Luke 22 -- questions of status

How little we know of ourselves, our place in the order of things. In America, we have things called "job interviews." You show up, make your best case, and hope to be selected. Then sometimes find out afterward that the game was rigged, the chosen candidate already selected before you even stepped in the door. But, forms must be maintained ...

Let's look at two sentences that Luke juxtaposed in his report of the table talk around the Last Supper:

Luk 22:22 İnsanoğlu, belirlenmiş olan yoldan gidiyor. Ama O'na ihanet eden adamın vay haline!"
Luk 22:23 Elçiler, aralarında bunu kimin yapabileceğini tartışmaya başladılar.
Luk 22:24 Ayrıca aralarında hangisinin en üstün sayılacağı konusunda bir çekişme oldu.
Luk 22:25 İsa onlara, "Ulusların kralları, kendi uluslarına egemen kesilirler. İleri gelenleri de kendilerine iyiliksever unvanını yakıştırırlar" dedi.
Luk 22:26 "Ama siz böyle olmayacaksınız. Aranızda en büyük olan, en küçük gibi olsun; yöneten, hizmet eden gibi olsun.

In verse 23, the disciples are arguing about which of them is going to betray Jesus. In the next verse, they are arguing about who among them is going to be most important in the Big Days Ahead.

Then Jesus calls them back to reality. Animals are obsessed with the "pecking order." A family dog will recognize the father as the "alpha dog" -- but will sometimes think it can dispute the youngest child for the position of "omega dog." We of the Royal Household have bigger fish to fry, better things to do with our lives, our energy, our attention. We each have something we can be doing now, some way to serve one another, some way to make life a little bit better for everyone. In a universe hard-wired to do us good, serving a God who has our best at heart, status games are stupid.

At the Last Supper, Jesus was the waiter.