Retiring From Life is Easy
Here’s a pair of good Bible quotes, ordered in steps, that you can reflect on when considering if you’re worthy of the Kingdom of God. Good news is that you don’t have to have been practicing Faith for more than a day before you can adopt these scriptures as your truth. First I list the Scriptures then I list a summary and beneath I share my Scripture interpretation.
Matthew 17:20 - He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to the mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 21:26 - Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; 27 - whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Luke 9:60-62 - “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” [To Him] Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 16:19 - I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
In other words:
Only the smallest amount of Faith is required
The smallest seed is the mustard seed.
Being a servant to others is being the greatest
That’s what American’s do
Following Jesus means sacrifices
You might be at war
If you can do all these, you get the keys to Heaven
Let me elaborate on the third bullet point, when Jesus responds to his would-be disciple that “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” When Jesus responded he said that no one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of heaven. This is an extrapolation of verse Genesis 2:24, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
But, is this the reason why Priests don’t bother marrying? I don’t agree with this reasoning. The Scripture says that a disciple will basically terminate dependency on the parents but I imagine that creating a new dependency might be inconvenient maybe? Either way, discipleship involves unequivocal decisiveness.
On a side note, Peter betrayed Jesus by asking Judas to sell Jesus out. Peter thought that Jesus would never find out but of course He knew. This makes sense because Jesus treated Judas as to spare him by asking him to go and do what he was to do. Then, surprise surprise, Judas ends up hanging himself. (Like with Jeff Epstein, or many other cases). Also, another clue is that Peter sliced the ear of a Roman soldier. This was meant to incite the soldiers and display his false loyalty to Jesus. I also wonder what is meant by [To Him] He said... when speaking to a prospective disciple. Could it be Peter?
Peter must’ve been someone that was later likely to betray Jesus because he could always claim victimhood at His teachings and deny knowing Jesus. Unfortunately, this makes the catholic faith seem corrupt and futile. But I don’t think it’s futile. Good things come from bad and Bad things from Good all the time. Let’s assume that God has His hand on Peter’s succession to the ministry of Jesus and be glad it survived through to this day.