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Note to readers: This is an alternate reading from the Three Year Lectionary, and may not match up with the readings your church uses this Sunday.
Matthew 19:27-30 – Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed You. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for My Name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Peter cracks me up. He sounds like a greedy child, saying, “We have left everything and followed You … what are we going to get out of it?”
The funny thing is, Jesus doesn’t rebuke him for that. He comes straight out and answers him—and if you read the Gospels, you know that Jesus hardly ever gives anybody a straight answer to their questions! But He does to Peter. He tells him that every Christian who has left behind anything for Jesus’ sake will receive a hundred times as much as what they lost—and eternal life on top of that.
So apparently Jesus is okay with us being, um, greedy. He wants us to know that there are going to be rewards—blessings—God-given gifts, really—and we will be happy. If the thought of those things motivates us, apparently He’s good with that.
But He does warn Peter that things are going to look very different on the Last Day than we expect. There will be surprises in both directions. People we never expected will end up highly praised and rewarded; people who we thought would be first, will wind up at the end of the line.
Why tell us that? Possibly so we stop fussing around, mentally, trying to calculate exactly where we’ll be standing on that Day. Because we can’t tell, can we? Every single person who trusts in Jesus gets eternal life—that is why Jesus gave Himself up for us all, suffering and dying and rising from the dead. Eternal life, peace, and forgiveness are His good gift to us. And so we know, absolutely, that we’ll have those.
But details about other rewards? That’s up to the Lord Himself to determine, and He’s not telling right now. We only know that there will be rewards, and they will be fantastically generous. That’s enough for us to know now. Time for us to focus on Jesus, and on the work He sets before us each day, as children of His kingdom, serving Him for love.
Because we do serve Him for love, don’t we? In the end, it’s not the thought of reward that makes me want to visit the sick, or call a lonely person, or give money to poor people, or help a child with his homework. It’s Jesus Himself—because I love Him. His company, His presence, His delight—that is the real gift we want, the one that is more valuable than any other. And we will have Him forever.
WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, teach me to love You with all my heart, and let me have You forever. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Reflection Questions
- Does it bother you to hear Jesus promising such generous rewards? Why or why not?
- The elders in Revelation 4:9-11 have crowns God has given them—but instead of wearing them, they cast them before God’s throne. Why would they do this?
- When God gives you a gift, will you feel the same?
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