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These seemingly randomly inserted passages do fit the previous theme of learning to see people how God sees them: Few rich people in heaven, a camel through the eye of a needle, a warning about the restoration of Yeshua three days after humiliation and suffering, healing of a blind man, repentance of Zakkai (Zaccheus) the tax collector, parable of 10 coins for servants of a king.
Gossip is not harmless. God compares it to murder and character assassination, lowering someone’s status in the hearts of other people. This is part of a long running train of thought about who is worthy enough to be in God’s inner circle? Who are the righteous?
We need to be extremely careful about assuming that a particular person is lower in God’s eyes than we are because if that person is approaching God with a request for mercy and taking baby steps towards Him, God will not be silent if “mature” believers crush that person’s efforts to approach God.
Camel holy through the eye of a needle
The ruler who approached Yeshua in Luke 18:18-30 comes to Yeshua in self-righteousness. He was quick to assume that he was already perfect in God’s eyes, yet he knew his merit wasn’t enough because he asked Yeshua, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He knew he was lacking somehow.
Yeshua reached to the heart of the issue when he told the ruler that he needed to stop trusting in his wealth (Luke 18:22).
Rabbinic writings talk about about זכות zekhut, translated as merit. Teachings on it were common in the first century and merit was defined as acts of selflessness and repentance not earning one’s salvation.
The phrase “a camel through the eye of the needle” (Luke 18:25) is similar to the common rabbinic idiom “an elephant going through the eye of a needle.”It describes an impossible or unrealistic interpretation of scripture. Yeshua is saying that the spiritual inertia for a rich man to trust God over his wealth is overwhelming.
How do you keep your “new life” through the Messiah going? This ruler is having a problem breaking from his “old life.” He actually has “grief” when hit with being asked to give up all his wealth, giving up his stuff to follow Yeshua (Luke 18:23). Even giving up one’s friends, who are bad for us and dragging us down a dark path, is difficult. When you make those breaks, you become a different person.
Coming humiliation, glorification of the Messiah
Yeshua then warned his students again that He did not come to be served, but to serve (Luke 18:31–34). It was the Master’s mission to live the path God revealed through the prophets of destruction and restoration. He was to be turned over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor over the province called Iudea (Judea). He was not a nice guy, he was a tyrant and Pilate was such a bad ruler that the ultimate tyrant, the Emperor of Rome, had to recall Pilate out of Judea because of the many complaints against him.
Israel as a nation went through many of the same highs and lows that Messiah went through. God’s “servant,” as the prophet Yeshiyahu (Isaiah) foretold, would follow such a path but bring ultimate victory through service rather than pride.
Sight for the blind
The next account is Yeshua’s healing a blind man, called bar-Timeaus (Luke 18:35-43). Luke did not insert this passage randomly. It fits well into a discussion of true trust in God over trust in one’s purportedly sufficient physical, material or spiritual might. This text in Greek uses an unusual poetic word for eyes.
“The use of an usual poetic word for eyes and the statement that they followed him may be intended to suggest that the story symbolizes the curing of spiritual blindness which leads to discipleship.” —New Bible Commentary
The Greek word for the literal eye is ὀφθαλμός ophtalomos. This is where our word for eye doctor — ophthalmologist — comes from. The Greek word omma has no relation to the German word ὄμμα omma for grandmother or Korean word omma for mother. The Greek omma is a poetic word meaning eye or sight. The account of bar-Timaeus’ healing fits in well with a running discussion since the meaning of Luke 15 that those who we consider unworthy of the Master’s attention are the not the same as those that man considers unworthy of consideration.
God can grab someone’s attention at any point and time and use the most unusual means to do so.
Rich young ruler vs. Zakkai & parable of 10 slaves
The tax collectors of Roman times were the most corrupt of society. Not only did the collect the burdensome amount required by the Romans themselves but added even more to it to collect for themselves and often made themselves very wealthy at the expense of the people they were collecting from.
Zakkai put his money where his mouth was on zekhut — repentance (Luke 19:1–10). Torah says if you defraud or steal from someone, you are to reimburse them 20 percent, yet Zakkai repays those he defrauded four times as much. He was showing, with his money, that he no longer put his money in wealth.
Stemming off that account into the parable of the 10 coins, called mina, Yeshua taught that God can take away and restore in full (Luke 19:11–27).
Speaker: Jeff. Summary: Tammy.
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