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Mark 9:33-37 - Who is the greatest?

It's been awhile, busy week and all, then with the preparation for various events (cell group, mission trip and the church kid's camp), I've kind of been put off track. Here's back to it.

Jesus asks His disciples why they were arguing on the road.

Seemingly childish, because they were arguing about who would be greatest, they kept quiet. Probably ashamed over such a childish argument?

However, Jesus, being God, obviously knows what the argument was about, and tells them "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

He also took a little child and had him stand among them, telling them whoever welcomes the child in His name welcomes Him, and whoever welcomes Him welcomes God the Father.

3 lessons here.

1. Jesus is God. A very subtle lesson in His knowledge about the content of the argument, but nevertheless it is one of the things expressed in this passage (if the readers of Mark haven't already realised by this point)

2. If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all. It seems counter-intuitive, and it is. It does, however, bring to mind this song - The Servant King.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwIukabdw3E

Christ is, described by the New Testament, and particularly by Paul, first in many things - at the right hand of God the Father, the firstborn of the new creation etc. Yet on earth, he was last, scorned for preaching truth, abused and handed over to sinners.

Similarly, Christ calls us to be servants of others, by which we become servants of the Gospel itself. This should be our aim - to be last now, and first in the time to come. We serve others in the context of bringing the good news to them, and to live out the good news ourselves.

3. Christ teaches on the child. I believe what He means in the first part is this - that we are to welcome unbelievers in Christ's name - again, for the sake of the Gospel, as part of our devotion to Jesus. He goes on to further the example by saying welcoming Him would be equivalent to welcoming the Father. So just as we welcome Jesus in obedience to God the Father, we should welcome our fellow man in obedience to Jesus.
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