Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, we have abandoned everything and followed you; what will be our fate?"
Jesus told them all, "Truly, after the resurrection when the Son of man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And those who have left behind houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life."
"Many who are first will be last; and many who are last, first."
When Christ says "many who are first will be last", he means "first" in the sense of what is called "precedence" in aristocratic and diplomatic circles; that is, first in importance or stature. He is saying "many who are greatest will be least . . ."
Because we humans have limited intelligence and experience, we interpret Christ's teachings in light of our limited scope. Judea, and in fact the Roman world 2000 years ago, was a culture that took hierarchy more for granted and tended to a more concrete philosophical view. Just 700 years ago, Dante (who wrote the Divine Comedy in the early 14th century) conceived of hell as having nine levels of increasingly painful torment, depending on the classification of the soul's sins. Today, most people in the West live in democratic societies, and our concept of heaven is rather democratic; many people conceive of heaven as a less-structured eternal unification with God.
Christ's teachings reflect the ability of his audience to understand. He tells the twelve apostles that they will sit on thrones, as judges (who were at times the near equivalent of kings) of the twelve tribes. This reflects the concrete and hierarchical society in which they lived.
If you want to believe that this is literally true, I could not disagree with you. For all I know, heaven has an intricate hierarchical structure with cherubim, seraphim, archangels, apostles, etc. It is also possible to believe that we simply cannot really understand what heaven is like, and that Christ was attempting to give Peter and the other apostles an image that they could comprehend. Either interpetation, and many others, are supported by the Scripture.
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