Twin towers

Thursday February 10, 2022

Twin towers

Who is greater : the one who is at the table, or the one who serves ? Isn't it the one who is at the table ? And I, however, am among you as one who serves. Luke 22:27

We want to talk about two towers, much older than the skyscrapers of New York, which are located in Bologna, Italy. They were built at a time when the wealthy of Bologna built towers to show off their grandeur and power. They built a hundred of them, there are about twenty left today, which have resisted fire, war and lightning.

The two best-known towers are the “Asinelli Tower” and the “Garisenda Tower”. The first was built between the years 1109 and 1119 by a noble family who gave it their name. It reaches 97 meters in height and leans slightly. The “Garisenda”, built at the same time, began to lean immediately. Two centuries later, it was lowered to its current height of 47 meters for fear of a collapse, due to the compaction of the ground.

These two towers have been there for nine centuries, witnesses to the pride of men. The idea is not new : after the flood, in a plain of the country of Shinear (in present-day Iran), men decide to make their name famous by building the city of Babel and a tower whose top was to touch the sky. Seeing their pride, God scatters them and their plan comes to naught (see Genesis 11:1-9).

During the last meal before his arrest, the Lord Jesus must teach his disciples in a very practical way, when they again argue about their place in the coming Kingdom. Jesus does not give them a great speech. He himself is the demonstration of the teaching he gives them. He shows them that the question of social rank or wealth does not arise in the kingdom of God. True Christian greatness is to serve like him, not to seek power like the powerful of this world.

Source (Pleasing the Lord)