How Jesus Raised the Bar of Discipleship

Reading 1:  2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a

Reading 2:  Rom 6:3-4, 8-11

Gospel:  Mt 10:37-42

For three weeks in a row, we've been listening to Matthew chapter ten. It started with Jesus choosing 12, just 12 out of thousands of people that were following him to be his apostles, which means one who is sent. Then he sent them out two by two and all throughout this chapter, he keeps raising the bar as he defines discipleship for them.

He told them they could take nothing with them. He told them that they were going to be hated by everyone because of him and that some of them were going to be put to death. But he told them the rewards would be greater than the risk. He promises them that if they're willing to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow him wherever he leads them, they will share in his great victory that comes at the price of death.

But it is much as Jesus has told them. They have to be willing to suffer for the sake of the cause entrusted to them. Now he has told them, If you're not willing to love me more than you love your wife or your kids, you're not worthy of me. You cannot be my disciple. That makes some people a little bit uncomfortable.

Think. What do you mean? I'm not supposed to love my spouse or my kids. No, it just means we love God more. Because we love God more. We are capable and enabled of loving anybody else. Jesus defines the greatest commandment as You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength.

That is a challenge for all of us, and it's a struggle for each of us, myself included, to keep God at the center. And that's all that Jesus is talking about. He's not telling us that we shouldn't love our family, but that we should love our family because we love God and God loves us because we love God and God loves our family.

And He's given us to each other to work out our salvation together. But then he speaks about the rewards, the rewards of a profit and the rewards of a righteous man. Whoever receives a profit because he is a prophet receives a profits reward.

Our story does not end the death. We will receive something far greater than the Prophet's reward. We have the opportunity to become saints and to live forever. If that's all the inspiration and motivation we need to love God more, to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow him. It's no small price to pay for the great victory that awaits us all.