Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 22:28
Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
28. in my temptations ] See on Luk 4:13.
My temptations – My trials, my humiliations, and my assaults from the power of Satan and a wicked world. These verses seem to contain (though in a few more words) the substance of what we met with Mat 19:28. There they are spoken as an answer to Peter, speaking on the behalf of himself and the rest of the apostles, who had forsaken all to follow Christ. Christ tells them there, that those which had followed him, in the regeneration when the Son of man should sit on the throne of his glory, should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. That time which our Lord there calleth the regeneration, is the time when he had been giving a new birth to the church, reforming the world by his doctrine and holy example. That time he here calleth the time of his temptations, by which he meaneth trials, afflictions, and persecutions, as the word is often taken in holy writ, Gal 4:14; Jam 1:12; 2Pe 2:9; Rev 3:10. To those of the disciples (they were eleven of the twelve) he promises a kingdom, a state of great honour and dignity, as his Father had appointed him; and therefore they might satisfy themselves with the titles and qualities of ministers and servants while they were here, and be content to meet with troubles and temptations, as he had done, to hunger and thirst, &c.; when that time came which he had appointed, they should then eat and drink at his table, they should sit also upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Terms expressive of that rest and satisfaction, that glory, honour, and dignity, which the saints in God shall in heaven be possessed of. 28. continued, c.affectingevidence of Christ’s tender susceptibility to human sympathy andsupport! (See on Joh 6:66, 67 seeJoh 16:32.) Ye are they which have continued with me,…. From the beginning of his ministry, to that very time, they abode by him, and never departed from him, when others withdrew and walked no more with him:
in my temptations: not in the wilderness by Satan; for they were not with him then, not being as yet called to be his disciples and followers: but in his afflictions, by the reproaches, and cavils, and ensnaring questions of the Scribes and Pharisees, and their attempts upon him to take away his life by stoning, c. which were trials and temptations to him. So the Ethiopic version renders it, “in my affliction”: now, since they had stood their ground, and firmly adhered to him in all his trials, he would have them still continue with him, and in his interest, though they should not have that temporal glory and grandeur they expected but, on the contrary, fresh troubles and exercises, reproach, persecution, and death itself; and, for their encouragement, he promises both pleasure and honour, though of another sort, than what they were seeking after.
In my temptations ( ). Probably “trials” is better here as in Jas 1:2 though temptations clearly in Jas 1:13ff. This is the tragedy of the situation when Jesus is facing the Cross with the traitor at the table and the rest chiefly concerned about their own primacy and dignity. Continued [] . Lit., “have remained through” [] .
THE APOSTLES’ POSITIONS IN THE MILLENNIAL AGE V. 28-30
1) “Ye are they which have continued with me,” (humeis de este hoi diamemenekotes met emou) “Yet, you all are the ones (disciples of the church band) who have remained with me throughout,” my ministry, from the beginning, Joh 15:16; Joh 15:26-27.
2) “In my temptations.” (en tois peirasmois mou) “in my temptations,” from the beginning back in Galilee, Mat 4:17-22; Mat 5:10-12; Act 1:21-22; Jas 1:2-3; Jas 1:14. His life was a continual conflict with Satanic powers, Heb 4:15.
Luk 22:28
. You are they who have continued with me. Although Luke appears to relate a different discourse of Christ, and one which was delivered at a different time, yet I have no doubt that it refers to the same time. For it is not a continued discourse of Christ that is here related, but detached sentences, without any regard to the order of time, as we shall shortly afterwards have occasion to state. But he employs more words than Matthew; for he declares that, as the apostles had accompanied him, and had remained steadfastly in his temptations, they would also be partakers of his glory. It is asked, in what sense does he call them his temptations? I think that he means the contests by which God tried him and the apostles in common. And properly did he use the word temptations; for, according to the feeling of human nature, his faith and patience were actually tried.
(28) Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.We trace a kind of loving tenderness in this recognition of faithfulness following upon the words of rebuke. The temptations cannot, it is clear, be those of which we commonly speak as the Temptation of the Christ, for that had been encountered in absolute solitude. The word must, accordingly be taken in its wider sense of trials, as in 1Co. 10:13; Jas. 1:2; Jas. 1:12; 1Pe. 1:6, and probably referred to the crises in our Lords ministry (such, e.g., as those in Mat. 12:14; Mat. 12:46; Joh. 6:60; Joh. 6:68; Joh. 12:43) when the enmity of scribes and rulers was most bitter, and many disciples had proved faithless and faint-hearted.
28. Ye are they Our Lord now proceeds to show not only that he has no design to abolish a just authority, but that so dignified is the title and inheritance of every apostle that none need envy another.
My temptations My trials from Satan, men, and earthly things.
“But you are they who have continued with me in my temptations (distresses, afflictions),”
Then He pointed out to them that up to this point they had indeed walked in this way. They had continued with Him in the lowly life that He had chosen. They too had faced insults, as He had. They too had had nowhere to lay their head. They too had had to take a lowly position. They had chosen to share with Him the way of service. From the commencement of His ministry up to this point He had faced continual temptation and testing. And included in that temptation had been the temptation to take the easy way and to use His powers to smooth His way. Even the temptation to take for Himself authority and power and be exalted. The temptations in the wilderness (Luk 4:1-11) in which He had faced these questions, had been but a prelude to the continual temptations that had faced Him since. He had been challenged and tested in every way, on the one hand by insults, byperverse questioners, by a family who thought that He was going in the wrong direction, and by those who hated Him. And on the other by voluntarily going without what all men sought, by choosing poverty, by being faced with those who sought to drive Him to take honour for Himself by announcing Himself as a king, and by His own knowledge of how He could make all different simply by the wrong and selfish use of His powers. He could have wrought mighty wonders and forced Himself on their attention. He could have smitten His enemies where they stood. He could have compromised with the Scribes or the Chief Priests. They would certainly have welcomed Him if only He had been ‘reasonable’ (had generally backed up their ideas) and had compromised. But that was not why He was here. He was here to truly serve God and men. He was here to reveal truth. And thus He had only called on His powers for these purposes, and in order to turn men’s thoughts towards God. He had chosen the way that led to affliction, and never the way that led to His own glory.
And the disciples had continued with Him in this. They too had learned to use the gifts that He had given them in order to preach and serve, and not in order to obtain honour for themselves. They had done well. But it was important that they continued in this way. It was important that they continued to walk as He walked, and thus continued to face and overcome the temptations that He had faced and overcome. And once He had left them they would have to fight those temptations again, but now alone, especially in the days when, instead of obviously being assistants, they would be seen as important in their own right. They would be seen as supreme over the church. Then would come the great danger that they would think of themselves more highly than they ought to think. They would begin to think of themselves as ‘Somebodies’. But this they must for ever eschew. They must rather have their hearts set on the lowest place.
Luk 22:28. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, &c. In my trials, or afflictions.
DISCOURSE: 1575 Luk 22:28-30. 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. Johns Gospel. But in the passage before us it appears still more remarkably; 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 Christs 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. But we must further consider these words,
II.
As addressed to his faithful followers in every age
There is, between them and the Apostles, a great resemblance:
1.
They answer to the same character
[Though Christ himself is out of the reach of men, his word, his cause, his people, are treated precisely as he was in the days of his flesh. Was he despised and rejected of men? So is his Gospel, wherever it is proclaimed. It is to some a stumbling-block, and to others foolishness, as much as ever. Nor is there, in the whole universe, a faithful servant of his who has not a cross to bear for his sake. But they are all firm in their Masters cause: they suffer nothing to turn them aside from following him: yea rather, instead of being intimidated by sufferings, they rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer shame, or even death itself, for his sake ]
2.
For them, also, are reserved the same honours
[At the table of the Lord above is Abraham sitting, and Lazarus next to him, with his head, as it were, reposed on Abrahams bosom [Note: They reclined on couches at their feasts.]. And there shall every true Disciple feast with his divine Master for evermore [Note: Rev 19:9.] To them, also, shall be assigned thrones and kingdoms, even as God the Father has assigned them to his well-beloved Son. It is by an express covenant that these were given to Christ [Note: This is the force of .]; and by covenant does Christ also confer them on his people: they inherit a kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. And they, too, shall be assessors with Christ in judgment. Of this there can be no doubt. St. Paul says to the Church at Corinth, Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? yea, know ye not that we shall judge angels [Note: 1Co 6:2-3.]? What then shall influence us, or what shall we regard in comparison of these things? Let us be content to hunger now, if we may but feast then: and if called to surrender thrones and kingdoms, and to lay down our lives as martyrs, let us willingly make the sacrifice, knowing how abundantly we shall be recompensed through eternal ages ]
Suffer ye now, brethren, a word of exhortation Adhere with firmness to the Lord Jesus Christ
[Many forsook him in the days of his flesh and many, at this day, like the stony-ground hearers, fall away in a season of temptation and persecution. But be ye steadfast and immoveable, even to the end; following the Lord fully, and cleaving to him with full purpose of heart ]
2.
Expect with confidence his promised blessings
[Think of the state to which many whom you once knew on earth are now exalted in heaven: and think in how little a time you also will be partakers of the same blessings. Know, that, if ye be Christs, all these things are yours, secured by a covenant that cannot be broken. What glory can this world give you, in comparison of this? Contemplate this: follow this: anticipate this: and you need not fear what either men or devils can do unto you.]
28 Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
Ver. 28. Ye are they which have continued, &c. ] Agrippa having suffered imprisonment for wishing Gaius emperor, the first thing Gaius did after he came to the empire, was to prefer Agrippa to a kingdom. He gave him also a chain of gold as heavy as the chain of iron that was upon him in prison. And shall not Christ richly reward all those his suffering servants?
28. ] These words could hardly have been spoken except on this occasion, when , Luk 22:37 .
Luk 22:28 . , but ye, the making transition from words of correction to a more congenial style of address. , who have continued all through; the perfect participle, pointing them out as in possession of a permanent character, a body of thoroughly tried, faithful men. , in my temptations , pointing to all past experiences fitted to try faith and patience, which were of daily occurrence: temptations even to the Master, but still more to the disciples (in view of their spiritual weakness) to lose confidence in, and attachment to, One so peculiar, so isolated, and so much disliked and opposed by the people of repute and influence.
Luke
PARTING PROMISES AND WARNINGS
THE LONELY CHRIST
Luk 22:28 We wonder at the disciples when we read of the unseemly strife for precedence which jars on the tender solemnities of the Last Supper. We think them strangely unsympathetic and selfish; and so they were. But do not let us be too hard on them, nor forget that there was a very natural reason for the close connection which is found in the gospels between our Lord’s announcements of His sufferings and this eager dispute as to who should be the greatest in the kingdom. They dimly understood what He meant, but they did understand this much, that His ‘sufferings’ were immediately to precede His ‘glory’-and so it is not, after all, to be so much wondered at if the apparent approach of these made the settlement of their places in the impending kingdom seem to them a very pressing question. We should probably have thought so too, if we had been among them.
Perhaps, too, the immediate occasion of this strife who should be accounted the greatest, which drew from Christ the words of our text, may have been the unwillingness of each to injure his possible claim to pre-eminence by doing the servant’s tasks at the modest meal. May we not suppose that the basin and the towel were refused by one after another, with muttered words growing louder and angrier: ‘It is not my place,’ says Peter; ‘you, Andrew, take it-and so from hand to hand it goes, till the Master ends the strife and takes it Himself to wash their feet. Then, when He had sat down again, He may have spoken the words of which our text is part-in which He tells the wrangling disciples what is the true law of honour in His kingdom, namely, service , and points to Himself as the great example. With what emphasis the pathetic incident of the foot-washing invests the clause before our text: ‘I am among you as he that serveth.’ On that disclosure of the true law of pre-eminence in His kingdom there follows in this and following verses the assurance, that, unseemly as their strife, there was reward for them, and places of dignity there, because in all their selfishness and infirmity, they had still clung to their Master.
This being the original purpose of these words, I venture to use them for another. They give us, if I mistake not, a wonderful glimpse into the heart of Christ, and a most pathetic revelation of His thoughts and experiences, all the more precious because it is quite incidental and, we may say, unconscious.
I. See then, here, the tempted Christ.
That is not the point of view from which the Gospel narratives present it, for the plain reason that they are not autobiographies, and that Jesus said little about the continuous assaults to which He was exposed. It is not the point of view from which we often think of it. We are too apt to conceive of Christ’s temptations as all gathered together-curdled and clotted, as it were, at the two ends of His life, leaving the space between free. But we cannot understand the meaning of that life, nor feel aright the love and help that breathe from it, unless we think of it as a field of continual and diversified temptations.
How remarkable is the choice of the expression! To Christ, His life, looking back on it, does not so much present itself in the aspect of sorrow, difficulty or pain, as in that of temptation. He looked upon all outward things mainly with regard to their power to help or to hinder His life’s work. So for us, sorrow or joy should matter comparatively little. The evil in the evil should be felt to be sin, and the true cross and burden of life should be to us, as to our Master, the appeals it makes to us to abandon our tasks, and fling away our filial dependence and submission.
This is not the place to plunge into the thorny questions which surround the thought of the tempted Christ. However these may be solved, the great fact remains, that His temptations were most real and unceasing. It was no sham fight which He fought. The story of the wilderness is the story of a most real conflict; and that conflict is waged all through His life. True, the traces of it are few. The battle was fought on both sides in grim silence, as sometimes men wage a mortal struggle without a sound. But if there were no other witness of the sore conflict, the Victor’s shout at the close would be enough. His last words, ‘I have overcome the world,’ sound the note of triumph, and tell how sharp had been the strife. So long and hard had it been that He cannot forget it even in heaven, and from the throne holds forth to all the churches the hope of overcoming, ‘even as I also overcame.’ As on some battlefield whence all traces of the agony and fury have passed away, and harvests wave, and larks sing where blood ran and men groaned their lives out, some grey stone raised by the victors remains, and only the trophy tells of the forgotten fight, so that monumental word, ‘I have overcome’ stands to all ages as the record of the silent, life-long conflict.
It is not for us to know how the sinless Christ was tempted. There are depths beyond our reach. This we can understand, that a sinless manhood is not above the reach of temptation; and this besides, that, to such a nature, the temptations must be suggested from without, not presented from within. The desire for food is simply a physical craving, but another personality than His own uses it to incite the Son to abandon dependence for His physical life on God. The trust in God’s protection is holy and good, and it may be truest wisdom and piety to incur danger in dependence on it, when God’s service calls, but a mocking voice without suggests, under the cloak of it, a needless rushing into peril at no call of conscience, and for no end of mercy, which is not religion but self-will. The desire to have the world for His own lay in Christ’s deepest heart, but the enemy of Christ and man, who thought the world his already, used it as giving occasion to suggest a smoother and shorter road to win all men unto Him than the ‘Via Dolorosa’ of the Cross. So the sinless Christ was tempted at the beginning, and so the sinless Christ was tempted, in various forms of these first temptations, throughout His life. The path which He had to tread was ever before Him, the shadow of the Cross was flung along His road from the first. The pain and sorrow, the shame and spitting, the contradiction of sinners against Himself, the easier path which needed but a wish to become His, the shrinking of flesh-all these made their appeal to Him, and every step of the path which He trod for us was trodden by the power of a fresh consecration of Himself to His task and a fresh victory over temptation.
Let us not seek to analyse. Let us be content to worship, as we look, Let us think of the tempted Christ, that our conceptions of His sinlessness may be increased. His was no untried and cloistered virtue, pure because never brought into contact with seducing evil, but a militant and victorious goodness, that was able to withstand in the evil day. Let us think of the tempted Christ that our thankful thoughts of what He bore for us may be warmer and more adequate, as we stand afar off and look on at the mystery of His battle with our enemies and His. Let us think of the tempted Christ to make the lighter burden of our cross, and our less terrible conflict easier to bear and to wage. So will He ‘continue with us in our temptations,’ and patience and victory flow to us from Him.
II. See here the lonely Christ.
The more pure and lofty a nature, the more keen its sensitiveness, the more exquisite its delights, and the sharper its pains. The more loving and unselfish a heart, the more its longing for companionship: and the more its aching in loneliness.
Very significant and pathetic are many points in the Gospel story bearing on this matter. The very choice of the Twelve had for its first purpose, ‘that they should be with Him,’ as one of the Evangelists tells us. We know how constantly He took the three who were nearest to Him along with Him, and that surely not merely that they might be ‘eyewitnesses of His majesty’ on the holy mount, or of His agony in Gethsemane, but as having a real gladness and strength even in their companionship amid the mystery of glory as amid the power of darkness. We read of His being alone but twice in all the gospels, and both times for prayer. And surely the dullest ear can hear a note of pain in that prophetic word: ‘The hour cometh that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone’; while every heart must feel the pitiful pathos of the plea, ‘Tarry ye here, and watch with Me.’ Even in that supreme hour, He longs for human companionship, however uncomprehending, and stretches out His hands in the great darkness, to feel the touch of a hand of flesh and blood-and, alas, for poor feeble love!-He gropes for it in vain. Surely that horror of utter solitude is one of the elements of His passion grave and sorrowful enough to be named by the side of the other bitterness poured into that cup, even as it was pain enough to form a substantive feature of the great prophetic picture: ‘I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.’
So here, a deep pain in His loneliness is implied in these words of our text which put the disciples’ participation in the glories of His throne as the issue of their loyal continuance with Him in the conflict of earth. These, and these only, had been by His side, and so much does He care for their companionship, that therefore they shall share His dominion.
That lonely Christ sympathises with all solitary hearts. If ever we feel ourselves misunderstood and thrown back upon ourselves; if ever our hearts’ burden of love is rejected; if our outward lives be lonely and earth yields nothing to stay our longing for companionship; if our hearts have been filled with dear ones and are now empty or filled only with tears, let us think of Him and say, ‘Yet I am not alone.’ He lived alone, alone He died, that no heart might ever be solitary any more. ‘Could ye not watch with Me?’ was His gentle rebuke in Gethsemane. ‘Lo, I am with you always,’ is His mighty promise from the throne. In every step of life we may have Him for a companion, a friend closer than all others, nearer us than our very selves, if we may so say-and in the valley of the shadow of death we need fear no evil, for He will be with us.
III. See here the grateful Christ.
All true love is glad when it is met, glad to give, and glad to receive. Was it not a joy to Jesus to be waited on by the ministering women? Would He not thank them because they served Him for love? I trow, yes. And if any one stumbles at the word ‘grateful’ as applied to Him, we do not care about the word so long as it is seen that His heart was gladdened by loving friends, and that He recognised in their society a ministry of love.
Notice, too, the loving estimate of what these disciples had done. Their companionship had been imperfect enough at the best. They had given Him but blind affection, dashed with much selfishness. In an hour or two they would all have forsaken Him and fled. He knew all that was lacking in them, and the cowardly abandonment which was so near. But He has not a word to say of all this. He does not count jealously the flaws in our work, or reject it because it is incomplete. So here is the great truth clearly set forth, that where there is a loving heart, there is acceptable service. It is possible that our poor, imperfect deeds shall be an odour of a sweet smell, acceptable, well-pleasing to Him. Which of us that is a father is not glad at his children’s gifts, even though they be purchased with his own money, and be of little use? They mean love, so they are precious. And Christ, in like manner, gladly accepts what we bring, even though it be love chilled by selfishness, and faith broken by doubt,-submission crossed by self-will. The living heart of the disciples’ acceptable service was their love, far less intelligent and entire than ours may be. They were joined to their Lord, though with but partial sympathy and knowledge, in His temptations. It is possible for us to be joined to Jesus Christ more closely and more truly than they were during His earthly life. Union with Him here is union with Him hereafter. If we abide in Him amid the shows and shadows of earth, He will continue with us in our temptations, and so the fellowships begun on earth will be perfected in heaven, ‘if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.’
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 22:28-30
28″You are those who have stood by Me in My trials; 29and just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you 30that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Luk 22:28
NASB”those who have stood by Me in My trials”
NKJV”those who have continued with Me in My trials”
NRSV”those who have stood by Me in my trials”
TEV”you have stayed with me all through my trials”
NJB”you are the men who have stood by me faithfully in my trials”
This is a Perfect active participle. Jesus must be referring to the events and struggles of their years together in ministry on the road. The large crowds came and went, but this core of followers remained. This group also included several women who traveled with them (cf. Luk 8:1-3) and some of the hundred and twenty in the upper room on Pentecost (cf. Act 1:13-15).
SPECIAL TOPIC: WOMEN WHO TRAVELED WITH JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES
Luk 22:29-30 Jesus knew who He was and why He came (cf. Joh 15:1-7). He has the authority (cf. Mat 28:18) to appoint His followers a place that was given to Him by the Father (places of honor at the head table).
Luk 22:30 “and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” The exact time, purpose, and people to be ruled is uncertain (cf. Mat 19:28; 2Ti 2:11-12; Rev 3:21). This phrase surely links the OT Israel and the NT church in an inseparable embrace.
SPECIAL TOPIC: REIGNING IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD
temptations = trials.
28.] These words could hardly have been spoken except on this occasion, when , Luk 22:37.
Luk 22:28. , but) More shall be vouchsafed to you than you even hope for; not a mere precedency (primacy) of some kind or other among yourselves, but a kingdom to each of you individually. [The Lord knows truly how to advance His people to signal distinction. He revealed to them this very privilege, which was awaiting them, at that precise time when there was less danger impending of their being elated with pride by it.-V. g.]-, temptations) The disciples were called after His temptation in the wilderness. Therefore the whole life of Jesus Christ was full of temptations [to which He was exposed from Satan, the world, the Scribes, etc.-V. g.], through which (temptations) He entered into glory. And such is the case with believers also. Christ also tempted (i.e. tried the faith of) the disciples. [They stood well at all points (in all respects). Joh 6:68 (Jesus said, Will ye also go away-Lord to whom shall we go, thou? etc.).-V. g.]
Mat 19:28, Mat 19:29, Mat 24:13, Joh 6:67, Joh 6:68, Joh 8:31, Act 1:25, Heb 2:18, Heb 4:15
Reciprocal: 2Sa 2:2 – General 2Sa 15:15 – Behold 2Sa 19:33 – Come thou 1Ki 2:7 – eat 1Ki 2:26 – hast been Mat 25:21 – I will Mar 10:29 – There Joh 17:24 – I will Act 14:22 – we 2Co 1:7 – as ye Jam 1:12 – the crown
8
Throughout the public ministry of Jesus, he was subject to the trials of his life which he overcame completely. (See Heb 4:15.)
Luk 22:28. Continued with me in my temptations, or trials. Our Lord does not reproach them, but praises their steadfastness. He speaks of His whole life as one of temptations, in accordance with the Scriptural portrayal of His work on earth.
Observe here, what an honorable acknowledgment Christ makes of the constancy of his disciples’ love and affection towards him: Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations; that is, in my afflictions, trials, and sufferings. It is an easy matter to abide with Christ in days of peace, in times of consolation; but when we are under afflictions, temptations and troubles, then to abide and keep close to Christ, this is the proof of love and friendship. And as Christ makes an honorable mention of their constancy towards him, so he presently assures them of an honorable reward: I appoint unto you a kingdom.
Learn hence, that such as are sharers with Christ in his sufferings, shall certainly communicate with him in his glory: If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.
And whereas our Saviour promises his apostles to sit upon thrones with him judging the twelve tribes of Israel; we may gather, that such ministers as do most service for Christ, and forsake most to follow him, and continue in temptation and tribulation with him, shall in his kingdom partake of most honor and dignity with him and from him: You shall eat and drink in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Possibly the apostles, and all the zealous, faithful and laborious ministers of Jesus Christ, shall be nearer his throne in heaven, than either saints or angels; nearer than the angels, because by Christ’s assuming the human nature, they are more nearly allied to him; he is their friend, but our brother; and nearer than other saints, as having done more eminent service for Christ, and brought more honor and glory to him by a laborious diligence in their place and station, They that turn many to righteousness, shall shine, etc. Dan 12:3
Luk 22:28-30. Ye have continued with me in my temptations , in my trials and afflictions: and his whole life was little else than one continued series of them, particularly from the time of his entering on his public ministry. And I appoint unto you a kingdom I will preserve you in all your temptations and trials here, and will confer on you a kingdom of glory hereafter: I appoint, not a primacy to one, but a kingdom to every one; and that on the same terms as my Father hath appointed to me Who have fought and conquered. That ye may eat and drink at my table, &c. That ye may enjoy the highest happiness as guests, not as servants, and the highest dignity, not as subjects, but as princes. Now as these honours, which I shall hereafter confer on you, are incomparably beyond those about which you seem so solicitous, let a consideration of this awaken a nobler ambition in your minds, than that which appears now to influence them; and, instead of contending for superiority over each other, in my church militant, in which you must expect to meet with continual reproach and suffering, aspire after high degrees of that celestial glory, which you are to share with me in my church triumphant. See on Mat 19:28-29. The words seem to be primarily applicable to the twelve apostles, and secondarily to all Christs servants and disciples, whose spiritual powers, honours, and delights, are here represented in figurative terms, with respect to their advancement both in the kingdom of grace and glory.
Verse 28
Temptations; trials and sufferings.
22:28 {9} Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
(9) Those who are partakers of the affliction of Christ will also be partakers of his kingdom.
The future role of the Twelve 22:28-30
Jesus balanced the need for humility and service with a promise of future reward. Though the Twelve are in view, the implication of reward for other faithful disciples is strong. Jesus evidently repeated this promise in different language from an earlier incident (Mat 19:28).
The basis of the reward is essentially faithfulness to Jesus (cf. Mat 19:28). This is always the basis for believers’ rewards, works being the consequence of faithfulness. Here the manifestation of faithfulness was standing by Jesus in His past trials (Gr. pairasmos, i.e., dangers, troubles; cf. Act 20:19). Satan was behind these difficulties.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REWARD OF FAITHFULNESS
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 consummation of all that he had undertaken to effect [Note: ver. 16, 18.]. The Apostles, passing by all that their divine Master spake concerning 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 done [Note: Mat 20:20-28. with ver. 2527.]; 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 continued with him through all his temptations; and that therefore 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 merely [Note: 2Sa 9:9-10; 2Sa 19:28.], 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 the sentence passed upon them. This I conceive to be the true sense of the last clause of my text; which was intended to fortify them against all which was about to be realized in their Lord, and which they themselves also were, in due time, destined to experience.]
1.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)