[Zanni]

Rope and needle are close enough in scale that passing the one through the other is merely improbable. Consider a thin rope and a large needle, for example. You could also unbraid a rope and pass it through a needle, strand by strand, and reconstruct it on the other "side." Much harder to do with a camel.

[DebtDeflation]

Except that the rope in question here is a "seafaring" rope used by sailors. If you're familiar with nautical rope, it has no more possibility of passing through the eye of even the largest sail needle than a camel does.

[acdha]

This is true but I don’t think this was aimed at people who were going to deeply contemplate it as a serious metaphor. It seems more along the lines of effective altruism, designed to let people sleep comfortably while enjoying the pleasures of wealth now while saying that they would thin the rope with a massive donation later (why do you even need to ask?), which the church could very conveniently help receive.