What about us?

Mark 10:28-31

‘What about us?’ Peter asked Jesus. ‘We have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecutions – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life. ‘Many who are first will be last, and the last first.’

Food for thought!

Today's gospel reading begins where yesterday's stopped (Mark 10:27). Peter and his disciples must have looked at the rich man go away until he disappeared some where in the distance. And as he went, Peter's mind must have been working, and working hard. He had just seen a man deliberately refuse Jesus' «Follow me!» He had just heard Jesus say in effect that that man by his action had shut himself out from eternal life. Peter could not help drawing the contrast between that man and himself and his friends. Just as the man had refused Jesus' «Follow me!» he and his friends had accepted it, and Peter with that almost crude honesty of his wanted to know what he and his friends were to get out of it. 

"What about us?" Peter's concern is our concern: we sometimes do wonder, if there is any recognition for us for having accepted Jesus as our saviour, for having followed him on a daily basis, for having gone to church every Sunday or everyday for some, for taking time to pray, for trying our best to be and do good, etc. What is our reward? What’s in this for us?” Jesus' answer falls into three sections.

(i) Jesus says that no man ever gave up anything for the sake of himself (that is, Jesus) and of his cause without getting it back a hundredfold. Jesus is saying that those who follow him have a definite advantage both here and in the hereafter. Jesus reminds us all that God is not indifferent to our efforts; that God sees; the God notices; that God records and rewards every sacrifice that is made for him and because of him. Jesus reminds us that what we have walked away from might seem like a lot, but God has far more in our future than we left behind in our past. Jesus is saying that we cannot beat God with generosity, we cannot out perform God in giving. 

When Jesus speaks of «100 times», he simply means that it is more than you can imagine. He is not saying that if you give a dollar, he will give you one hundred in return. He might, but that is not the point! He is simply telling us that He has far more for us than anything we could ever give up to follow Him.

A caveat!

Jesus also lets us know that the « a hundred times over » will not come to us unaccompanied; it will come with «persecutions», that is, there is a price to pay for following Jesus and what he demands us to be and do. Not everyone will be excited to see us taking Jesus that serious. We shall be misunderstood, misrepresented, and in some cases persecuted even by those close to us or supposedly close to Jesus. Yes, sometimes those who give us hard times are our fellow believers. 

The promise of persecutions removes the whole matter from the world of quid pro quo. They take away the idea of a material reward for a material sacrifice. They tell us of two things. They speak of the utter honesty of Jesus. He never offered an easy way. He told us straight that to be a Christian is a costly thing. 

The second thing that Jesus added was the idea of the world to come. He never promised that within this world of space and time there would be a kind of squaring up of the balance sheet and settlement of accounts. He does not call us to win the rewards of time. He calls us to earn the blessings of eternity. In other words, God has not only this world in which to repay. God has eternity to reward us. 

Finally, Jesus adds one warning epigram: «many who are first will be last. And the last will be first.» This was in reality a warning to Peter. It may well be that by this time Peter was estimating his own worth and his own reward and assessing them high. What Jesus is saying is, «The final standard of judgment is with God. Many a man may stand well in the judgment of the world, but the judgment of God may upset the world's judgment. Still more many a man may stand well in his own judgment, and find that God's evaluation of him is very different.» It is a warning against all pride. It is a warning that the ultimate judgments belong to God who alone knows the motives of men's hearts. It is a warning that the judgments of heaven may well upset the reputations of earth.