Good Morning Friends,
“Peter said to him, ‘We have left everything
to follow you!’ ‘I tell you the truth,’
Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or
father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a
hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers,
children and fields -- and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come,
eternal life. But many who are first
will be last, and the last first.’” (Mark 10:28-31)
Jesus never softened the cost involved in
following Him. Just before this
interchange between Jesus and His apostles, He had told a rich young man that
the one thing he lacked to gain eternal life was to sell everything he owned
and give it to the poor. What a
cost!? The point Jesus was making was
that money and possessions, for that rich man, had become so important that
they kept him from following God, so they had to be dealt with radically.
Sometimes it does cost people to follow
Jesus. It cost the apostles. They rarely saw their families because they
were traveling with Jesus. They had left
their jobs and businesses behind and were suffering financially for it. And, down the road, the costs would get even
higher for them. All but John would be
killed for following Jesus, and John would be exiled to a lonely prison island
for his role in the kingdom. It would
cost them all a great deal to follow Jesus.
Jesus’ point in this passage is that it’s
worth it. No matter what it costs, it’s
worth it. God will be no man’s
debtor. What we sacrifice for Him here
will be more than made up to us in the long-run. That’s the promise of God!
The Apostle Paul put it this way, “I consider
our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be
revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)
His, by Grace,
Steve
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