“Your Gain Will Be Worth The Pain!”

“Your Gain Will Be Worth The Pain!”(Mk.10:27-31).
The Lord Jesus Christ told a rich young man who had kept all the commandments, “One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will find treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
The young man’s countenance changed negatively “because he had great wealth.” The Lord took advantage of this to tell his disciples “how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” Expantiating on this further with a figure of speech only left the disciples more amazed (Mk.10:17-27).
“Peter said to him, ‘We have left everything to follow you.”
What exactly is the “everything” that they left which Peter is talking about? The first disciples Jesus called were Simon and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake since they were fishetmen. Jesus asked them to follow him and he will make them fishers of men. “At once they left their nets and followed him.”(Mk.1:14-18). Is that the “everything” Peter is talking about?
We run the danger of condemning wealth creation on the grounds that the Lord said it is hard for a rich man to make heaven!
The Lord did not actually reject rich people per-se. Some of them supported his ministry; albeit indirectly. Three women accompanied him and supported the group “out of their own means,” Joanna, one of them was the wife of the manager of Herod’s household(Lk.8:1-3). Meaning she had the wherewithal. Being rich is not a problem. The problem is being so attached to your riches, such that you cannot part with it by giving some to the poor.
In monetary terms the everything they left to follow Jesus as Peter was saying was their nets. It is easy for those who live simple lives to leave everything behind.
However, insignificant as their nets may have been, it was their life wire! The nets were tools for wealth creation. So there is a sense in which they left everything – including family – so as to follow the Lord.
My friend, like Peter we need to be fully convinced that what we want to forego is of less value than what has been promised. We would want to be assured that we are not engaged in a wildgoose chase or forsaking the substance to run after the shadow!
So maybe at one time or the other we too wonder, then question in our hearts more than we express in words, “We have left everything to follow you,” so what is there for us?
To put our worries to rest, the Lord Jesus Christ assures that whatever we have left behind for his sake and for the gospel, we will receive a hundred times as much in this present age, and in the age to come, eternal life.
The Lord also prepares us that there is a rough side to what we will benefit. “The life of discipleship is a combination of promise and persecution, blessing and suffering.” God does not take from us what he will not replace manifold. And since nothing good comes easy, persecutions awaits us, but “Beyond the conflicts of history is the triumph assured to those who belong to God.”
Do not worry what will happen when you follow Christ and the gospel. In the end the gain will be worth the pain!
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ thank you for the blessed assurance that our labours will not be in vain. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.