Luke 22:29

As the Lord had denounced woe to the traitor, so on the other hand to the rest of the disciples He promises blessings, saying, You are they which have continued with me, &c.

For not the first effort of patience, but long-continued perseverance, is rewarded with the glory of the heavenly kingdom for perseverance, (which is called constancy or fortitude of mind,) is, so to say, the pillar and prop of all virtues. The Son of God then conducts those who abide with Him in His temptations to the everlasting kingdom. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Hence it follows, And I give to you a kingdom, &c.

The kingdom of God is not of this world. But it is not equality with God, but likeness to Him, to which man must aspire. For Christ alone is the full image of God, on account of the unity of His Father’s glory expressed in Him. But the righteous man is after the image of God, if for the sake of imitating the likeness of the Divine conversation, He through the knowledge of God despises the world. Therefore also we eat the Body and Blood of Christ, that we may be partakers of eternal life. Whence it follows, That you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. For the reward promised to us is not food and drink, but the communication of heavenly grace and life.

Or the table offered to all saints richly to enjoy is the glory of a heavenly life, w herewith they who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled, resting in the long desired enjoyment of the true God.

He said this not as if they would have there bodily food, or as if His kingdom were to be a sensible one. For their life then shall be the life of angels, as He before told the Sadducees. But Paul also says that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.

By means of the things of our present life He describes spiritual things. For they exercise a high privilege with earthly kings, who sit at their table as guests. So then by man’s estimation He shows who shall be rewarded by Him with the greatest honors.

This then is the exchange to the right hand of the Most High, that those who now in lowliness rejoice to minister to their fellow-servants. shall then at our Lord’s table on high be fed with the banquet of everlasting life, and they who here in temptations abide with the Lord being unjustly judged, shall then come with Him as just judges upon their tempters. Hence it follows, And sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

That is, the unbelievers condemned out of the twelve tribes.

But the twelve thrones are not as it were any resting-places for the bodily posture, but because since Christ judges after the Divine likeness by knowledge of the hearts, not by examination of the actions, rewarding virtue, condemning iniquity; so the Apostles are appointed to a spiritual judgment, for the rewarding of faith, the condemnation of unbelief, repelling error with virtue, inflicting vengeance on the sacrilegious.

What then will Judas also sit there? Observe what the lay, was which God gave by Jeremiah, If I have promised any good, and you are counted unworthy of it, I will punish you. Therefore speaking to His disciples He did not make a general promise, but added, You who have continued with me in my temptations.

From the high excellence of this promise Judas is excluded. For before the Lord said this, Judas must be supposed to have gone out. They also are excluded whoever having heard the words of the incomprehensible Sacrament, have gone backwards.

In addition to Philip’s conversation, and the Lord’s reply to it, the reader will observe that we have run through John’s Gospel to show that many other passages of a clear purport, both before and after that chapter, are only in strict accord with that single and prominent statement, which must be interpreted agreeably to all other places, rather than in opposition to them, and indeed to its own inherent and natural sense. I will not here largely use the support of the other Gospels, which confirm our belief by the Lord’s nativity : it is sufficient to remark that He who had to be born of a virgin is announced in express terms by the angel himself as the Son of God: “The Spirit of God shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also the Holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God .” On this passage even they will wish to r …

8. For the righteous man, being nurtured in faith and knowledge, and the observance of divine precepts, has his soul always in health. Wherefore it is commanded to ‘receive to ourselves him who is weak in the faith,’ and to nourish him, even if he is not yet able to eat bread, but herbs, ‘for he that is weak eateth herbs.’ For even the Corinthians were not able to partake of such bread, being yet babes, and like babes they drank milk. ‘For every one that partaketh of milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness,’ according to the words of that divine man. …

‘ Ye are they that 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.’ Being called, then, to the great and heavenly Supper, in that upper room which has been swept, let us ‘cleanse ourselves,’ as the Apostle exhorted, ‘from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God;’ that so, being spotless within and without, without, clothing ourselves with temperance and justice; within, by the Spirit, rightly dividing the word of truth, we may hear, ‘Enter into the joy of thy Lord.’