... For us, Jesus is The Man, The One who knows all about human desires. Some novelists and filmmakers who have dabbled in this area have been dubbed heretical by some, but being fully human Jesus must have known what it felt like to want to be in a relationship, to want to be successful and so on.
And for us, Jesus is the God, the Son whose relationship with the Father is our model for divine desire. How The Son looked towards the Father is how we might look, what he prayed to the Father illuminates how we should pray, and so on.
And today’s gospel story is a classic outworking of these themes. Let’s take another look at it.
Jesus and his disciples came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house Jesus asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
You can imagine it, can’t you?
Peter: “I’m the greatest - after all it was me who got out of the boat and walked on the water with Jesus.
James: “Oh, yes, you were great at that, weren’t you? You sank in less than a minute!”
John: “I think I’m the greatest because I’m a writer and one day I’m going to record all that Jesus did for posterity.”
Judas: “That’s all very well, but I must be the greatest because I look after the money and you lot wouldn’t have any food or lodgings if I didn’t do my job properly.” ...
- from my talk today, Restless hearts, open arms.
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