What Have You Left Behind?
Peter's statement to Jesus — "We have left everything and have followed you" (Mark 10:28) — is both a declaration and a question. Behind the words lies an unspoken anxiety: Was it worth it? Have we given up too much? Will there be a return on this investment?
Every significant relationship involves leaving something behind. Marriage means leaving the freedom of singleness. Deep friendship means leaving the safety of superficiality. Commitment to a community means leaving the option of perpetual shopping around. Following Christ means leaving behind certain securities, certainties, and comforts. The question every disciple faces is Peter's question: Is this exchange worthwhile?
Jesus' answer is lavish: a hundredfold in this life, plus eternal life. But notice what is included in the hundredfold: "brothers, sisters, mothers, children" — relationships. The primary return on the investment of discipleship is not material prosperity but relational abundance. Those who follow Christ gain a family that spans the globe and the centuries — the communion of saints, the body of Christ, a network of love that no earthly institution can match.
Yet Jesus also adds "with persecutions." Relationships formed in discipleship are not immune to conflict or suffering. They are, in fact, forged through it. The deepest bonds are often those tested by hardship and found to hold. The couple who survives a crisis, the friendship that endures a misunderstanding, the community that weathers a scandal — these relationships emerge stronger precisely because they were tested.
Peter's letter reminds us that the grace we share in these relationships is "things into which angels desire to look" (1 Peter 1:12). When two believers forgive each other, when a community rallies around a suffering member, when strangers become family through shared faith — these are moments of such beauty that angels lean in to watch.
The call to be "holy in all of your living" (1 Peter 1:15) is ultimately a relational call. We become holy not in isolation but in the give-and-take of relationships — learning patience from difficult people, practicing generosity with those in need, receiving grace from those we have wronged. Holiness is not a solo achievement; it is a communal project.
What have you left behind for the sake of your relationships? And what hundredfold have you received?
Lord Jesus, like Peter we have left things behind to follow you, and sometimes we wonder if it was worth it. Silence our anxiety with your extravagant promise. Show us the hundredfold already present in our lives — the relationships deepened by faith, the community strengthened by shared struggle, the love that grows through sacrifice. Make us holy in our relationships — patient, truthful, generous, forgiving. And when persecutions come, help us to stand together rather than scatter apart. Through your grace, Amen.
