Seated at Jesus’ Table
Scripture Reading — Psalm 22:1-11; Luke 22:24-30
You may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. . . .
Judas sat at the same table as his fellow disciples, ate the same bread, and drank the same wine. He may even have participated in the dispute about who was greatest. We don’t know. What we do know is that Judas would leave to betray Jesus and that the other disciples would sit on thrones of judgment.
In his betrayal of Jesus, Judas became great in the eyes of the chief priests and other leaders in Jerusalem (Luke 22:3-6). But the rule of Jerusalem was on the way out.
A new kingdom was emerging, strangely, through Jesus’ trials and betrayals. And as the Father had prepared a road of suffering for Jesus, now Jesus gave his followers a similar role in this emerging kingdom.
Like Jesus, the disciples would suffer trials and betrayals. And this troublesome road of suffering and self-denial, to which Jesus added the assignment to serve others, would end only when the kingdom will come in its fullness. Then all of Jesus’ followers will eat and drink at his table in his kingdom. Suffering and denying and fleeing will be no more.
Nor will there be any more betrayal, no more participating in heated discussions and judgments about right and wrong. Rather, God’s people will be ruled from a heavenly table over which presides the risen Lord and all whom he has saved to sit with him at that table. What a day that will be!
You are holy, Lord, enthroned on the praises of your people. In you we trust. Amen.
About the author — Arie C. Leder
Dr. Arie C. Leder is the Martin J. Wyngaarden Senior Professor of Old Testament Studies at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He previously served as pastor at Ebenezer Christian Reformed Church, Trenton, Ontario, and with Christian Reformed World Missions in Latin America. He teaches courses on the Pentateuch and on historical books of the Old Testament.
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