What’s In It For Me? - A Reflection on Matthew 19:23-30

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, 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 fields, 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 will be first.

We have reflected upon the rich young man about a million times (or so it seems), so let’s reflect on something else today. Like the answer to a question that is usually on everybody’s mind every time they are asked to give up something. “What’s in it for me?” When the rich young man went away because Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor and then come follow him, Peter asked — of course it had to be Peter — “Lord, we have left everything and followed you. What’s in it for us?”

From the question, one might think they had given up more than a few boats and nets, but Jesus must have been in a charitable mood because he didn’t rebuke the apostles. Besides, to their credit, they hadn’t asked the question BEFORE they gave up everything to follow Jesus. Also, to be fair, although what they gave up was little, to them it was a lot. They would have been very happy with Jesus’ reply. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). 

These words have greater significance than we might realize. First, Jesus says the apostles will be rewarded because they followed him, not because they gave up their nets and reeds. It is not in the “giving up” that salvation is to be found, but in the “following” of Jesus. In this context, following Jesus doesn’t mean walking one step behind him; it means using him as a model for living. This is something that we should take note of. If we are followers of Christ, we gotta follow in his ways.

Second, Jesus says the twelve would sit on thrones and judge the tribes of Israel. The scribes and the Pharisees would be sure to say on Judgement Day: “Oh, we’re so sorry we failed to recognize that you were the Son of God, but what could we do? We were only human.” And the apostles would say, “And we, what were we? We also were human, no? You guys were priests and teachers and you should have known better.” And, there is another powerful lesson in this for us. If we deny Christ, what excuse are we going to make? There might be other people sitting on other thrones judging us.

“And what’s in it for us?”, you might ask. Well, there is a reward waiting for all of us who follow Christ to the exclusion of everything else. “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:30). This doesn’t mean that we are going to get a hundred fathers and mothers and children and fields when we get to heaven, but that what we give up will like nothing in comparison to what we will get.

Anybody interested? Oh, I almost forgot. What we get is for eternity. 

Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here:  https://youtu.be/e4qMDOchk08