Mark 9:33-37, Who Is the Greatest?

³³ And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house [whose house?] he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” [Jesus likely led the group to Capernaum on a narrow trail with the disciples walking and talking behind him. Perhaps he got a sense they were arguing.] ³⁴ But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. [Embarrassed by their discussion, they were speechless. But why not simply confess since “to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid”?] ³⁵ And he sat down [the posture of a rabbi about to teach] and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” [Here is the heart of Jesus and of Christianity: if we desire spiritual greatness, then what we truly desire is the task of service to others, and so we must deliberately choose the lowliest and most humble place. This is the key to the life of Jesus, and is not a key many leaders ever follow.] ³⁶ And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” [Jesus gives a visual illustration of what he just said. Humility is the basic law of the kingdom that demands a reversal of our values. In this humility, we receive a child as we would the King himself, treating that child as an ambassador of the King, not as we see him outwardly. Jesus himself is to be seen in the light of God, who sends him, and not as he appears outwardly to the false sense of values of this world. Isaiah puts it well (53:2-3):

For he grew up before him like a young plant,    

and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,    

and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,    

man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces    

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.]