In the Gospel according to Matthew, we read,
âJesus called them to him and said, âYou know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.ââ
Matthew 20:25-28
These are hard words. They are meant to challenge us at the core â and they do, if we let them. Of course, we say to ourselves, âI donât want to lord it over anyone!â And for most of us this is true: we donât want a life where we just dominate other people.
But we do like being âin chargeâ. We do like to have things our own way. We are happy when others are serving our needs, and we donât really want to be bothered serving their needs.
With these words, the Lord Jesus turns things upside down. He doesnât just unsettle us â he flips us over and knocks us off our feet. But these are not just striking words. Even more striking is the fact that he carried them out, put them into practice, and laid down his precious and sinless life for us.
Today letâs seek his kind of greatness â the greatness of giving our lives away and looking out for the interests of others.
This reflection by Dan Keating is excerpted from the Pray by Day column featured in the Sword of the Spirit website.
Top image credit: Charcoal illustration of Jesus Christ being taken down from the cross, cropped image, from Bigstock.com, © by artist Brian Dunne, stock photo ID: 1624757. Used with permission.