Mark 10:27-31: in context

This comes right after the rich man walked away from Jesus, unable to part with his wealth, and Jesus told his stunned disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom. When they ask, then who can be saved, Jesus says the line that anchors the whole scene: with men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Then Peter, a little anxiously, points out that they, unlike the rich man, have actually done it: we have left everything and followed you. And Jesus answers with a promise that is worth reading slowly, because it is both more generous and more honest than we tend to remember.

There is no one, he says, who has left house or family or land for my sake and the gospel's who will not receive a hundred times as much now in this time, houses and family and lands, and in the age to come, eternal life. That is an extravagant promise of present reward: those who leave the family and home that following Christ costs them are given a vast new family, the community of believers, a hundredfold of belonging right now. But notice the two words tucked into the middle that we love to skip: with persecutions. The hundredfold comes bundled with hardship, not instead of it. Jesus promises abundant new life now and trouble now, in the same breath, and refuses to sell one without the other.

That honesty is a gift, because it guards me against two lies. One says following Jesus costs everything and gives nothing back until you die; Jesus says no, there is a hundredfold now, real family, real belonging, real provision. The other, the prosperity lie, says following Jesus makes life easy and comfortable; Jesus says no, it comes with persecutions. He offers the whole package, gain and cost together, honestly labeled. Do I want the hundredfold Jesus actually promised, family and belonging and eternal life bundled together with persecution, or only the half of the promise that asks nothing of me?