Is it hard being rich?
It is almost an odd question, isn’t it? How could it be “hard” to be rich? Being rich makes everything easier, doesn’t it? Money is how we grease the wheels of progress. The right amount of money to have is “more.”
I think it is hard being rich and while I have my own reasons for thinking this, Jesus gives a pretty good reason himself in today’s Gospel lesson.
“Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.'” (Mark 10:23-25 NRSV)
Those are Jesus’ words, not mine. And let’s get one thing clear, there was NEVER a gate called the “Eye of the Needle” where camels had to be unloaded before they could crawl through. I’m sorry if you heard it from a much-loved minister. It is completely untrue and made up. It has been floating around since the 11th century but old does not equal true. But enough of that.
The difficulty of combining wealth with the Kingdom of God does not mean we are all called to poverty because we aren’t. What it does mean is that wealth throws up roadblocks that the poor don’t have to work through. The sermon talks about some of these difficulties. Let me know if you think I missed anything important.
Blessings,
