Luke 22:26

While they were inquiring among themselves who should betray the Lord, they would naturally go on to say to one another, “You are the traitor,” and so become impelled to say, “I am the best, I am the greatest.” Hence it is said, And there was also a strife among them which should be accounted the greatest.

Or the strife seems to have arisen from this, that when our Lord was departing from the world, it was thought that some one must become their head, as taking our Lord’s place.

As good men seek in the Scriptures the examples of their fathers, that they may thereby gain profit and be humbled, so the bad, if by, chance they have discovered any thing blamable in the elect, most gladly seize upon it, to shelter their own iniquities thereby. Many therefore most eagerly read, that a strife arose among the disciples of Christ.

If the disciples did contend, it is not alleged as any excuse, but held out as a warning. Let us then beware lest any contentions among us for precedence be our ruin.

Rather let us look not what carnal disciples did, but what their spiritual Master commanded; for it follows, And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles, &c.

He mentions the Gentiles, to show thereby how faulty it was. For it is of the Gentiles to seek after precedence.

Soft words are also given them by their subjects, as it follows, And they that exercise authority upon them, are called benefactors. Now they truly as alien from the sacred law are subject to these evils, but your preeminence is in humility, as it follows, But you shall not be so.

Let not him that is chief be puffed up by his dignity, lest he fall away from the blessedness of humility, but let him know that true humility is the ministering to many. As then he who attends many wounded and wipes away the blood from their wounds, least of all men enters upon the service for his own exaltation, much more ought he to whom is committed the care of his sick brethren as the minister of all, about to render an account of all, to be thoughtful and anxious. And so let him that is greatest be as the younger. Again, it is meet that those who are in the chief places should be ready to offer also bodily service, after our Lord’s example, who washed His disciples’ feet. Hence it follows, And he that is chief as he that does serve. But we need not fear that the spirit of humility will be weakened in the inferior, while he is being served by his superior, for by imitation humility is extended.

But it must be observed, that not every kind of respect and deference to others betokens humility, for you may defer to a person for the world’s sake, for fear of his power, or regard to your own interest. In that case you seek to edify yourself, not to honor another. Therefore there is one form of the precept given to all men, namely, that they boast not about precedence, but strive earnestly for humility.

In this rule however, given by our Lord, the great have need of no little judgment, that they do not indeed like the kings of the Gentiles delight to tyrannize over their subjects, and be puffed up with their praises, yet notwithstanding that they be provoked with a righteous zeal against the wickedness of offenders. But to the words of the exhortation He subjoins His own example, as it follows, For which is greater, he who sits at meat, or he that serves? But I am among you, &c.

As if He says, Think not that your disciple needs you, but that you do not need him. For I who need no one whom all things in heaven and earth need, have condescended to the degree of a servant.

He shows Himself to be their servant, when He distributes the bread and the cup, of which service He makes mention, reminding them that if they have eaten of the same bread, and drunk of the same cup, if Christ Himself served all, they ought all to think the same things.

Or He speaks of that service wherewith, according to John, He their Lord and Master washed their feet. Although by the word itself serving, all that He did in the flesh may be implied, but by serving He also signifies that He pours forth His blood for us.

124. Matthew continues his narrative in the following terms: “And Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him; and the third day He shall rise again. Then came to Him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping Him, and desiring a certain thing of Him;” and so on, down to the words, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Here again Mark keeps the same order as Matthew, only he represents the sons of Zebedee to have made the request themselves; while Matthew has stated that it was preferred on their behalf not by their own personal a …

26. Coming to the Gospel he sets before us Zacharias and Elizabeth, Peter and his mother-in-law, and, with a shamelessness to which we have now grown accustomed, fails to understand that they, too, ought to have been reckoned among those who served the Law. For the Gospel had no being before the crucifixion of Christ, it was consecrated by His passion and by His blood. In accordance with this rule Peter and the other Apostles (I must give Jovinianus something now and then out of my abundance) had indeed wives, but those which they had taken before they knew the Gospel. But once they were received into the Apostolate, they forsook the offices of marriage. …