As fascinating as that exchange is, the real story is the “meeting after the meeting” when Jesus dropped a theological bomb on the disciples.  “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.  I say it again – it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Matt. 19:23-24). 

The text does not give details of how much time passed between Jesus’ statement and the disciples’ question, but I have always imagined that Jesus just spoke those words matter-of-factly and walked on as though that truth were as self-evident as the color of the sky.  The disciples must have exchanged furtive glances and motioned to each other, hoping someone would ask for a little clarification.  How rich, they surely wondered, was too rich?  After all, some of them had fishing businesses back in Galilee.  Others must have had some possessions or enterprises, some inheritance of property or wealth coming their way.  Did this exclude them from the kingdom?  Did this bar the way to eternal life?  Hearing their questions and worry, Jesus at first said nothing to assuage their concerns.  In fact, He widened their cause of worry from the wealthy narrow segment of society to everyone.  “Humanly speaking,” He answered, “it is impossible.” 

Ouch.  That must have hurt.  Jesus just told them that salvation is impossible.

I always picture Jesus allowing a few seconds to pass in order to let the full weight of His words settle heavily on the minds of His followers.  Just when their eyes must have widened in worry and their jaws clenched in fear, Jesus added, “but with God everything is possible.”  In that brief moment, Jesus unmasked all of humanity’s efforts to achieve righteousness apart from Him, but at the same time He revealed a Father who devised a way to redeem a people for Himself.  His very presence, in fact, was the impossible way God could reach men like them.

Even in the ordinary, everyday press of people who came to Jesus for an answer to their questions and a solution to their problems, Jesus put theology — the knowledge of the divine — at the center of His thought and teaching.  Whether casting out demons, loving on little children, or forgiving people long caught in sin, Jesus used the occasion to teach theological truth, to say something about the character of God and even His own identity with God the Father.

When Jesus placed theological truth at the core of His preaching, He placed Himself there.  His preaching and activity was filled with claims about His deity.  When the four men lowered a paralytic through the roof for Jesus to heal him, Jesus first forgave his sins, thereby claiming a divine prerogative (Mark 2:5).  He did not blink when He claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life apart from which no one could come to the Father (John 14:6).  Ultimately, Jesus warned, He would be the one who is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father (Matt. 16:27) and separate the sheep from the goats in judgment (Matt. 25:31-46).