purposeTuesday, September 22
The One Who Serves
Scripture
"A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.”"
— Luke 22:24-27
What it means
At the Last Supper, the disciples start arguing about which of them is the greatest. It comes right after Jesus has said that one of the men at that table will betray him. Jesus points them to the kings of the Gentiles, who lord it over people and call themselves Benefactors. "But you are not to be like that," he says. The greatest should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. Then he asks who is greater, the one at the table or the one who serves. He answers the way anyone would: the one at the table. Yet he says he is among them as one who serves. So he puts himself with the one who does not sit at the table but serves the people at it. The greatest among them belongs on that same side.