Camels, Needles, and Riches

Jesus said an awful lot of hard things. And in the story of the rich young ruler, Jesus says two hard things: he says our understanding of riches and our understanding of moral goodness are wrong.

The rich young ruler is not only rich, but he’s also a man of exquisite moral character. Yet, Jesus sends him away. Jesus turns our common notions about wealth and goodness on top of their heads and he gives us new ones—ones that are explosively in contradiction with what the world thinks, but ones that, if we obey them, have the power of God exploding in our midst.

Let’s look at these two principles. Jesus tells us 1) something new about wealth and 2) something new about moral goodness.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 3, 1992. Series: Hard Sayings of Jesus (1993). Scripture: Mark 10:23.

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