Matthew 19:28-30–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Matthew 19:28-30 wherein we see Jesus’ teaching on eternal investments.

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.

I don’t know much when it comes to the area of investing.  My wife and I’s strategy when it has come to finances has pretty well been, apart from a couple foibles, “give the first-fruits, don’t buy much; but when you do make purchases, buy cheap.”  That might sound quite prudent and holy to some, but I know that there’s more wisdom to good stewardship than only that philosophy.  I have a friend whose got much more of a head for money management than I do, and I know that one of these days I ought to actually implement some of the things that he’s suggested in order to make better use of what God has entrusted to us; right now it just feels like one more thing to mess with.  But with that said, I also know that the biggest kinds of investments that Jesus wants us to stay focused on go beyond CDs and stocks.  He tells us that following Him, even at the loss of everything else, is gain in the end.  It sounds risky, so if we’re wanting to “go all in” with Jesus, we have to believe that His economy will never crash.  This kind of stability is exactly what He promises.

The disciples had just observed a promising young guy walk away from Jesus because of how important his riches were to him.  Perhaps at that point, some of them began to think back on all of their own former aspirations–some of those ideas about “making it” in the world before they started following Jesus.  They had some good ideas back then…”Hmmm, what about all that, Jesus?  What is it that’s in store for us again?”  Then came the promise that we read here: [You] will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. All earthly investments, I suppose, are rooted in faith to some degree, but I imagine also that concepts like conservation and diversification are a regular part of sound advice that is given.  But the Master doesn’t give that kind of direction here.  Going all in on only one investment, namely Jesus, is what He calls for.  On one level, I love this because it sounds so simple and straightforward, but on another level it’s so scary because it means a complete letting go of everything.  Humanly speaking, there’s nothing conservative about that.  But if it’s true, my goodness, the payoff is beautiful as we look at being with the King forever, sharing in his inestimable abundance.

How do we get to that point of trusting Him that much?  I believe it happens both in a moment and throughout every day of our lives.  There is that moment in which we say in faith, “It’s all yours, God; my hands are open.”  But then there’s that day to day looking at each of those facets of our lives that make up the everything that we’ve promised to Him and saying, “This is yours, Lord…and this too…and I surrender that to you as well, Father.”  It’s really a mind-bending, supernatural life discipline, but it’s one that yields so much peace and assurance as we consider ourselves to not really possess the things that we have.  Are you ready to go all in with Jesus?  It was the call to every disciple then, and it remains as the charge for today.

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