
The Four: A Survey of the Gospels

Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
For Jesus’ first-century disciples, estrangement from family members was a personal and social disaster. They lost their identity, their network of business and personal connections, their social and economic safety net, their prospects for future inheritance.
Jesus encouraged His disciples by promising that they would receive far more than they might lose by following Him. If they lost father and mother, or farms and houses, they would receive back a hundredfold (Mark 10:29-30). By following Jesus, they would become part of a community of “brothers” who would take care of them in extremity.
We don’t suffer nearly so much if we are ripped out of our families, and it is largely because our world has been remade by Jesus. Even non-Christians have networks of strangers who act like brothers.
Jesus didn’t command us to erect a welfare state, and there were state systems of welfare in the ancient world. But insofar as our welfare system is motivated by a sense of obligation toward strangers, it is a late and distorted shadow of Jesus’ promise to provide fathers for the fatherless, brothers for those who have been cast out, land for the landless.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 7:11 am
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