Matthew 20:22 Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
Are ye able to suffer with me – to endure the trials and pains which shall come upon you and me in endeavoring to build up my kingdom? Are you able to bear it when sorrows shall cover you like water, his reproaches, sorrows, sufferings, and death; which because of the disagreeableness of them, he compares to a bitter cup of vengeance, wrath, fury, and indignation; and because they were appointed to him, and allotted for him, they were his portion, therefore he expresses them by a “cup”; and because they were so many and great, of such an overwhelming nature, that he seemed to be plunged into them, and covered with them, therefore he likens them to a “baptism” and which the ordinance of water baptism, performed by immersion, is a lively representation of. Now Christ suggests to these disciples, that instead of indulging their ambitious desires of worldly grandeur, that they would do well to consider what a bitter cup he had to drink of, and what a sea of sorrows and sufferings he was about to be plunged into, and drenched in; and whether they could think of enduring anything of the like kind, for his sake, which was most likely to be in a short time, what they would be called unto, and not to honors, ease, and pleasure; and what they must be sure, more or less, to undergo, before they entered the everlasting kingdom of glory. They say to Jesus, we are able; not considering the nature of these sufferings, and their own weakness; but partly through ignorance of themselves, and vain confidence which possessed them; and chiefly through a desire of the places in his kingdom, they asked for, and which they thought drinking his cup, and being baptized with his baptism, were the condition, and the means of enjoying its benefits. (Gill)
Obviously, there are rewards in heaven, but truthfully I haven’t given this much thought. My reasoning for this, as it stands right now, is that I think no matter what seemingly great things we say and do for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ, they will still be minuscule in the light of His glory and grace when we truly seem Him in His fullness. Though rewards may be given, I doubt very much that we will seem worthy to receive them in this light. I imagine any reward we receive we will lay them at His feet and cry out Holy, Holy, Holy, Worthy is the Lord Almighty.
