Chapter 7 Summary

The major theme of chapter seven is money, especially problems the rich will have if they continue to live there excessive lives. The chapter starts off by saying that money and the kingdom are “diametrically opposed” to one another. You cannot serve one while continuing to serve the other, it has to be a God filled life or a money obsessed life.
Some of the toughest stuff to accept in the gospels are money related. Especially the fact that the kingdom of God is a “kingdom of the poor.” This implies that the kingdom of God is not a kingdom for the rich. Jesus even said, “it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle then a rich person to enter heaven.” This quote basically says if you are rich, you will not get into heaven, even the disciples were astounded at this statement.
According to biblical passage, the only way for a person to gain access into heaven is to give up all there riches and cease to live a life of excess. Such is the case with parable of the rich man in the bible, he said to Jesus that he had followed all his laws and commandments and asked what else he could do to gain access into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus told the man to give up all his possessions and to live with him, “the man sadly walked away, for he had many possessions.”
The chapter then takes a shift to sharing. Matthew 6:19-21 is brought up, this verse talks about how Jesus expected his disciples to leave all there worldly possessions to follow him. The material things the disciples were expected to give up were not important to Jesus, things live caring for the poor and sharing were. Luke 14 13-14 is also brought up. In it Jesus say if a rich man is to have a party, to invite the poor, beggars and cripples and not the rich. He said that even though these people cannot pay you back, that you should be happy with what you have and not take it for granite. This parable relates to Jesus’ quote, “whatsoever you do for the least of my people, that you do onto me.” Jesus is not concerned with the rich or his place in society, but caring for the poor and sick and catering to their needs.
The focus of the chapter then turns to the loaves and fishes parable. It is said that the actual miracle of multiplying fourteen loaves and fishes might have never happened. The real miracle might have been that everybody was willing to share, something people were not necessarily willing to do back then, and the lesson is that even though people shared in the end there were still fourteen baskets of food leftover. The first Christian community is then brought up. It was said in Acts 2: 44-46, that “the faithful owned everything in common; they sold there goods and possessions and shared the proceeds among themselves according to what others needed… they shared food generously and graciously. Anyone that owned land would sell it and give the money to the apostles who would redistribute the money to anyone in need.” These people lived how Jesus wanted them to, selfless and worrying about the needs of others over their own.
This is not to say Jesus was in favor of poverty. He just did not want people to care too much about worldly possessions, but instead to care about the important things like other people. Jesus hoped one day for a “kingdom” of world-wide community with no rich or poor, where everyone was equal.