If you’re looking for something truly different, you’ll find it in Jesus

2 min read

“But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.” -Jesus, Luke 22:26-27

It is only human to desire being elevated above others. Because God created us to rule, we naturally see ourselves this way.

The problem arises when we begin to covet power as a means of promoting our own will instead of using our power and influence to love God and love people.

This is why Jesus interrupted his disciples’ debate about who was the most likely to succeed in the kingdom. Like everyone else, they were coveting status. They couldn’t wait for the moment when their little start-up was going to go viral and they would be on top.

Then Jesus proceeded to take the ladder of success they were climbing and flip it upside down. Just like that, everyone on top was on the bottom and everyone on the bottom was on top. In His Kingdom, things were going to be different – radically different.

Just like there is no gravity in outer space, Jesus assured them that the normal rules for getting ahead would not apply in his realm either. As strange as it may have sounded to them, Jesus declared that in his world, the humble servant would be the most highly esteemed.

How dare he?

But Jesus not only taught the lesson; he lived it. He came not “to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus, the Anointed Son of God, washed other people’s feet.

Even more extreme, Jesus died for other people’s sins.

By doing so, he took the tragic story of our sin and its consequences, flipped it, and made it one of miraculous redemption instead.

Jesus didn’t just flip tables. By his life, death, and resurrection, he flipped everything.

It’s a new day with God. Run with it.