If a bank promised to offer 100% monthly interest on your money, would you not invest everything you have in it? That means $100 jumps up to $200 in a month’s time. Banks, at this time, cannot even offer 5% interest without going out of business. Now, hold your breath; imagine someone offered you 10,000% interest on your money! That means, that means $1 quickly turns into $100 in a short period of time. Talk about getting rich fast!
Today we listen to Jesus making an outlandish offer that no bank in the world could ever match. He offers 10,000% interest to those who “invest” in his “company.” He does this after watching a rich young man turn him down because he was unwilling to give up his possessions to follow Jesus. As the man walked away from Jesus, he said “it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” A rich man usually invests all of his money in himself and therefore reaps only what this world has to offer. Jesus demanded that to follow him one must invest not just a small fraction of what he has but everything.
And so, Peter speaks up (Mark 10:28-31).
“Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘We have given up everything and followed you.’”
Peter had given up his house, his family, his business, and possessions to follow Jesus. He had invested everything in Jesus’ “company.” He had done what the rich young man was unable to do. What kind of benefits would he get from this?
“Jesus said, ‘Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers and sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more…”
There it is, Jesus’ stupendous offer: 10,000%! This, however, was not for those who gave up a percentage of their possessions and families to follow Jesus, but everything.
When we hear Jesus make this promise, we assume he is talking about heaven, where we will have thousands of times more benefits that we can ever have on this earth. He, however, is not talking about heaven.
“…now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands…”
“In this present age.” Jesus was promising Peter and the others that the riches they would receive in the years that followed would involve houses, new families, including mothers and children, and property. Was he exaggerating just to make a sale? Remember on the day of Pentecost when “3000” people became Christians. At that moment Peter received “3000” new family members. And remember at the cross when Jesus gave Mary to John and the others. They had received a mother much greater than the one who bore them. People sold houses and property and gave the proceeds to Peter and the apostles to help take care of the needs of the earliest Christian community. Peter soon became one of the wealthiest men on earth.
And then Jesus added a reality factor:
“…with persecutions…”
Living in the Kingdom of God would bring hostility from the world. Peter would have to give up one more thing for Jesus, his very life. Discipleship is not cheap, by any means.
“…and eternal life in the age to come.”
Yes, heaven is also part of the deal. Our short time on this earth is but a few minutes compared to our time in the “age to come.” Do we realize what is being offered to us a hundred years from now? Or, for many of us, just ten years from now?
Jesus puts everything in perspective. What we so value now—our money, our houses, our families, our hobbies, our pleasures—are as nothing compared with what God wants for us. Are we free enough now to invest all we have for Jesus’ sake and the sake of the Gospel?
