In Luke 22, the disciples get into a dispute about who was the best. They all aspired to greatness. It’s easy to make caricatures out of these people, but perhaps they’re more real and relatable than it initially appears. Maybe the real argument was about which disciple had the most useful ministry skills. Or perhaps they had different ideas about how best to share the Gospel, and some believed their ideas were much better than the perspectives of others.
Into the tension of this disagreement between the disciples, Jesus entered with a transformational perspective. He didn’t allow them to fight it out. Instead, he said, “The greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like one who serves” (Luke 22:26).
Jesus invited his friends to re-imagine greatness, and he correlated it with humility and service. Into the discord, Jesus offered new insights, and the disciples’ perspectives were re-framed. Their tension paved the way for an important learning moment.
This message is excerpted from “From tension to transformation” by Emily Carson in the August 2021 Café online magazine. Today we commemorate Maximilian Kolbe, 1941; Kaj Munk, 1944; martyrs.
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