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No Sacrifice Is Too Great

Matthew 10:37-42

Matthew 10 records some words of Jesus which tend to be troublesome for the casual observer.  Even committed Christians struggle to know exactly what Jesus had in mind when He said them and to apply them as Jesus intended.  Here are verses 37 to 42 of Matthew 10 - part of Jesus private  instruction to His disciples:

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.  Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.  And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

In these verses, Jesus makes a potent demand of His followers.  And let me interject here that it is important to note that this was given to His closest disciples, not to the general public.  Only those who were closest to Him and knew Him best would have had even a remote sense of exactly what he was requiring.  Simply stated, the thrust of the early part of this quotation is that Jesus must come first in the lives of those who follow Him.

Jesus must come ahead of family relationships.  Jesus must come ahead of one’s own life, whether we’re talking about comforts and pleasures or the beating heart and breathing lungs of physical life.  We find that a bit hard to accept because life and relationships are so precious to us.  How dare anyone say that he is more important than those things.  Isn’t that a bit extreme, even for God to ask?

Yes, if we are associating with Jesus for what we can get out of the relationship - you know, abundant life, blessings, hope and so on.  No, if we are associating with Jesus because we recognise that He is the source of life and that without Him we have nothing at all.  And because He is all, everything we do for someone else, because we know Jesus, is rewarded.  Even a cup of cold water to a little child, given in Jesus’ name falls into this category.

In this declaration of the truth, Jesus assures us that setting aside our own values, agenda, goals, dreams and the like in order to put Him first will be worth it all.  There is no sacrifice we might make for Him which is without reason and reward.