Corona Chronicles - Crown of Thorns

Welcome to corona chronicles. We're we're in Mark chapter 10, and we're gonna continue where Peter and Ben left off last week. We're gonna pick it up in verse 28. Then Peter spoke up. We have left everything to follow you.

Truly I tell you Jesus replied, no 1 who has left home, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much. In this present age, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields, along with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be lost and the last first. Yeah. So here we've got Peter, who's again acting as the the kind of rash spokesman for the group.

And Yeah. Yeah. You have. And I think he's I think he's trying to show here that he and they are not like the rich man they've just met. So they had this encounter back in chapter 10 where we read of this very rich And Jesus says, go sell everything you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me.

In other words, you need to leave and then cleave to me. At this, the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. In other words, he wasn't willing to part with his treasures. Yeah.

And come with Christ, and Peter is trying to say, Lord, we're not like them. You know? We we have left everything to follow you. Yeah. And tied up in that statement is probably this idea that to follow Jesus, it it it's kind of It's all about sacrifice and loss and giving things up and which which definitely is is partly true.

But Jesus here is wanting to correct his understanding of what it's gonna mean. It's not just gonna mean leaving stuff, is it? It's gonna mean gain. Yeah. That's right.

And and you you find out what the gain is. Don't you? You know, he he says Pete says we've left everything to follow you. And and Jesus says, look, it's gonna be worth it, you know. It's it'll be worth it in this present age and in the age to come.

And, you know, it it it that's what that's what the experience of, you know, probably nearly every Christian should be Because that's what you get in the church. You know, you get you you might you might be called to to to leave literally. Mhmm. Some some people are in, you know, in in in Muslim countries you hear all the time how, you know, if if you're gonna follow Jesus -- Yeah. If you're gonna convert, then that is it, end of story, end of family, you know.

But but we, you know, we we know people that that would would testify yeah, this is true. Mhmm. I've I've I've got back a hundred times. Yeah. Yeah.

You know? But in so but for a western Christian, you know, is a little bit more mixed, isn't it? Some people leave some people do have, like, great opposition from family. And and and they are, you know, sort of said, look, they they are told you know, it's us or the church. Mhmm.

Others, it's it's less so. It's like, well you know, people people are sometimes more tolerant, you know, and they say, you know, you can you can do your church thing -- Mhmm. -- and and and still, you know, and and we won't reject you. So it's it's kind of a mixed bag, but you know, for for it doesn't it doesn't it it it doesn't sort of You don't escape the truth of this -- Mhmm. -- is it will cost you to follow Jesus and are you willing to do it?

I think that's right. And and and Jesus so there's a double honesty here, isn't there? Jesus is not in any way diminishing the real cost of following him. No. And that's even included in his list of blessings, you know, verse 30.

He mustn't, you know, children and fields along with person accusions. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. In other words, to leave him, will will involve a rubbing up against the world's ideas the world's philosophy.

Yeah. So there will be a cost. Yeah. And as you say, even in the business of following Jesus, there might be a very real cost that people have to pay. But but the picture Jesus Paints are becoming a Christian is not 1 of of of ultimate loss, but of ultimate gain.

Yeah. And it's like being adopted into a family, isn't it? So if you look at the things that you get, Holmes brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields. If if if a son or daughter was to be adopted, they would become co owners and inheritors of of all that belong to the family, including the other siblings, they'd have their own room in the house, hope they'd inherit a room and a home, and and and and that's what the church is like. Not just, you know, a religious temple which you pop in and out of like you would a gym.

It means you you belong to the family of God and all that is God's and all that is the church's becomes becomes yours. Yeah. Both persecutions and and joy. Yeah. And there and there's there's there is, you know, he talks about the next life as well.

Yeah. And in the age to come, you know, eternal life. Yeah. That's that's the ultimate -- I think we're looking for the ultimate. -- blessing of of the Christian, isn't it?

And and that that last line -- Mhmm. -- is again, it's it's must have been a sting, especially, and I think it must have been such a challenge to these disciples because they they have in their heads, you know, like the if you're rich, you are blessed by God, you must be doing something right. Mhmm. If you, you know, if you've been blessed by God materially or you must be ticking all the boxes. Yeah.

He loves you. Yeah. But, you know, Jesus's words here, many who are first will be lost. Yeah. And and the last first.

So it's a real, again, turning of the tables. It's the topsy-turvy kingdom, isn't it? Yeah. It's it's it's a turning of the tables of you know, the the status quo. Don't don't think that Jesus is here to, you know, keep your comfortable religious thoughts and views intact.

Mhmm. He's gonna turn your life upside down, you know. So so, you know, get ready for it, you know. Yeah. And I and I think just, you know, just for us in these particular times, you know, there is great reasons to rejoice here because although many of us of feeling the frustrations of of a church life that is not what it was.

Mhmm. You know, ultimately, these things are still true aren't they? We we have the family of God. We have 1 another. We're trying to work out ways to minister to each other as a church.

And that that is part of what we've inherited as Christians, you know. It would be even even more isolating and even more lonely if we and come to adopt all of this through Christ. Yeah. So yeah. It's a great passage.

And to follow Jesus, there's a real cost, but real gain. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.