"Who is the greatest?": Reading Luke 22.24-27 ecologically

Ecological communities are more-than-human (other-than-human and human) communities. As such Christian communities are already ecological communities in that they are comprised of humans in relation to many other than human entities (especially those that sustain our lives and worship, for example, and even the bacteria that inhabit our bodies). This article uses the notion of ecological communities as a lens though which to interpret the concept of serving in Luke 22.24-27, within the wider narrative context of Luke-Acts. It offers an ecological reading that appeals to the principle of interconnectedness, the ecological hermeneutic of suspicion, and the ecological texture of the text, the latter with particular reference to habitat and the senses. The article situates the question of greatness and the affirmation of ho diakonon (the one serving) not only as these pertains to interhuman relations, but also, more importantly in relation to the wider ecological communities in which human relations of power are situated.