Why did Jesus say, "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.”

This statement by Jesus follows His conversation with a man referred to as a ruler in the Gospel of Luke, but otherwise goes unnamed. It must have been someone with significant wealth, because Matthew 19:22 says,

After the man leaves, Jesus turns to His disciples and makes a startling statement:

Then He drives the point home with a vivid image:

It’s a strange and striking picture. So where did it come from — and what does it mean?

Jesus’ Use of Hyperbole

Jesus often used hyperbole — deliberate exaggeration — to make His teachings memorable and impactful. In an oral culture, this was common among Jewish rabbis. They didn’t have PowerPoint slides or printed handouts; they had to make truth stick through vivid imagery, humor, and exaggeration.

Here are a few examples of hyperbole in Jesus’ teaching:

Removing the Eye / Cutting Off the Hand

Matthew 5:29–30

Jesus isn’t promoting self-mutilation. He’s using extreme imagery to stress how seriously we should deal with sin — that it’s better to lose something precious than to let sin destroy your soul.

The Log in Your Eye

Matthew 7:3–5

The contrast between a tiny speck and a huge beam is intentionally absurd. Jesus is calling out hypocrisy with humor and exaggeration — we’re often blind to our own faults while spotting the smallest flaw in others.

Straining Out a Gnat but Swallowing a Camel

Matthew 23:24

Both gnats and camels were unclean animals under Jewish law (Leviticus 11). Jesus humorously exposes the Pharisees’ obsession with minor ritual details while ignoring weightier matters like justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

Faith That Moves Mountains

Matthew 17:20

This isn’t about physically relocating mountains. It’s hyperbolic encouragement — that even small, sincere faith in God unleashes His power to accomplish what seems humanly impossible.

The Camel and the Needle

So when Jesus spoke of a camel going through the eye of a needle, His listeners would have recognized the absurdity of the image. The camel was the largest animal in that region, and a needle’s eye the smallest opening they could imagine.

It was a vivid way of saying, “It’s impossible.”

The point wasn’t about an actual gate in Jerusalem (the so-called “needle’s eye gate,” which is a later legend), but about impossibility apart from God. Jesus used this shocking metaphor to expose the danger of trusting in wealth, status, or personal achievement to gain eternal life.

The Heart of the Teaching

When the disciples heard Jesus say this, they were amazed and asked, “Who then can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25). In their world, wealth was often seen as a sign of God’s blessing. If even the “blessed” rich couldn’t enter, who could?

Jesus answered:

That’s the key. The issue isn’t wealth itself — it’s trust .Those who rely on riches, reputation, or good works to secure eternal life will discover that entrance into God’s kingdom can’t be achieved that way.

Salvation isn’t earned. It’s received by grace, through faith, when we depend fully on God rather than on ourselves.

The Point

Jesus’ image of the camel and the needle isn’t meant to exclude the wealthy from heaven. It’s meant to remind us that no one — rich or poor — can enter the kingdom by their own means.

The gate is narrow, not because God is unwilling, but because we can’t bring our self-sufficiency with us.

In other words:

The camel can only pass through the needle’s eye when God does the impossible. And the rich — like everyone else — must come empty-handed, trusting entirely in Him.