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| Coptic Christians pray in the destroyed church of St. Moses ~ Egypt |
At this Peter spoke. "We here," he said, "have left everything to become your followers." Jesus said, "I tell you this: there is no one who has given up home, brothers or sisters, mother, father or children, or land, for my sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive in this age a hundred times as much - houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and land - and persecutions besides; and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first." Mark 10:28-31
This Gospel passage follows the episode where the rich young man departed from Jesus, sad, because Jesus had said, "It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Peter, who always speaks plainly, is doubtful here and wants to know what's in it for himself and the other apostles who have given up everything to be Jesus' followers. That seems to be a valid enough question.
If we give away everything for God's Kingdom, then we'll be among the poor, the insignificant and the powerless. So of course the rich man walked away from Jesus feeling sad: Jesus had effectively declared: "Everything you think is essential, I think is a distraction."
The teachings of Jesus often contain reversals: Many who are first will be last and the last first." And St. Paul's letter to the Philippians (2:6-11) says:
The Gospels begin with this message of reversals when the first to hear the news of Jesus' birth are shepherd-outsiders. What a challenge: Oh Jesus, show me how to make your teaching my own. Our country is a shoppers paradise. Imagine if once a month each Christian would forfeit buying even one thing that, quite honestly, isn't essential. Some might criticize us for not being patriotic, for not helping the economy. But that's not what's on Jesus' mind; he wants us completely un-distracted in pursuing God's rule.
Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. And for this God raised him high, and gave him the name which is above all other names; so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus, and that every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Gospels begin with this message of reversals when the first to hear the news of Jesus' birth are shepherd-outsiders. What a challenge: Oh Jesus, show me how to make your teaching my own. Our country is a shoppers paradise. Imagine if once a month each Christian would forfeit buying even one thing that, quite honestly, isn't essential. Some might criticize us for not being patriotic, for not helping the economy. But that's not what's on Jesus' mind; he wants us completely un-distracted in pursuing God's rule.
The other side of it is, if we've given it all away, we'll find all we really require, plus encouragement and support, in Christian community. When we set out to be real Christians (and not just church-goers) we make that decision alone, but we don't stay alone, as we discover there are other searchers alongside us. But we have a lot of work to do in this regard.
An elderly Catholic man and his sickly wife were becoming shut-ins and increasingly unable to take care of their property and home, such that the front grass grew up knee high. A Baptist neighbor finally went over and mowed it all down and tidied up the place. Some days later the Baptist man was talking with a Catholic neighbor and said to him, "You Catholics don't even take care of your own." Perhaps hard to take, but Jesus sometimes puts the gospel in our faces, just like that.
Then Jesus adds a kind of P.S. - that if we follow him this closely, we can expect trouble. The Coptic Christian men seen praying together at the top of this post, they understand, praying in their bombed and burned out church.
An elderly Catholic man and his sickly wife were becoming shut-ins and increasingly unable to take care of their property and home, such that the front grass grew up knee high. A Baptist neighbor finally went over and mowed it all down and tidied up the place. Some days later the Baptist man was talking with a Catholic neighbor and said to him, "You Catholics don't even take care of your own." Perhaps hard to take, but Jesus sometimes puts the gospel in our faces, just like that.
Then Jesus adds a kind of P.S. - that if we follow him this closely, we can expect trouble. The Coptic Christian men seen praying together at the top of this post, they understand, praying in their bombed and burned out church.
