A quarrel began among them: which of them was to be seen as the most important?
'Pagan kings lord it over their subjects,' said Jesus to them,'and people in power get themselves called "Benefactors".
That's not how it's to be with you. The most important among you ought to be like the youngest. The leader should be like the servant. After all, who is the more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who waits on him? The one at table, obviously! But I am with you here like a servant.
'You are the ones who have stuck it out with me through the trials I've had to endure. This is my bequest to you: the kingdom my Father bequeathed to me! What does this mean? You will eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
'Simon, Simon, listen to this. The satan demanded to have you. He wanted to shake you into bits like wheat. But I prayed for you; I prayed that you wouldn't run out of faith. And, when you turn back again, you must give strength to your brothers.'
'Master,' replied Simon, 'I'm ready to go with you to prison - or to death!'
'Let me tell you, Peter,' replied Jesus, 'the cock won't crow today before you have three times denied that you know me.'
'When I sent you out,' Jesus said to them,'without purse or bag or sandals, were you short of anything?'
'Nothing,' they replied.
'But now,' he said, 'anyone who has a purse should take it, and the same with a bag. And anyone who doesn't have a sword should sell his cloak and buy one. Let me tell you this: when the Bible says, "He was reckoned with the lawless," it must be fulfilled in me. Yes; everything about me must reach its goal.'
'Look, Master,' they said,'we've got a couple swords here.'
'That's enough!' he said to them.
Being a Christian leader is difficult. It turns the worlds understanding of leadership on its head. Christian leadership, means the greatest glory you can have looks like this...
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
Christian leadership is difficult. That is an understatement. We need to be praying for our leaders...always.
There is something about the vocation, something about how the kingdom comes and will continue to come that requires the called to be prepared for a certain level of loneliness. Pick any major biblical leader, from Moses to the Prophets to Jesus and beyond. There are those who will always say, well I have God so I'm never lonely, and they may quote some scripture like, 'there is someone who sticks closer than a brother'...and that is true, but we were meant for more...God wants a family of image bearers, a grand one to carry forth his purpose and that's why he promised Abraham just that, because He so loves the world and wants to fill it with Himself as the waters cover the sea. God wants us to have accountability, honest communication, a love that spans lengths and breadths and heights and depths. Looking at Jesus here, we see his utter frustration though. He has been trying to prepare those in his care for what is about to happen for round three years now. They have constantly, almost determinedly, misunderstood him, he has had to battle doubt, people standing in direct opposition to him, fake friends, friends who fake, being lied to and being lied about. Most Christians, even many Christian leaders are just not prepared for the reality and the gravity and the depth of this kind of testing and trial. Jesus has been trying to prepare them for the battle of a lifetime...He has told them that this requires bearing a cross...a cross is a weight the world lays on you, it is the weight the evil one lays on you to show that you are not faithful, to win his case... a case that ever so subtly is the evil ones accusation against our God...'How is it that you, a 'good' God are so faithful to such a corrupt creation'...May God rebuke him! and may we be God's answer to the accuser's underhanded charges against God our Father. May we be like Job and ultimately Jesus (who was greater than Job, who suffered faithfully even through death. God restored EVERYTHING and then some to Job, and how much more will he COMPLETELY restore and reward those who stand faithfully in His own Son? And what types of people ought we to be in holiness in order to stand through the Day of the Lord? Knowing this, that the creation as it is...is passing away and will flee His holy presence, giving birth to a New Heaven and a New Earth...where Righteousness dwells. Amen Maranatha! 'Behold, I make all things new' says the Lord. Our personal salvation is but a seed in that garden, so let us not become ignorant of God's good intention and His faithfulness to His own purpose. It is for His namesake, and for His glory which He graciously crowns us with through His faithfulness and His great love shown forth for the whole world (1 John 2v2) in Jesus Christ our Lord, that none of us can boast!
Peter, presumably the leader to be, still doesn't get it...he boldly proclaims how far he's willing to go...Jesus just shakes his head and says, brother...I've prayed for you...for what? That your faithfulness would not fail...your gonna fail, but I've prayed that your faith will not fail...Jesus prayed that he will not lose sight of God's faithfulness to forgive and to restore, to tear down the works of the devil and to thus glorify God...the disciples, well, they still don't get his picture language in the last section, they still think he wants them to get their money together and take up actual swords and turn to the worlds ways of violence to win the battle they are headed into. The battle where the covering is taken off and their metal is tested. Those weapons won't do them or us any good in the war He's waging...the disciples misunderstanding and taking up swords, however, is still under the sovereignty of God...Jesus himself has said that it must be fulfilled that "He was reckoned with the lawless"...that will be part of what crucifies our Savior. The sin of the disciples.
'THAT'S ENOUGH!' roars the Lion of Judah and he still does...
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