The Humility Which Is To Distinguish Those Who Are His (22:24-30).
Having established the basis for the future by means of the new significance of the bread and wine, and having warned that He was about to be betrayed, He now emphasised the kind of attitude that was essential in His service. The whole future would depend on it. They had continued with Him in His trials and afflictions. Let them now recognise that they must continue with Him in His humble service. In the future it would be when the leaders of the church in later centuries lost this attitude, that they sank into formalism, and produced the very opposite of what Jesus wanted, a hierarchical and overbearing church which had lost its heart and its spirituality. Such people certainly wanted to sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, but they did not want to accept what that involved in the eyes of Jesus.
Note the reference here to His afflictions. In Luke 22:15 He had referred to His future suffering, a reference which was the prelude to His institution of the Lord's Supper, in Luke 22:21-23 he had expressed His sadness and grief at Judas' betrayal. Now he joins His disciples with Him as He describes the afflictions that He and they have undergone. As the writer to the Hebrews tells us, He learned obedience by the things that He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).
a There arose also a contention among them, which of them was accounted to be greatest (Luke 22:24).
b And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles have lordship over them, and those who have authority over them are called Benefactors” (Luke 22:25).
c “But you shall not be so, but he who is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and he who is chief, as he that serves” (Luke 22:26).
d “For which is greater, the one who sits at meat, or the one who serves? Is not he who sits at meat? But I am in the midst of you as He Who serves ” (Luke 22:27).
c “But you are they who have continued with me in my temptations” (Luke 22:28).
b “And I appoint to you Kingly Rule, even as my Father appointed to Me” (Luke 22:29).
a “That you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:30).
Note that in ‘a' the question is as to which of them is to be the greatest, and in the parallel none will be the greatest for they are to share twelve equal thrones. In ‘b' is displayed the lordship of Gentile lords, and in the parallel he displays the different kind of lordship that will be theirs in the Kingly Rule of God. In ‘c' they are to seek an attitude of humility in service, and in the parallel they continue with Him in His testings, which were partly testings as to whether He would shun glory and follow the path of humility and service (Luke 4:1-13). Centrally in ‘d' He lays down that He has Himself chosen the way of humility and service, and that it is to be an example to them.
We should note at once here that Luke 22:30 must be interpreted in line with what has gone before, and not as though it stood on its own. The last thing that Jesus is saying is, ‘Don't worry, what the Gentiles seek after you will achieve at last'. He is rather saying that what the gentile kings seek after should be eschewed.