How do we approach Jesus when it seems his statements are either confusing or difficult to follow, or both? I think this passage fits both categories.
Here is the passage: "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life."
I have 2 important questions: 1. What does it mean to leave houses, brothers, sisters etc.? 2. How is the promise of blessing a hundredfold to be understood?
Is Jesus serious about leaving everything behind, especially those things which we hold so dear to not only just happiness but mere survival? Are all Christians to be homeless wanderers without any ties to any personal relationships? Well my quick answer to all of these questions is yes.
The story that precedes this verse is the ever popular story of the rich young ruler. This is the story of the man who is seeking eternal life and wants to know what he must do to have it. Jesus seeing the flaw already in the question itself decides to play along with this man. Jesus tells him that he must follow the law and he will have eternal life. Well...which laws? The man asks. Then Jesus lists commandments #5-9 (conspicuously leaving out the last one: covet). The man answers that he has done all this; which at this point Jesus must have had a chuckle to himself, because its simply was not true! See sermon on the mount ch. 5-7! Seeing the folly in the man's religious system of doing and gaining righteousness; Jesus drives the man's system to its logical conclusion: Sell everything. If you are following the law you won't have any problems with that. Then the man walked away sad.
Later Jesus uses this incident to make a powerful statement about riches and the kingdom of God. Jesus does NOT say that its HARD for a rich man to enter heaven; He said its IMPOSSIBLE! A rich man CAN NOT enter heaven.
Why? How could this be? Surely it's hyperbole right? It's just an isolated incident with this one man it doesn't apply to everyone, right? No, not right. Riches, as Jesus tries to show us here, are a cancer. It's a disease that penetrates our hearts and will kill us. Theoretically of course its possible to be rich and enter heaven, but with Man it's impossible.
Riches are very powerful and the more possessions one has the more these possessions possess that person. This is really the heart of the issue. Riches and possessions are not evil in and of themselves, but rather it's how the human heart treats the riches. It quite simple, and Jesus warns again and again that the more possessions you have the more you will be possessed by them. The more possessions you acquire the more things there are in heart fighting for it's affection. God alone deserves these affections and we just can't handle it as humans being so rich.
Man will always hold his riches in his heart; but with God all things are possible. Only by replacing the affections of our hearts with all sufficiency of God will we again be the possessors of our possessions, and then we can come to a place where we can easily cast them off.
So what about this thing with family relationships? How does that exactly work and how is it possible that we will have a hundred mothers brothers etc. if we leave the ones we have? Also, why would Jesus promise us a hundred homes if, in fact, its dangerous to own one?
Some would try to spiritualize this to say its part of some promise in heaven, but I would argue that it sounds way too Mormon for that. Also in the Mark passage the statement "in this life" clearly shows that this promise is for now and is probably quite literal.
Jesus had a strange view of family relationships, and I can't blame him. His family thought he was crazy (Mark 3:21)! Jesus, in front of a large group of people denied his family, and yes even the blessed virgin Mary! (see Matt. 12:46-50) Jesus here redefines family relationships: Those who do the will of the Father are his brothers and mothers.
For those of you not coming from a Christian home perhaps you could confirm this that the deepest relationships you have are not those who are related to you but those who are seeking after the Father.
So then the promise of hundreds of mothers, brothers, sisters etc becomes literally true! When one does the will of God one enters into a huge family!
So how does the houses and land fit in?Nobody in the first century had hundreds of houses or land, right? Look at the beginning of Acts when this first time family, who doesn't allow possessions to possess them, come together. All the houses and all the land is shared. One literally has hundreds of houses and hundreds of fields. If your house was lost because of persecution, fire or something else you had a family who would take care of you, a house to sleep in and a field to work in.
This shows that leaving everything behind is not really a sacrifice at all. In fact we are trading away a deadly disease for more blessing than we could possibly ever imagine.
