Hundred-fold reward

PETER began to say to Jesus, “We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or 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 now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

REFLECTION WITH PERSECUTIONS. After the encounter with the rich man who failed to follow Jesus, Peter speaks up, a bit proud as usual and not really understanding what he is saying. Declaring that he and his fellow disciples have given up everything, Peter seems to insinuate the unspoken question, “What do we get out of it?” Jesus kindly overlooks this hidden agenda and breaks out in an exuberant “song” of what those who have given up everything for him stand to receive. Listening to Jesus, one may think that Jesus’ promise is too good to be true. But then one comes back to reality when Jesus adds the ominous words, “with persecutions.” Jesus is always very realistic. He does not deceive those who follow him with promises only meant to lure people into following him. Jesus is not a politician who makes all kinds of grand promises just to get the votes. Nobody who experiences difficulties as a Christian will ever say, “If only I had known…” Unlike those who proclaim the so-called prosperity gospel, Jesus is honest and makes it clear that those who follow him must be ready to take up the cross. There is no detour around the cross. But beyond the cross shines always the bright light of Easter. And so Jesus ends his saying by assuring his disciples that after persecution there awaits the faithful servant “eternal life in the age to come.”

Do you see only the difficulties Christian life brings, or do you look beyond them to the grand reward promised by Jesus?