Amazed at the Cost

Numbers 32-33; Mark 10 

“Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.’…The disciples were amazed at his words…They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished while those who followed were afraid…”

Mark 10:21, 24, 32

The disciples were amazed at the cost of entering the kingdom of God. They had been raised as Jews who understood God’s covenant with them through Moses. The cost of entering the kingdom was everything! This was new to them and they asked, “Who then can be saved” (Mark 10:26)? Jesus’ determination to travel to Jerusalem, the place where religious leaders wanted to kill him, also astonished the disciples. Jesus called others to count the cost of following him, and then demonstrated that he was prepared to die for this kingdom (Mark 10:33).

Does this cost amaze and astonish us today?

Do we understand the cost of following Jesus?

Or, have we, too, inherited a religious system of entitlement?

“Lord Jesus, I surrender all to you, and desire that your kingdom would come and your will would be done in my life, for your glory.”