Sat.’s Devo - To Be Exalted in the Kingdom

Read: Matthew 19; Mark 10
Today Jesus is talking to the disciples, not the Pharisees. Divorce must have been an issue in their day like ours. When they asked Jesus about it he referred back to the law. The law told them in order to divorce they must write a bill of divorcement. Divorce was never God’s perfect plan. To be married to one wife or one husband was the Garden of Eden of God’s plan. But, because man’s hearts were hard he gave them the law. But he did explain the spiritual consequences of it. Physically, the person who divorced was going to have sexual relations with another person which would be committing adultery against the first partner since God had made them one. Spiritually, the person is going to have to rip apart their emotional tie with the first person to join it to the next. Divorce is a painful thing to go through and God’s grace is there for everyone who has to endure it.
One thing we can be sure of. No matter what we do, God loves us like these little children that bugged the disciples. We are never a bother to Jesus.
When the rich man couldn’t give up his riches, Jesus wasn’t condemning the wealthy he was condemning those who trusted in their riches to enter the kingdom. The kingdom of God is not for sale. Those that have trusted in the true riches of the kingdom will not be disappointed.
Since the disciples were not rich and trusted in Jesus, they wanted to know if they could be exalted with him in glory. They had no idea what they were asking so Jesus gave them a short lesson on how to be exalted in the kingdom. To be exalted in the kingdom is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus through his rejection, suffering and death. To be exalted later, you must be abased now. That was not what John and James wanted to hear I’m sure.
Lord, help us to be willing to be abased on this side of eternity for the sake of the gospel.