Luke xxii. 28 — 30. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
AT the close of his life, our blessed Lord was peculiarly engaged in comforting and encouraging his Disciples. This appears particularly in the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of St. John's Gospel. But in the passage before us it appears still more remark- ably ; because he had, at this time, great reason to be displeased with them : and yet he overlooks their offence with the most slight and transient notice ; and administers consolation to them, as if they had deserved nothing but applause. Yet we are not to
suppose that the words of my text are to be confined to them : they are applicable to all Christ's faithful servants. And, to place them in their true point of view, I must consider them,
I. As addressed to the Disciples then before him —
[There are difficulties in the words : but those difficulties will vanish, if we bear in mind the precise circumstances under which the Disciples were, at the time when these words were delivered.
Our Lord had now kept the Passover with his Disciples ; and had instituted his Last Supper, which, under the Christian dispensation, was to supersede the Passover. In explaining to them the nature and intent of this new ordinance, he had compared the bread, which he brake, to his body, which was to be broken on the cross ; and the wine, which he poured forth, to the blood which was about to be shed upon the cross for the sins of the whole world. But, in speaking of these things, he twice mentioned " the kingdom of God, which was about to come," and which was to be the completion and con- summation of all that he had undertaken to effect*. The Apostles, passing by all that their divine Master spake con- cerning his own sufferings, caught hold of the idea of " the kingdom of God," in which they hoped for advancement upon earth ; and immediately began to contend with each other for pre-eminence in that kingdom ; each specifying the grounds on which he himself claimed a priority above the rest. Our Lord reproved this ambition in the same kind of way as he had before doneb; but still forbore to dwell upon it, that he might comfort and support them under the accumulated weight of trouble which they were now immediately to sustain. He told them, that, whilst many had forsaken him, they had con- tinued with him through all his temptations ; and that there- fore he would act towards them as the Father himself had acted towards him; and would fulfil all their desires to an extent of which they could now form no conception. Did they desire pre-eminence in his kingdom ? They should all be admitted, not to the table of earthly princes merely0, but to the table of the King of kings, to eat and drink in his presence : yea, they all should possess kingdoms, and sit on thrones : and, though they should themselves stand for a time at the tribunal of wicked men, and receive a sentence of condemnation from them, they should have all the tribes of Israel, standing as it were, at their tribunal, and receiving, to a certain degree, their sentence from them, who, as assessors with Christ, should approve and applaud
a ver. 16, 18. t> Matt. xx. 20—28. with ver. 25 — 27.
c 2 Sam. ix. 9, 10. and xix. 28.