Mark 10:29-30 holds a great promise, and it does have to do with earthly relationships and material possessions. At the least, it means that the true follower of Christ will not lack for any good thing ("My cup overflows," Ps. 23:5) and that in normal circumstances a Christian will be blessed with earthly goods abundantly. Personally, I am convinced that Jesus gives us every good that he can possibly give without rendering us unfit for his work or destroying our souls. The reason why many of us do not have more is that the Lord knows that we would misuse it.

In the great collection of unexpected and challenging teachings about discipleship by Jesus there is perhaps nothing so utterly unexpected (particularly after our study of the earlier sayings) as Jesus' words in Mark 10:29-30. All along Jesus had been telling his listeners that in order to be his disciples they must deny themselves and give over everything they possess. But now he says that if they do that they will nevertheless receive a hundred times as much as what was given up, not merely in some future life, which we might expect, but in this very age - though they would have persecutions

Where in this great world in which we live can there be found a place for those who imitate the Lord Jesus Christ and thus, in their own persons, live out the Beatitudes? This is not an easy world. It is a tough, hard, grasping, evil, covetous world. Where can there possibly be a place for those who are poor in spirit, who mourn for sin, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness (of all things), who are merciful, who are pure in heart, who are peacemakers, who are persecuted for Jesus’ sake? There is only one place. It is the place the "great" of this world assigned Christ. It is the cross.

"Blessed are the peacemakers." Not only do the followers of Christ find peace within through the pursuit of purity, they seek to promote peace with and among others also. Why? Because they are at peace themselves and know the blessing of it. The followers of Christ were formerly at war with God, and because they were at war with God they were also at war with others and themselves. Breaking the vertical relationship breaks horizontal ties. Now these followers of Jesus have peace. They did not make it. God made peace in them through Christ’s cross.

There is a special promise to those who are meek by which they may count themselves blessed: they shall "inherit the earth." The world may think such souls fit only for the kingdom of God, like the Emperor Julian who wrote mockingly that he only confiscated the property of Christians to make them poor enough to enter heaven. But Jesus does not say that they will inherit heaven, though they will. He says that they will inherit this earth, while those who currently possess it (he implies) will lose it all. How do they possess it? They possess it as the gospel spreads through preaching and God’s kingdom comes. In the ultimate sense the meek will possess the earth when Christ returns, renews its face, and subdues all things to himself forever. In that day the saints will reign with him.