Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. (Mark 10:43–44)
MY FRIEND JD WALT says there are only two stories. And no matter who you are, you are living in one of them. The first is the story of Adam. We know this one far too well. This is the story that is driven by pride and the desire to make something of ourselves. Pride convinced Adam that harmony with God was not enough, so he reached for more. He grasped for equality with God. The result? We plunged into sin and dragged the entire creation down with us. We now live in a broken world, and we can trace the fractures all the way back to the fall.
But God began to write an alternative story. This one is not driven by pride but sacrificial love. It is the story of Jesus. Adam wanted to make something of himself, grasping for equality with God. But Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, and He made himself nothing. In a stunning move, He launched a rescue mission to reverse the effects of the fall and to win our redemption. He came low, to save this world from the inside. The first put himself last. The king became the servant. God invites us to join Him in the upside-down reality of the second story. This is the story of Jesus. This is the great reversal.
Live the great reversal.
Matt LeRoy is co-pastor of Love Chapel Hill, an eclectic church plant in downtown Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He is married and has twin boys.
