We were driving along and I half heard her say “Let’s get pizza tonight!”

“That sounds so good! From where?” I replied enthusiastically.

“What? From where we’re going now.” she said slightly annoyed.

“What do you mean? We’re going there now or from where we’re going we’ll go there?” I questioned.

“What are you talking about?”

“You said: ‘let’s get pizza tonight’ and I’m agreeing, but from where will we get it?”

“I said at the next street turn right…and you just missed the turn!”

Sometimes communication is hard. It’s easy to completely misunderstand each other when conversing, especially when you’re convinced you know what the other person is getting at.

I wonder if Jesus got exasperated in the text, we’ll be reading this Sunday in our study of Luke. We’ll be reading ch 22:21-38. Jesus will be giving final instructions to his disciples before his arrest, but they certainly seem to misunderstand him.

First he warns that someone in their group has betrayed him, and their response to this is to start arguing about who should be called the captain of the disciple team. What does that tell us about where their focus is? Have you ever considered how much the idea of reward factors into your trust in Jesus? In response to this, Jesus gives a clear picture of what greatness truly looks like. What do we learn about Christian priorities and leadership from his words?

The final section is a bit perplexing – but keep in mind the idea of misunderstanding. Jesus appears to be speaking figuratively and the disciples seem to interpret it literally. Imagine that v38 isn’t an affirmation of amounts, but a blunt termination of a conversation that is clearly going off the rails. We’ll try to dig in to that a bit on Sunday.

Hope you can join us as we think about what our relationship with Jesus will mean in real life.

Click here for a pdf of the teaching slideshow.