When his disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?”
In this verse, the disciples, hearing Jesus’ words about the rich, are astonished. Their astonishment has a serious reason: in the Jewish thinking of that time, the conviction was widespread that wealth is a blessing given by God, and that a rich person is pleasing to God. Therefore, if even a person who has wealth (who is blessed) cannot enter the kingdom of God, then who can? It is as if they are saying, “If even those who are considered symbols of righteousness and success cannot be saved, then what hope is there for the rest?” This astonishment shows that the disciples were still, in reality, thinking about salvation in terms of human merit. They could not imagine that the kingdom of heaven is obtained through humility of heart and through the grace of God, not through outward prosperity or mere keeping of the law. This question, “Then who can be saved?” is spoken with pure sincerity. And it is precisely this question that prepares for Jesus’ comforting answer in the next verse.