Thrones of Judgement

Matthew 19:28 - Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall be seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will be seated on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

I have been reading Moltmann's Theology of Hope in which he talks in the beginning about the tension between the promise and the fulfillment. The promise is always in the future, creating tension between the reality of today and the promise of the future. Today's reality may not directly lead to the promised future, creating the tension. This is the situation the disciples are in here. Their promise, too, is in the future for the disciples. The tension they have been feeling up to now has just ratcheted up a notch.

 I have several questions that I want to think through about this passage:

How did the disciples understand this promise? Did they see Jesus as a military king on his throne or as a day of God's judgment? What did Jesus mean by regeneration? Regeneration of what?

And two things to note: The talk of thrones is a drastic change in tone from go sell all you have and follow me. The promise is not made to an individual, as God's promises never are; it is a promise to the community. I think this gets overlooked in some branches of Christianity today. There is very much a focus on individual salvation; especially in America. Here, though, it is a promise to the twelve apostles. This might stem from Jesus change in tone from servant leadership - sharing hardships with your people - and judging others. I'm unsure whether this is reconcilable or not. I do think that we focus on the latter because it is the tantalizing promise. However, the promise is only for those who followed Jesus - those who "sold all they had" or "left everything" to be with Jesus. It is not to those who are rich; in fact, they are explicitly excluded.

It also seems to point to God's day of judgment rather than a military overthrow of the Roman oppressors. Were the disciples disappointed at this? Did they envision regeneration to mean a regeneration of the kingdom of David rather than a day of judgment scenario? If so, I feel sorry for them. First they're told that rich people, rather than being easy entries, will have a hard time getting into heaven. Then they're told no person can do it (which seems to contradict his advice to the rich, young man) only God. And while they're trying to process what this means for them, they get hit with, "Yeah, we'll have thrones and be judging the twelve tribes of Israel." That is a lot of tension between what one believed and what they were being told.

And I think this feeling of tension is natural and necessary. If there is no tension, there's no need for any promise to be fulfilled. Even once the promise is fulfilled, according to Moltmann, there will be another piece of the promise or another promise entirely to take its place. There will always be tension between the 'not-yet' and the fulfillment. We are called to follow Jesus on the hope of the fulfillment of the promise - whether its in our lifetime or not; whether we can see how to get there from here  or not; whether it makes sense or not. Radical amazement is called for here along with becoming comfortable with the tension.
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