This year we saw both Apple and Amazon hit 1 trillion dollars in market capitalization. That sounded like a lot of money, so I looked it up, and 1 trillion dollars is a thousand billion dollars. It’s a million million dollars. John D. Rockefeller, however, would not be impressed. Adjusted for inflation, his Standard Oil was worth at least a trillion dollars in 1900. Go back even further, to 1637, and the Dutch East India Company, again, adjusted for inflation, was worth 7.9 trillion dollars.
As you can see, I went down a bit of google rabbit hole on all this, which led me to the world’s largest employers. Number one is our own Department of Defense, with 3.2 million employees, followed not that closely by the Peoples Liberation Army of China at 2.3 million. But close on the heals of the largest standing army in the world: (any guesses?) Walmart. The Walton kids have very large inheritances.
The word inheritance is going to become important here. But first, one of the most controversial things Jesus ever said.
“Jesus’ image about a camel going through the eye of a needle is so startling and so challenging in its application that scribes and commentators have tried to tone down its language.”[1] Some scholars think we must have screwed up the transcription of the Greek word kamelon, with an e, meaning camel; they think it should have been kamilon, with an i, meaning rope. But that theory is a bit strained.
“Another effort to soften the blow of this saying comes from commentators who like the idea that “eye of the needle” might be applied to a narrow gate—the kind of gate that it would be difficult to get a loaded camel through, but if you unloaded the camel and maybe gave him a good greasing, you just might be able to squeeze him through that gate. Another nice try! Scholars note that we know of no gate called Needle’s Eye. Moreover, there is a parallel Talmudic saying about the impossibility of an elephant going through the eye of a needle that suggests that this kind of image for impossibility was at home in the Semitic world.”[2]
We just have to accept that Jesus said what Jesus said, which, especially at the time He said it, was shocking. Rich people are generally admired, if not envied, and the entire American system is based on the possibility, at least, of anyone getting rich. Rich people, at least good rich people, build churches, support programs, or like J.P. Morgan, bail out an entire government. If a camel has a better chance of making it through the eye of a needle than a rich person getting into heaven, what chance do normal people have?
Well, let’s take the rich young ruler in today’s Gospel. He was, on inspection, a righteous man. He kept the commandments, and we can assume that if he was the type of person to ask Jesus about eternal life, that he was truly a good man, a man who looked for God. But when Jesus tells him to sell all that he has, give it all to the poor, and follow Him, the man couldn’t face it, literally; he hung his head and wandered off. It seems that didn’t have many possessions as much as many possessions had him. Mark tells us that Jesus had looked upon this young man and loved him, wanted the best for him, and so Jesus must have hung His head low in sadness as the man walked away.
The answer to all of this lies in the words of the rich man himself. He asked Jesus, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” I told you the word inheritance would come up. See the problem? One does not do anything to get an inheritance – you don’t earn an inheritance. You receive an inheritance. God’s promise to us to share in the inheritance of His kingdom is not something we earn, but something that can only be received. The rich young ruler, so used to achieving things on his own, put his trust in his stuff, and put his own present comfort over the gift of eternal life.
So do you need to leave here, call the people who do estate sales, and give the proceeds to the poor? Maybe. Only you know the answer to that. Do you own your possessions, or do your possessions own you? You can tell by the hold you keep on them; you can tell by if you work to hoard possessions, or if your possessions work to the benefit of others.
Jesus tells us today to make people our priority, to make our relationship with God and with others our prime possession. You do that, and you’ve got quite an inheritance coming.
Domine, non sum dignus 