"But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:"
Matthew 20:25-27
A lot of things in our society revolve around titles, and we do a lot of posturing, even in places where there are no titles, trying to figure out who is the boss of who. Children learn how it works quickly. Whoever is the boss gets to tell everyone else what to do, and even to insult them or treat them poorly. To be the boss is good because you have power and you don't get stepped on. To not be the boss is to be powerless and in a position of begging for anything you need.
Christ tells us in these verses that it shall not be so among us. If we want to be great, instead of jockeying for power, we should minister to others. And if we want to be in charge, we should start serving. And that's tough, because we don't want to be stepped on. We don't want to be powerless. We don't want to have to beg for what we need. And on one side we know that God doesn't abuse his power as we see so often in our society. On the other side, we *are* powerless, and as beggars if we try to compare ourselves to God. He isn't going to take advantage of that and grind us into the ground with his heel... but it is also a position that we have to realize and reconcile as we learn to be humble and grateful for God's blessings. Earlier in this same chapter is the parable of the workers in the field, and the people who worked the longest got paid the same as the people who only worked for an hour. And they were mad, thinking that they deserved more. And that is exactly the issue. We learn to think that we deserve more than each other... that for whatever reason, we should be treated better than this person or that person. There will always be reasons that we think are justified, but in a Zion society, if that is what we are trying to build, it isn't about who is better or smarter or who has worked more or who has the better title. It is about how can we succeed together. How can we all love each other and be successful without having to step on anyone else? And in building *that* kind of a society... a Godlike society, where we treat each other like siblings and friends... we aren't the bosses of each other at all. We're here to help. To serve. To do all that we can to help save each other, to assist each other in progressing and improving our lives. If we help, then we are great. If we serve, then we stand tall.
Today, even though it is a big mental shift, I know... let's try to think of the world this way. Not as who is better or who deserves more, but as how we can help and lift each other. How we can grow together into a better friendship, community, society, and world.
But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:"
Matthew 20:25-27
A lot of things in our society revolve around titles, and we do a lot of posturing, even in places where there are no titles, trying to figure out who is the boss of who. Children learn how it works quickly. Whoever is the boss gets to tell everyone else what to do, and even to insult them or treat them poorly. To be the boss is good because you have power and you don't get stepped on. To not be the boss is to be powerless and in a position of begging for anything you need.
Christ tells us in these verses that it shall not be so among us. If we want to be great, instead of jockeying for power, we should minister to others. And if we want to be in charge, we should start serving. And that's tough, because we don't want to be stepped on. We don't want to be powerless. We don't want to have to beg for what we need. And on one side we know that God doesn't abuse his power as we see so often in our society. On the other side, we *are* powerless, and as beggars if we try to compare ourselves to God. He isn't going to take advantage of that and grind us into the ground with his heel... but it is also a position that we have to realize and reconcile as we learn to be humble and grateful for God's blessings. Earlier in this same chapter is the parable of the workers in the field, and the people who worked the longest got paid the same as the people who only worked for an hour. And they were mad, thinking that they deserved more. And that is exactly the issue. We learn to think that we deserve more than each other... that for whatever reason, we should be treated better than this person or that person. There will always be reasons that we think are justified, but in a Zion society, if that is what we are trying to build, it isn't about who is better or smarter or who has worked more or who has the better title. It is about how can we succeed together. How can we all love each other and be successful without having to step on anyone else? And in building *that* kind of a society... a Godlike society, where we treat each other like siblings and friends... we aren't the bosses of each other at all. We're here to help. To serve. To do all that we can to help save each other, to assist each other in progressing and improving our lives. If we help, then we are great. If we serve, then we stand tall.
Today, even though it is a big mental shift, I know... let's try to think of the world this way. Not as who is better or who deserves more, but as how we can help and lift each other. How we can grow together into a better friendship, community, society, and world.
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