Pinhole

They say it's harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through an eye of a needle... (quoted from Matthew 18:24). 


I don't know much about this, i've never been really rich. Sure there's been times where i've been better off, but there’s also been many times where i've rubbed two cents together trying to create a third. Yet through the lowest and most difficult moments of my life i've never gone hungry, never gone begging, and i've never needed to steal to make ends meet. I guess God’s been good to me in this regard as i reflect on similar words found in Psalm 30:8-9.. 

Yet i’ve been pondering that small pinhole, the eye of the needle. How small does one need to be to pass through it? Or putting it into the context of the text, how poor do we need to be? And poor in what sense? Are we only talking about finances here?

Jesus taught in the beatitudes (Matthew 5) 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's is the Kingdom of heaven.' The term poor is used to describe those who are part of God's kingdom, who will see God. It seems He's not talking about finances here. Who are the poor in spirit? Are they the broken, the wounded, rejected and unwanted? If so, then who are the rich in spirit and what do they look like? Are they the wise, the well educated, the ones endowed with a stronger faith, perhaps a deeper spiritual heritage?

Who has more faith, the rich man or the poor man? Ask a rich man to move a mountain, if he's rich enough he probably could! He could hire workers, buy all the excavators, bulldozers and dump trucks he needs to do it. To accomplish this, does he have more faith than the poor man? Absolutely, since he has faith in the resources he has to get the job done!

It seems our view of faith becomes somewhat skewed as we view men of great faith, or men who accomplish great things in the name of faith. Is this a true measurement of their faith in God, or simply an expression of their faith in the resources they've been endowed with? There's a fine line between whom and what we put our faith in...

Jesus said we need faith the size of a mustard seed (Matt 17:20)... Why didn't he tell us we need more? Maybe that's the key. A mustard seed could fit through a pinhole and the eye of a needle. Perhaps it's never really been a question of how great our faith is, but whom we put our faith in. It may just be easier for the poor in spirit and small in faith to find the pinhole in great obstacles, and with faith as small as a mustard seed see the true greatness of God.