Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich
to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
We have seen how hard it can be. The rich young man from yesterday's Gospel demonstrated that his riches did not keep him from keeping the second commandment of the law and loving his neighbor. But they were an obstacle to him fully embracing the dynamic call of the Kingdom in his own life. Insofar as he was allowed to remain at the center and in control of his own life he was able to meet the secondary obligations that the law imposed. But when it came down to the decision of whether or not to follow Jesus he balked. He didn't want to lose his ability to be the final decision maker or abdicate his central place of self-governance. He could entertain the ideas someone like Jesus might present. But when asked to walk away from his possessions for the sake of Jesus he refused and went away sad.
Jesus looked at them and said,
“For men this is impossible,
but for God all things are possible.”
The rich young man was being invited to an undertaking that transcended what was humanly possible for him. But it was not impossible absolutely. Where Jesus gave an invitation there was sufficient grace to accept the invitation. But one needed to receive that invitation in faith, believing in the grace provided enough to overcome the doubt resulting from knowledge of one's weakness. The rich young man chose to believe that he was too tied to his riches, that they were too necessary for him to be happy, that could not give them up and follow Jesus. But he might have believed something else. He was free to do so. It was precisely some vague awareness of the reality of the alternate possibility that made his decision to stay on his current path so sad. If it had been, strictly speaking, impossible, he could have more easily shrugged it off. But it had been possible. And in spite of that he walked away.
Then Peter said to him in reply,
“We have given up everything and followed you.
What will there be for us?”
There were rewards for giving up everything and following Jesus. But they were not such that they would justify doing so in advance. They weren't the sort of rewards that the ego could use to justify discipleship in a cost benefit analysis. Peter had already made the choice to follow Jesus. He put first the Kingdom. And so he was free to receive all else besides. He didn't ask about the rewards first to make sure following Jesus would be worth his while. He sought the giver first and only secondarily inquired about the gifts. The reality of the gifts helped reinforce the idea that, although Christianity involved sacrifice, it led to something that was better than anything one had to surrender along the way. But it was able to lead to this new age was precisely because it led to the reality where the Son of Man was seated on his throne of glory. The greatness of the Kingdom could in no way be separated from the greatness of the King.
And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands
for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more,
and will inherit eternal life.
If we are asked to make sacrifices for our faith let us believe that we are capable of them, up to the task, not because of our strength, but through faith in the grace of Jesus. We can believe that they will be worth it even when our flesh protests and would prefer to keep its current wealth. We need not go away sad.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and salvation, along the way of his steps.
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