Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:23, NIV
Matthew 19:16-30 records the story of the rich, young man who came to Jesus asking Him what “good” thing he could do to inherit eternal life. Being apparently more enamored with his possessions than with eternal life, we’re told the man left Jesus “sorrowful”. It is here Jesus tells his disciples how difficult it is for a rich person to “enter the kingdom of heaven”.
The same story could be told substituting someone extremely brilliant for the rich, young man. You might also substitute someone incredibly gifted with a particular talent (athlete, musician, actor, politician, etc.) for the rich, young man and still tell the same basic story.
Why—pride. Those with riches or the extremely gifted have a tendency to become exclusively self-reliant. It is this tendency to rely upon their own resources; the “I don’t need you—I’ll do it myself” attitude, i.e., pride, which keeps them from trusting in our all-sufficient God.
Do notice Jesus used the word “hard” in verse 23, not the word “impossible”. Certainly there are those rich, brilliant, and incredibly gifted that have accepted the gift of salvation—the point, however, is that pride can be a huge stumbling block for many. In fact, verse 30 of the same chapter says, “many who are first will be last, and the last first” –further dialog concerning the proud versus the humble.
This same theme is found many places throughout the Scripture including 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. We are told God uses the foolish to confound the wise; the weak to confound the strong; therefore, if we are to boast in anything, we are to boast in the Lord. We can always trust in the sufficiency of our great and awesome God.
God Bless!
