This is how yesterday's story continues:

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.”

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10 23 – 27 NIV)

Is that an absurd story? The eye of a needle is so small that often when sewing I have problems getting the thread through. Well, some people argue that there had been a gate in Jerusalem which had been so narrow and low that camels did not really get through, and this gate had been called eye of the needle.

But the question here is not whether Jesus meant that narrow gate in the Jerusalem city wall or whether he really meant an eye of a needle. The point is that obviously richness can be a big obstacle when people want to be saved.

But what shall we be saved from? Do I need salvation at all? Somebody who is in great distress needs to be saved. When there is a big flood, people might be caught by the water and will need to be rescued, or the fire brigade rescues people from a burning house.

But we are living along quite normally with more or less sorrows, and more or less happily. What kind of salvation are we talking about here?