They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

Mark 9:30-37

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Who is the Greatest?

Walking through Galilee, Jesus’ thoughts and that of his disciples diametrically clashed. A brooding Judas heard his master’s prediction of his betrayal and death. Did the omen disquiet the lone treasurer? Each man heard Jesus uniquely and darkly. The matter of his rising after three days sounded meaningless and opaque. 

Filtering out ideas that conflicted with their image of an earthly Messianic kingdom, the Twelve heatedly argued about their relative positions of power. When questioned by Jesus, no one dared answer. Their squabble, in his presence, vanished as vain and arrogant chatter.

Sitting down to teach in the rabbinic manner, Jesus settled their debate: the greatest of all will be the least of all, like a little child. “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Jesus’ whole life from his birth in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, to his burial in a tomb, wrapped in grave clothes, bespoke a complete stripping of earthly pride and power. 

Jesus felt more at home among the lilies of the field than in the palaces of kings. Like the lowly child, the colorful, fragile flowers in the wild express the splendor of God, the true King of Israel. 

Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.

Matthew 6:28-29; cf. Luke 12:27

This content by Gloria M. Chang was originally published online at Shalom Snail: Journey to Wholeness.