23
This was the last thing the official expected to hear. He was very rich and became terribly sad. He was holding on tight to a lot of things and not about to let them go.
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Seeing his reaction, Jesus said, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who have it all to enter God's kingdom?
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I'd say it's easier to thread a camel through a needle's eye than get a rich person into God's kingdom."
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"Then who has any chance at all?" the others asked.
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"No chance at all," Jesus said, "if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it."
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Peter tried to regain some initiative: "We left everything we owned and followed you, didn't we?"
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"Yes," said Jesus, "and you won't regret it. No one who has sacrificed home, spouse, brothers and sisters, parents, children - whatever -
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will lose out. It will all come back multiplied many times over in your lifetime. And then the bonus of eternal life!"
31
Then Jesus took the Twelve off to the side and said, "Listen carefully. We're on our way up to Jerusalem. Everything written in the Prophets about the Son of Man will take place.
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He will be handed over to the Romans, jeered at, made sport of, and spit on. Then, after giving him the third degree, they will kill him.
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In three days he will rise, alive."