Power vs. Intimacy

I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom.
- Luke 22:29-30

As part of Jesus’s response to the disciples wanting power, after Jesus describes their call to be servants instead of “lording it over” others, Jesus then has this incredible line about life in his kingdom. The most radical thing about his kingdom is that the King really just wants to be with us - to know us, to love us to care for us. And if we could just allow that to sink into our souls - that we are the beloved, invited to dine with the king - it would change everything.

Ponder and pray out of this quote today as a way to engage with your King who wants to be with you.

The long painful history of the Church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led. Those who resisted this temptation to the end and thereby give us hope are the true saints. One thing is clear to me: the temptation of power is greatest when intimacy is a threat. Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships ad have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love.
- Henri Nouwen