Good ol’ Peter, again saying the quiet part out loud. “We’ve risked everything, what’s in it for us?” I would assume that he was not the only disciple wondering that. Jesus responds by applying that miraculous Kingdom multiplication to their lives of faith--the same multiplication spoken of in the parable of the sower and demonstrated with the loaves and fishes. Their willingness to let go of what they treasure for the sake of Jesus will result in hundredfold blessing, not to mention eternal life.
I treasure my family. Whenever I have been called upon to leave the closeness of my immediate family, it has been difficult and sometimes even frightening. Though at times just the anticipation of these faith adventures has been exciting, they have also been fraught with the uncertainty of the unknown. But every time, every time, the Spirit has given me the courage to let go and follow God’s leading, I have experienced the miraculous Kingdom multiplication of which Jesus speaks. When I was a young adult and a new Christian, my spouse and I boarded a plane for Hong Kong to serve the American Lutheran Church as short-term missionaries. I had never flown on an airliner before let alone crossed an ocean. I cried as the plane lifted off wondering what I was getting into. But in Hong Kong my faith family multiplied in amazing ways as we were embraced by our Chinese siblings in Christ and fellow missionaries. When we boarded the plane to return to the US three years later, I cried again as we left our newfound family in faith in Asia. But that family is still a part of me.
Subsequently, I have followed God’s leading to places like communist East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell, remote villages of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, and even to what seemed to me at the time the remote hinterlands of rural America to serve in a town of 100 people. Every time felt risky, uncertain, and frightening to some degree. And every time, my faith family has multiplied. Of course, this letting go of treasure hasn’t just applied to people whom I treasure, but places and things as well. Yet every letting go has resulted in Kingdom multiplication in ways too numerous for me to share here.
Finally, I should say that I found the courage to let go and follow not to seek or earn eternal life, but because I had already received the promise of that inheritance. It was because God in Christ had already done the hard work of death, resurrection, and forgiveness on my behalf that I was able to let go and take a risk for the sake of Jesus Christ.
What do you treasure? What would be hard for you to let go of to follow Christ’s leading? May you find courage in the knowledge of your inheritance of eternal life to let go and be blessed by the miraculous multiplication of the Kingdom of God.
