It is a considerable strain to believe that around this sacred table there arose yet again the ugly head of greed, power and control!

Much to the chagrin and disgust of those of us who did not think this way, James and John began with it again. John always jostled to get closest to Jesus, and to some degree I think he may have succeeded. I'm sure Jesus was not unaware of this and undoubtedly knew the insecurities in John's heart. This would explain why he had a greater need for position and affirmation. This would also explain why he thought of himself as the "disciple whom Jesus loved," as though the Lord cared more for him than the rest of us.

It was at this dinner that that John exposed a pettiness that I'm sure he later regretted. He whispered to the Lord (loud enough for the rest of us to hear), "When you come into your kingdom, Lord, which among us will be the greatest?" Most of us groaned inwardly. We had been through this before with their mother. Before Jesus could respond, James quickly reacted and an argument ensued. Several around the table had an opinion about it, and some of them more was than a little loud and angry.

Jesus endured this intellectually and spiritually bankrupt exchange for a moment and then spoke so that all could hear--with unmistakable clarity, "Leave the struggles for power to kings and proconsuls! Let them lord it over their subjects, but this must not be true of you!" This statement was said in exasperation. Within my heart I found myself cheering him on. What profane incongruity! Within the holy parameters of the bread and the cup, these "Sons of thunder," these boneless wonders, wanted to debate who would be the greatest! Bile wretched within me. I wanted to spit.

After Jesus spoke, arguing and debate ceased. Jesus continued to speak. Authority, power and leadership enveloped each word. "There shall not be a constituted authority among you. You are not to be like that! Instead, the greatest among you should be as the youngest and least experienced; the one who leads as the one who truly serves! Not in disingenuous word, but in authentic and heartfelt humility and service."

After a moment of no one speaking, but long enough for his point to be in the forefront of each of our thoughts, he continued, "Who is greater, the one who is at the table as you are now, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at the table? Yet it is I, your Lord and Master, who washed your feet; you did not wash mine. You did not wash mine! I have thus set for you an example. See that you follow it!

"This kind of petty squabbling among you must cease! This kind of jostling and posturing for position and influence must be totally foreign to those who would follow me or wish to be my disciples. You must love one another, not seek to have power and control over your brothers. Let me put it more forcibly, in language you can understand: I give you a command--a new command--Love one another. As you have seen me love you, so you must love one another. By this--and this alone--all men will know truly that you are my disciples. Moses told you to love God and your neighbor as yourself, but what I am saying transcends Moses. I give you, instead, mutuality of love as the cardinal signature that you belong to me."

"I have loved you individually, intensely and without limitation, just as the Father has loved me. Now, live your life in my love. This is the only command that is necessary for you to live in complete joy. Follow this command, and you will live in my love, just as I have followed my Father's command and live in his love. Again, let me be clear: Love each other as I have loved you. I make no other demand of you than to believe and to love."

Silence.

His expression relaxed, and his tone softened, "You have stood by me in all this time. For this I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. But for now, serve each other as you would serve me."

Ultimately, they would forget the loving servant part of his instruction. These men, at some level, forgot that they were but men and became instead spiritual "lords." Because of this, the "called out ones," the church, has become a political force, a not too dissimilar extension of the Temple, the synagogue and Sanhedrin, with its priests, scholars, rabbis and scribes--an institution begun in the hearts of men too greedy for power and influence that they could not lay them aside, even for the broken body and shed blood of our Lord. How easily sacred instruction is forgotten!

Perhaps in some sense, there is a bit of Judas in all of us.