Hindering Attachments
Have you ever seen those video reels of trucks with high loads trying to go under bridges lacking the height to accommodate?
I worked for U-Haul for a time as a lot foreman when I was around 18 years of age. I was asked to go to Burger King to get everyone's lunch, but all I had to get there was a motorcycle. So, they let me take a U-Haul truck. I ordered from the drive-through, and when I drove around for pickup, I noticed a canopy. However, I didn't realize the truck wouldn't fit under it until I got it stuck underneath it while trying to pull through. The Burger King manager was not very pleased with me, nor was my boss when he got the news.
I would need a smaller vehicle to get through that drive-through freely.
Mark 10:25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
It is said that there was a gate in Jerusalem called the eye of the needle. A camel could only get through it if they unloaded first. It would not make it through with all its packs onboard. In this metaphor, Jesus was speaking of the difficulty someone has in letting go of something they hold dear, and have put their trust in; in this case, it is money.
Have you ever noticed how hard it can be to say goodbye to something that holds real sentimental value or a profound nostalgic sense of worth? Especially if it was something you trusted and thought to be dependable.
When my girls and firstborn son were little, we had an old Oldsmobile Delta 88 that was yellow. I had to take my wife to the hospital to have our fourth child, our youngest son, and while there, a record-breaking blizzard in March hit our area. I had just reworked the heads on that car and had only filled it with water to test it before heading out to the hospital. I had no idea we would get a blizzard. Well, the engine block froze and cracked horizontally. The car engine was useless. As the car hauler drove away with that car to scrap it, my kids were in the doorway of our home, with tears in their eyes. They didn't want to let it go. To them, that was a reliable and safe car, and they wanted to keep it.
People can be this way with old religious systems. It's like having a comfortable old pair of jeans full of holes. They just want to hang on to them. This has been the case when it comes to the need for all to shed the Old Covenant and its laws and systems. Some people are so comfortable with it and nostalgic about it that they just do not want to let it go.
It is a fact that you cannot put on a new pair of jeans over an old pair and be comfortable.
Hebrews 8:13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
To enjoy the full benefits of the New Covenant, where all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ, one must let go of the ministry of death, which is the law. The two will not go together. There must be a willingness to let go of the hindering attachment one has to the law if they wish to prosper in the New Covenant life. We are called to put all our trust in the finished work of Christ at the cross.
