“your reward is great…..servant”

scripture:  mark 10.29-52

The resounding message I get from these words of Jesus is that “sacrifice = reward”.  It is stated a bit differently: 

• “³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last first”,
• ⁴³Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all”, and
• "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life”. 

I do not believe Jesus was telling His disciples that sacrifice and “serving others” should be motivated by reward, but instead I believe He was simply trying to encourage them for the times when they don’t feel like “being last”, those times of persecution, and the times where they might wonder if it was worth it to pack-up and leave everything behind to become servants. 

And in this passage, Jesus didn’t just give them some good advice and go on his way, but instead powerfully displayed a servant’s heart by healing Bartimaeus, even while He knew He about to be put to death.  It would have been hard for me not to say “Sorry Bart, I got some heavy stuff on my mind…..no time bro”

Jesus, give us Your heart, to serve You and to put the needs of the Kingdom before our own.

Dustin