Through the Eye of a Needle
week in review for the week ending August 3rd, 2025
Matthew 19:16-30 :: The Rich and the Kingdom of God
16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’[a] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
27 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”
28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife[c] or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
This Sunday Pastor Mark delivered his sermon on the camel passing through the eye of the needle. You can read the passage from Matthew above.
“Stop starving your camel, it won’t work.”
That’s the way Pastor Mark opened his sermon, meaning no matter how much we starve that camel, it won’t fit through the eye of the needle.
What if we let go? How do we let go of what blocks us from g-d?
Pastor Mark mentions three points —
Letting go for salvation
Letting go for discipleship
Let go and let g-d
Pastor Mark spoke of a works-based versus faith-based approach to g-d. We do not earn our way, we do not earn mercy. When we feel something missing, we cannot fill that longing for g-d with our deeds or possessions. Self effort can take us only part of the way, beyond that point, only faith and g-d’s mercy can do that. Through a personal relationship with g-d, through a decision to emulate the lessons Jesus taught, we can more easily let go (think serenity prayer).
Grace = unmerited.
Pastor Mark spoke of constantly letting go of self to embrace obedience in becoming the disciple g-d wants us to become. Reader, to me this signifies the ongoing nature of the task at hand, to be a better person necessarily entails discernment applied to sorting ourselves and letting go of what no longer serves us and keeping what can help us walk the narrow path, or pass through the eye of that needle. The eye of the needle Jesus mentions in the passage represents the narrow path we must walk to follow g-d. No matter how much you starve the camel it won’t fit through the eye of the needle. We cannot earn our way to heaven. Prosperity theology acts as a mirage.
(Incidentally, reader I don’t think we need to purge our lives of every worldly pleasure to embrace a g-centric life. Meaning, I’m not smashing my vinyl collection! Nah. Everyone finds their own path to g-d and I won’t judge anyone and expect that no one will judge me!)
Note the word “rich” used in line 24. Examine its meaning and the sentiment it’s trying to convey. There’s a sense of attachment in the way this word presents in the story. As in, unhealthy attachment to material things.
Self reflection and self examination feature heavily in the letting go process. We don’t do anything to earn a spot in heaven. That said, it’s not permission to do anything we want in life. We must walk the narrow path, relinquish our will, and follow g-d’s will.
Let’s ask ourselves—
Have we "let go" of self-righteousness and embraced righteousness by grace alone for salvation?
Are we constantly "letting go" of self and embracing obedience to become the disciple God desires us to be?
Trust in the Truth of g-d. Wrestle with the feeling of lack. Sit with it and know that nothing we do can fill that feeling, which serves as our invitation from Jesus to despair. To step off and not scream in fear means we reject the adversary’s temptation to despair and to engage self worship. We must get out of the way of ourselves. That means letting go of the hurt others caused, letting go of fear of the unknown. It means let go and let g-d. Worrying and fretting and staying bitter and angry at stuff we cannot control doesn’t accomplish anything — it starves the camel for naught. We are not meant to be solitary, we ought to hold the rope for one another. He that is in us versus He that’s in the world means the power of g-d within us has greater meaning for our journey than does the power of the world and its influencers pressing upon us.
Let’s remember that which g-d does for us, let’s accept the invitation to return to the table. Remember it’s not what we have done but it’s what He has done. Gratitude + grace + forgiveness seem like important steps we must take in this endeavour. They’re not one-time things we do, rather, they’re a path we take every day.
You can find the sermon recording below.
So, in the context of the last week, what does this sermon mean? Perhaps it means applying discernment in navigating the discourse around us? What do we carry with us, what do we release? Do we need that outrage crack pipe we love to smoke? Do we need that offense crack pipe to smoke? What if we put these aside, what if we smashed the outrage crack pipe and the offense crack pipe? What if we just looked at the world around us?
What if we looked passed our outrage and grievance and offense culture to really see the situation with the cancellation of Sean Feucht in Canada? What would we see when we let go of our addiction to our feelings about people and events? What would we see when we dig in with due diligence to look at the facts laid out before us? What if reasonable limits to free expression invites Canadians as a collective to think carefully about what we want for our country?
What if the progressive cancel culture mob stopped prioritising its feelings of safety from thoughts and ideas it doesn’t like and finds disagreeable, over the right to free expression? What would it see when it lets go of its addiction to feeling offended and labelling all uncomfortable feelings and thoughts as hateful?
What if the conservative outrage mob stopped prioritised its feelings over the value of examining facts? What if we could see that the outrage mob has tried to manipulate people into taking a position, like the progressive cancel culture mob has done? What if we could see these as the same behaviour, each with a distinct ideological flavour? What if we can’t have free expression without freedom of thought and belief and association? What if prosperity theologists who spew Christian nationalist political rhetoric don’t represent mainstream Christianity by any stretch?
Moving on, as we do.
What if we looked past the Hamas narratives, and the Kahanist narratives, what if looked past the greasy propaganda that the media tried to feed us, and what if we did our due diligence and saw the reality of the situation in the Middle East? What if Gazans do face food scarcity and food shortage, what if Hamas has stolen from Gazans, and looted aid, what if Netanyahu and his extremist coalition seek to destroy and punish Gazans, what if the world has ignored the hostages that have suffered for over 663 days in Gaza-Hamas hell? What if multiple conflicting things ring true? What if Kahanists don’t represent mainstream Zionism by any stretch? What if moderate Muslims don’t exist except in our imagination, because they simply moderate the radical violence at the core of Quran-based Islam, as opposed to existing as collective community of faith-based people sharing common g-centric universal human values?
“Our task is not to win arguments, rather to hold our humanity, to listen, to hold complexity with courage.” — Rabbi Dan Moscovitz
What if? What if we could step off the platform and let go of our self worship, of the idolatry of our feelings? What would we find when we did that?
Reflect very carefully the world you wish to live and live within, reader. That means what person would you like to be, internally? That means what community and society would you like to live, externally? Be the change you seek.
You have a choice. I have a choice. Yes, reader, we can choose how we respond in and for ourselves. And we can choose how we respond as a collective. We can choose what we let go of and what we keep.
There is no scapegoat. Blame and shame clogs our pathway, they become detritus that block our way forward. To use an analogy, grievance culture and cancel culture and self idolatry culture all act as fallen trees and branches that the wind storm has blown into the forest path, they damage the way that we need to walk forward. Engage. Crawl out of your feelings and worshipping your offense or outrage about whatever situation you face. Embrace the messiness and the complexity and nuance of human-ing.
Below the line you can find the articles I wrote over the past week, including my regular weekly column for the New Westminster Times. Last week’s Bad Hijabi stories ranged from the Carney’s latest dangerous and foolish foreign policy decision to announce his recognition of Palestine unilaterally whilst Israel and Hamas and the Arab League work feverishly to secure peace and the release of hostages, to Jimmy Savile and his relationship with then Prince Charles and the way Orange Man Bad Canadians have chosen to ignore it, to the grift of Sean Feucht (false prophet), to the hypocrisy of progressive Christians in the sociopolitical positions they espouse. In my New Westminster Times column I wrote about the madness of harm reduction and low barrier housing and what it looks like on the ground.
Stupidity: the Same as Evil if You Judge by the Results
“We make our own independent foreign policy decisions, Prime Minister Mark Carney said when asked by a reporter whether the U.S. was briefed on Canada’s decision to recognize Palestine as a state.” — CBC
Since We Are Talking About Heads of States Cavorting with Serial Predators
In a 1990 letter, then Prince and now King Charles wrote to Jimmy Savile, “You are so good at understanding what makes people operate and you’re wonderfully sceptical and practical!”
The Hypocrisy of Progressive Christianity
Progressive Christianity exhibits frustrating and disappointing hypocrisy and startling antisemitism of late.
Collective Insanity: Streets of Death :: New Westminster Times
Was just thinking of a refrain, a verse from Hotel California:
"Mirrors on the ceiling
The pink champagne on ice, and she said
"We are all just prisoners here
Of our own device"
And in the master's chambers
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLl4PZtxia8
Another quote, an echo from Vietnam War days, a documentary thereon in fact: the mills of the gods grind exceedingly slow but they grind exceedingly fine.