Mt 19:23-30
23Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 25When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” 26Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
27Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” 28Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. 30But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
We Have Given Up Everything: In the cultural world of Jesus, the main rule of life is: family first! Living in a society based on patronage, without the benefit of social services, a person gets his or her support and livelihood from a social network based on blood ties. And so when a person leaves behind family to follow Jesus, he is in fact giving up everything, even if he has only modest possessions. He deliberately cuts ties with family and social network on which he ordinarily depends for his living. He jeopardizes his very existence.
The disciples, however, are not defenseless. When a follower leaves behind his family, he is actually joining a new one, a fictive family consisting of other disciples of Jesus. He gains father and mother, brothers and sisters in the community of believers. The ties are no longer based on blood, but on common allegiance to Jesus who promises a hundredfold reward to the faithful ones. Their living of the word of God makes of them the new family of Jesus and sharers of his power when he comes again in glory.