Following Jesus Without a Prize?

What is the benefit to following Jesus?  Is there an incentive to following Jesus?  Of course there is!  The first incentive is pretty easy- follow Jesus and you’ll avoid hell.  That’s a pretty good incentive.  I mean, if you think of the gospel as something to sell, and all your other sales techniques have failed, then you simply play the hell card, because, really, who actually wants to go to a place of eternal damnation?  But, honestly, using the hell incentive is a bit passé for our postmodern times, so while we still have it in our bag of tricks, the incentive we’re most likely to play is the ‘better life’ incentive.  We talk about the gospel in terms of attaining peace, purpose, and mission.  We talk about Jesus in terms of allowing us to have a better life, because honestly, though we live in the land of milk and honey, our lives can still be empty and meaningless.  

What if the only reward to following Jesus is . . . Jesus?  Is that enough?  If there was no after life, would you still follow Jesus?  If you knew your life was going to get more difficult, and not easier, would you still follow Jesus?  I am not saying the incentives to following Jesus aren't real or valuable- they are.  But when Jesus talked about the gospel, the kingdom, there was more going on there then a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.