“We gave up everything.
We’re with you.
We’ve got nothing.
What will we have?”

Jesus had every reason for punching Peter right then, for firing him, for throwing up his hands and reaming Peter out.

Peter is on this camping trip with God. Peter has watched Jesus heal people, including his own mother-in-law. He has watched Jesus walk on water. He has watched himself walk on water. He has heard powerful, provoking preaching. He has seen more tricks than David Copperfield’s assistant, more compassion than Mother Theresa’s associate, more articulate verbal challenge of the status quo than Dr Martin Luther King, Junior and Senior combined.

Now they are sitting on a rock, talking. And Peter says, “what will we end up with?”

Jesus gives him the pie in the sky answer: In heaven, you’ll have thrones and be judges and everything. If you’ve left your family, you’ll have more family than you can imagine.

All the while, Jesus doesn’t remind Peter of the one thing he already has, the thing that will be consistent from now to then.

Himself.

Jesus had told the rich young man that he needed to come and follow, to let go of stuff and follow. Now he’s telling Peter that the people who have followed will have all the stuff they could imagine, eventually.

The thread that ties these stories together is not the riches. The thread is the following Jesus.

Peter eventually got that. Read his letters (1 and 2 Peter) to get a a picture of a man who understood the way that life was completely different when following Jesus. Eventually he would understand that he could suffer anything, he could endure anything because of the awareness of that relationship.

For now, however, Peter was thinking about wanting to outbelieve the rich guy.

I understand.