Daily Devotion for 6th October 2026
Tuesday, 6 October 2026
St Luke 22: 24 – 30
A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. But he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. ‘You are those who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Reflection
By the year 1,000 the Church was, at one and the same time, the dominant institution in Europe and under the control of rulers who would appoint relatives to clerical posts – both high and low – and steal its wealth. Clerical marriage meant the Church’s possessions and money might be left to children. After all, supine clergy encourage only supine vocations. Seeing the danger, the Church reformed itself (and raised standards for ordination). Religious orders were founded, or renewed, free from secular control; clerical marriage was outlawed and the prestige and power of the Church rose again. Cross and crown made alliances bolstering each other’s position. Internal dissent, heresy, was seen as a danger to the Church and the state was pressed to help with efforts at suppression – even, as we saw last week, leading to torture and execution. The 12th Century reform movements rejected power; they didn’t have much choice as the powerful rejected them.
At the Last Supper, however, Jesus told his disciples of a different way of using power to the “kings of the Gentiles” who “lord it over them.” Yet Jesus also told the disciples they would have a kingdom conferred on them. The Church preferred the latter verses to the former.
The temptation to power is strong within the Church, from nostalgia about when the Church had more influence to the (to me at least) bleating line in a hymn observing that Christians are “a people without recognition”. Yet little thought is given to whether we should ever have had power. Could the bishops have thanked Constantine for his kind thoughts but stressed that they would not run his empire for him? Could they have resisted his wealth and interference? Would we have survived being marginal?
Historical questions might amuse but now we are marginal; do we resent that or see it as an opportunity? Do we hanker after the past or look to a future on the margins back to where we began?
Prayer
God of the margins,
help us to see our world more clearly from the edge,
to understand the social movements that oppress,
to see the great engines of evil,
and spoke their wheels,
that with the marginal,
we may welcome Your Kingdom.
Amen.