temptation who need God’s grace even to be willing to enter the kingdom.
24Now his disciples were amazed at his words, so Jesus answered them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter into the kingdom of God!
Mar 10:24 – Jesus saith to them, Children – See how he softens the harsh truth, by the manner of delivering it! And yet without retracting or abating one tittle: How hard is it for them that trust in riches – Either for defence, or happiness, or deliverance from the thousand dangers that life is continually exposed to. That these cannot enter into God’s glorious kingdom, is clear and undeniable: but it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a man to have riches, and not trust in them. Therefore, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom. — John Wesley
25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Camels are large animals used to transport heavy loads of valuable merchandise long distances. Jesus’ outlandish statement emphasized the point he was making. — Learning Bible (CEV) on Mark 10:25
“The verse means, strangely enough, what it says.” — IB Exposition on Mark 10:25
With the comment from the Interpreter’s Bible I thing enough said!
26They were even more amazed, saying to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27But Jesus, gazing at them, said, “For men it is impossible, but not for God. For all things are possible with God.”
Because they believed that prosperity was a sign of blessing, the disciples would have thought that the rich were the most likely to enter the kingdom not the least. Thus if those who have the special mark of God’s blessing cannot enter, who possibly can?
Barclay says of prosperity: “It is an acid test of a man. For a hundred men who can stand adversity only one can stand prosperity. Prosperity can so very easily make a man arrogant, proud, self-satisfied, worldly. It takes a really big and good man to be worthy of prosperity. –Daily Study Bible on Mark 10:23-27
28Peter said to him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you.” 29And Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, There is nobody who has left household or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake, and for the sake of the good news, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, households and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields with persecution, and in the coming age, eternal life.
Mar 10:30 – He shall receive a hundred fold, houses, &c. – Not in the same kind: for it will generally be with persecutions: but in value: a hundred fold more happiness than any or all of these did or could afford. But let it be observed, none is entitled to this happiness, but he that will accept it with persecutions. — John Wesley
God’s blessings can, in themselves, become temptations. There is the temptation especially to spiritual pride, but also to fall back from our complete trust in God and begin trusting in the material blessings he has given us, rather than in the one who gave us those blessings.
Often God denies us “blessings” because he knows we are not ready to receive them.
31But many who are first will be last, and those who are last will be first.” — Mark 10:23-31
Whatever you think God is going to do, whoever you think has the inside track with divinity, be prepared to be wrong! God doesn’t look at things as we do.
For a list of references I’m using regularly, see my previous notes entry.
Excellent discussion of this passage.
I’m sure it seems disingenuous to say this – but, there is a part of me that feels bad for celebrities and athletes that have so much money that they drown in their alternatives to God.
James 1:9,10 – “Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation …”
Since I have a son in professional baseball, though at the AAA level right now, I am in sympathy with your comment and I pray that he will continue to trust in God even as things get better from the temporal point of view.