“How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!”
When Jesus mentioned this to His disciples, their immediate reply was, “then who can be saved?” And I am very sure that the first time you read this verse, you have asked the same. Does this mean that a rich person is not worthy of entering Heaven? Does this mean that those who have more than the others are doomed to be in Hell? Of course, not!
The rich are not condemned because they are rich. Abraham, during his time, was a very wealthy man. And yet, he became the “father of many nations” to whose lineage, the Messiah would be born. Thus it was not the rich man's riches that were his undoing, but the use he made of them. Once we make the mistake of thinking that our wealth is for ourselves, and for ourselves alone, then it would really be very hard for us to enter the Kingdom of God.
The worldly wealth that we have becomes a blindfold, such that we fail to see the other side of our richness – like the poor who, like Lazarus, just remain there and eat the scraps from our sumptuous table. Our earthly possession becomes an earplug that forever kept us from hearing the pleas of the hungry as they content themselves with the little thing that we give them, thinking that it is enough for us to win Heaven.
Each of us has an enormous responsibility to share in appropriate ways the abundance of God's goodness to us. If we leave the needy and those we could easily help--physically, emotionally, or spiritually--sitting at our gate, then the gate may follow us into the next life, not as a passageway, but as a barrier separating us from the ultimate communion with God. Acknowledging Him as our Lord means abandoning our reliance on our own strength and wealth. Be generous in good deeds and be willing to share.
Almighty Father, I praise You with all my heart. Forgive me, Lord, for the sins I have committed against You and the people around me. I confess that I am a sinner and could not do anything by myself to reach your righteousness. I am humbled by Your love. Let me live as a new creation, with love in my heart. Let me love with actions and in truth, as Jesus Christ loves us, to the glory of God in the highest. Amen +
“Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” – Oscar Wilde
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