Radical Recompense"Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life." (Mark 10:29–30)
What Jesus means here is that he himself makes up for every sacrifice. - If you give up a mother's nearby affection and concern, you get back one hundred times the affection and concern from the ever-present Christ.
- If you give up the warm comradeship of a brother, you get back one hundred times the warmth and comradeship of Christ.
- If you give up the sense of at-homeness you had in your house, you get back one hundred times the comfort and security of knowing that your Lord owns every house.
To prospective missionaries, Jesus says, "I promise to work for and be for you so much that you will not be able to speak of having sacrificed anything." What was Jesus' attitude to Peter's "sacrificial" spirit? Peter said, "We have left everything and followed you" (Mark 10:28). Is this the spirit of "self-denial" commended by Jesus? No, it is rebuked. Jesus said, "No one ever sacrifices anything for me that I do not pay back a hundredfold — yes, in one sense even in this life, not to mention eternal life in the age to come." |
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