Our study began as we examined evidence and a theory that perhaps Lazarus was the rich young ruler who chose wealth rather than discipleship with Christ. Our second study examined the effects of that choice and what hope there may be for all of us to become children again that are free to play in His Kingdom. We examined the “who” and found it to be ourselves. We examined the “threat” and found it to be a reliance on our means to make us happy or save us. But that “threat” was from outside the church, the faith, or the Kingdom. As it turns out, there is one more “threat” we must examine that can emerge from inside the church, or the faith. Peter was not shy in recording the whole of this story. He was careful in reciting it to John Mark in his gospel in chapter ten, not to name the rich young ruler directly. Peter (unlike the tabloids of our day) had no interest in causing this person harm, even if only by reputation. But Peter was also introspective about these events. For this gospel was meant to help any who read it, whether in his own day, or in ours.
Our story continues picking up in verse 28 saying … “Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.” Ahh, there it is at last, what Peter had voiced was what all of them were thinking. Comparative Salvation. Only moments before the rich young ruler had departed in sadness for being unable to leave his great wealth to become a disciple. So Peter here compares himself and his companions and by contrast states unequivocally that they have left “all” to follow Christ. This was part boast, and part comparison. From the point of view of Peter, since they had all done this, they “deserved” to be part of the Kingdom of God. And since none of the disciples were ready to abandon the idea that the Kingdom of God might also include an anti-Roman ascendency, they all “deserved” to be at the top of the pyramid where it came to power and authority. Here Peter, though inside the Kingdom, failed to recognize what being in the Kingdom meant. The goal of being free, is not to compare your own state of freedom with another person who you perceive to be less free. It is simply for you to be free. Assuming the mantle of judge, does not make you free, it burdens you with a role you were not intended for. It ends the childhood, and shows you the door away from the Kingdom.
And the reward Peter thought he deserved needed to be addressed. John Mark continues transcribing in verse 29 saying … “And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, [verse 30] But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” In the answer of Christ are several truths unmasked. Jesus begins with a short list of things His followers may have to give up for the sake of the gospel. Notice He first starts with house or home. I do not believe this to be an admonition to universally take on homelessness, but then again my heart may still be too hard to see it rightly. In any case, it is no small thing to leave home behind. Whether to be a missionary and go to the far corners of the world to reach the unreached; or to go into the workplace holding firm to values that are in conflict with company goals and risk unemployment for the sake of your beliefs, it is no small thing to lose the home you know.
Next Jesus lists perhaps the most precious things to us, namely our families. For the sake of belief in Jesus, or adherence to the gospel, we may indeed lose brothers or sisters who simply cannot understand what we are doing. Imagine the condemnation of siblings while we give away wealth, and seem to abandon the responsibility for caring for our own family. Imagine the condemnation of siblings who do not understand why we would rather lose employment than violate the beliefs we hold true about Jesus. But the problems could be worse. Imagine how hard it is for a child to disobey his parents to hold true to Jesus and the gospel. In that instance the child is wholly dependent on their parents and yet risk survival to remain true to Jesus and the salvation He offers.
But the problems could be worse. Imagine risking what Adam could not bear to risk. Imagine risking the loss of husband or wife to remain true to Jesus and the gospel. It is not the true Christian who makes ultimatums to a spouse, but often the Christian faces them from a spouse. To have intimacy ripped away for a steadfast belief in Christ is the hardest of all challenges we may face. To add our children to the list of things we risk losing in this scenario makes it nearly unbearable. But while we may be learning to love others, our relationships are personal and are our own. We cannot enforce them on our spouse, nor on our children. We can point them to Jesus, but not compel them to follow. And those who refuse to follow, become accustomed to rejecting love, and focusing on self. When they realize you will not accommodate them ahead of your love for Christ, they may be much more willing to cast you away for it. Whether for greed, or expediency, or simply a wish not to see what real love looks like reflected in your relationship with Christ, Christians may face the loss of family in this world.
These losses make the loss of lands or wealth look small by comparison. It is far easier to lose money than to lose those who we really love. Our Christianity itself longs to reach our family first, it longs to be shared with those we are most familiar with, and love the most. And yet Christ lists our families as part of the things we may lose for the sake of the gospel, and a belief in Him. When Peter says they have left “all” for Jesus, he does not yet know what that list could entail. But if like Adam, we would rather hold on to our spouse, our child, our parents, or our siblings ahead of a belief in Jesus, or participation in the salvation He offers; we are no different than the rich young ruler. Comparative salvation is not real. It is an illusion to make us feel better about the choices we have made when they go against Christ. If I can give more than that guy, then at least I can feel better that I am not him. If I sin less than the pastor, perhaps I am a holier person. But I am not. For if I withhold all, I embrace the pain of my choice, and the delay I need not experience.
Jesus then speaks of the rewards for our willingness to sacrifice. He says we shall receive “an hundredfold” now in this time … the same list of things we gave up. How is that possible you might ask? It can happen when your perspective on how to love changes and is transformed. When I learn to love others like Christ loves others, I begin to love children more and more, and not just my own. The families in the church become my family. The terms brothers, and sisters, are not just meaningless cliché’s but actual terms of how deeply I feel. I begin to adopt in my mind the families I minister to, and begin to share a deep empathy with what they go through. I look to solve the needs they may have. I share their triumphs and their grief. And thus the phrase “with persecutions” is added to the rewards I experience. For you cannot love others this deeply and be unaffected when they experience pain. My reward is an hundredfold what I may have lost, but it is also an hundredfold more subject to the persecutions this world has to offer on those I now love.
And through all of this will be the perfecting of my character. Until my character has reached the point of perfection perhaps in this world like Enoch, or Elijah, or perhaps in the next world to come as those who will taste death before He arrives again. This process of perfection begins here as we enter the Kingdom of God, and reaches completion over time, or ultimately as we arise into His eternal Kingdom. If Peter or the others were still harboring a different idea of what the reward was, or how it worked. Jesus needed to transform their thinking from being served, to doing the serving.
He continues in verse 31 saying … “But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.” If Peter thought he was to have a place of power and position in the Kingdom, his goals were facing the reality of being last. For positions of honor in His Kingdom resided at the last of the line. People who were last in line were honored to serve all those in front of them. People at the start of the line had no opportunity to serve anyone. Servants and ministers who served a great many people were honored in His Kingdom, the more they could serve, the more honored they were. Those who sought to be the powerful, to be on the top of the pyramid, were to be those with the least honor. This runs contrary to Jewish tradition, and scriptural interpretation, just as much as it does American idealism. The reason why Jesus is most honored in heaven, is because He has been servant of us all.
The concepts of comparative salvation needed to be unmasked and discarded. The concepts of spiritual pride, or spiritual greatness as well, needed to be unmasked and discarded. Jesus needed to once again remind His disciples of what His mission was to serve us all, to save us all, to be our sacrifice not our earthly king. John Mark continues transcribing in verse 32 saying … “And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, [verse 33] Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: [verse 34] And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.”
Jesus outlines a play for play prophecy of what is shortly to come. He tries again to destroy the ideas and misconceptions of an anti-Roman earthly Kingdom. He gives both them and us, what we need to know about our salvation and how it works. There is no comparison needed. There is only the embrace of Jesus to transform how we love. Our trust in our means needed to be unmasked, so that we can let go the lie of wealth, and embrace the truth of Jesus Christ. Our self-reliance needed to be unmasked so that we can let go the burden of adulthood, and embrace the freedom of childhood. Our concept of treasure needed to be unmasked so that we can let go of clinging to gold, begin to cling to loving others. Our reward is to be the people we love, in the here and now, multiplied an hundred fold. Scriptures amplified through the lens of the love of Christ, have more meaning than we have uncovered so far. Let us see what more they have to offer.
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