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In our Gospel reading, Jesus tells the Disciples how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. The Disciples react to this news in shock, wondering who then can be saved.
There are some who would like to suggest how ridiculous the Disciples are being after all they have seen in their ministry with Jesus, and maybe there are some of us who would suggest the same. However, if we look back in the Tanakh, the Old Testament, we will begin to see why the Disciples feel this way.
Abraham may not have received the full fulfillment of God's promise to him in his lifetime, as we heard on Sunday, but he had a lot of goods. In fact, he had so much stuff, he and his nephew Lot parted ways so that their animals could each have their own land to graze on.
The great King Solomon was told to ask anything he desired from God. Solomon said he wanted wisdom and so God granted him that and all the treasure and wealth Solomon could have asked for instead, but didn't. There are many other stories of leaders with wealth who were highly favored by God.
This is not to say the poor aren't highly favored too. We have the story of Elijah as one example (we might point out his follower Elisha had a very different financial situation). We also have the laws of Torah and the prophets that command the Israelites to treat the poor in their midst well. Yet it often seems that riches are a sign that one is highly favored by God. I would even venture that we often feel the same way today.
Jesus turns this notion on it's head. Riches lead to comfort, and the life that Jesus is calling us to is not one of comfort. It means not clinging to anyone or anything but Jesus. It means giving things up at times. While Jesus does say we will receive a hundred fold for following Him (the homes and family Jesus mentions resulting primarily from a life of constant travel and visiting others in the name of the Gospel), hidden almost imperceptibly in that list of things we will receive is "persecutions".
The walk with Jesus is not easy. We do not do so out of comfort. We don't follow Jesus to be the best or to receive some prize in this world. We do so out of love for our Lord and because it is right.
"The first will be last, and the last will be first." Put another way, "The power of God is made perfect in weakness." That is what we hear time and time again. It is not the externals that prove whether God is on our side or not, but rather what we do as we make the journey with our Lord.