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REFLECTIONS
Bold questions

Norman Fehr

Luke 18:28-30

“Peter said to Him, ‘We have left all we had to follow You!’” (Luke 18:28). Implied in the statement was a challenging question, almost a demand that Jesus reward the disciples for their service. How dare Peter challenge Jesus so directly! Max Lucado, in his book The Applause of Heaven, states, “One is not bold in the presence of the sacred.” Yet Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence.”

Do we feel like asking God similar challenging questions? We hear of Billy Graham who has served the Lord his whole adult life and now is partly disabled by Parkinson’s disease. Others of us have spent the greater part of our lifetime ministering to others and are now partly disabled. (I falter when I walk, am 90% blind in my right eye and am 90% deaf in my right ear.) Some of us have followed the Lord in ministry, and maybe we feel the Lord should now reward us for it with better health and wealth.

Peter was friend enough with Jesus that he dared to express his mind, and Jesus had a good answer for him. In fact, the Lord had already answered his question once before when the disciples asked the bold question: “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:3).

Similarly, Jesus answered Peter’s question in Luke 18 by saying, “No one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30). The greatest reward will be that we will see others, too, enter the portals of heaven, regardless of physical or material conditions.

Reflections is a column of brief reflections on Scripture passages. This one is by Norman Fehr of Armstrong, B.C. Freelance submissions for Reflections (200-250 words in length) are welcome.

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Last modified June 27, 2000.

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