Remember and Follow

The Lord who brought Israel out of bondage did not tell them merely to admire the memory of deliverance. He commanded them to remember it with signs, with consecration, and with an ordered life. The firstborn belonged to Him; the feast was to be kept; the story was to be told to sons. Redemption was not a passing emotion but a claim God laid upon their households, goods, and future.

So also in the Gospel, Christ does not permit a divided obedience. He restores the hardness of man’s heart to the Creator’s intention in marriage, sets His hands upon little children whom others would dismiss, and exposes the rich man’s captivity to his possessions. Then He tells the disciples that whoever leaves what is dear for the kingdom will not lose his reward. As Cyprian says, “There is no man, says He, that leaves house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, but he shall receive seven fold even in this time, but in the world to come life everlasting. Mark 10:29”

Exodus teaches that the redeemed are marked off for God. Mark teaches what that marking costs. To belong to the Lord is to keep faith in marriage, to receive the lowly, to loosen the hand from wealth, and to follow when following wounds pride or comfort. The way is narrow, yet it is not barren. God did not lead Israel back to Egypt, but onward; not to slavery, but toward promise: “I will bring you into a fair and good land, into a land flowing with milk and honey.” Let a man therefore remember his deliverance by obedience, and prove his hope by endurance.